A Black engineer sparked a viral trend after sharing his professional headshot for NASA.
On Thursday (March 14), Tyrone Jacobs Jr., a component engineer for NASA, shared his official work photo on X, formerly Twitter.
The post has since garnered 35 million views and over 200,000 likes with social media users applauding Jacobs for making a space for himself in STEM as a Black man with locs.
Other Black NASA employees followed suit, posting their own professional headshots using the hashtag #BlackAtNasa.
View this post on Instagram
Shout out to us black engineers at NASA! Always cool to contribute to space exploration. Let’s keep pushing boundaries together and chase our dreams! 🤩🧑🏾🚀🚀 #BlackatNASA https://t.co/dU7s8nTmod pic.twitter.com/p8Uda9L67u
— Space Drip (@AstroAvion) March 16, 2024
Oh I didn’t know we were out here frolicking!! (7 years and I still haven’t figured out where to go to get the real professional shot with the flags 😅) #BlackAtNASA 🚀🛰️🌍🪐💫 https://t.co/8hg6XjFeIm pic.twitter.com/LVji1DOgSK
— Phillip H (@SpaceFltPhillip) March 16, 2024
Joining #BlackAtNASA. After 15 years this is my headshot. pic.twitter.com/qDTMbGprZ2
— K Renee Horton,PhD (@Reneehortonphd) March 17, 2024
Jacobs, who works on hardware for space and satellite apparatus, said he was overwhelmed by the amount of support he received after sharing his work photo.
“When I posted it, I thought I would get a little bit of love, you know, some congratulations, ‘This is a nice picture,’ ‘You look nice’… But to see it going and where it went now in [the] present day, like, I totally did not expect it. And it’s a very overwhelming feeling… There’s no words to process what I feel on the inside,” Jacobs told FOX 26.
The engineer recognized the importance of representation in his field.
That’s a big part of my life’s story; the theme of my life story is being yourself, being who you are, being authentic, being true to you, and don’t compromise who you are for anybody or anything… I just wanted to show people, ‘Hey, you can be yourself, you can be tall, you can be Black, you can have locs,’” Jacobs said.
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