Blacks in Technology

Ask anyone who knows  and they will tell you that black people are difficult to find in the technology industry. Silicon Valley has a color problem and its really no secret. But there are blacks in technology. 

As matter of fact Wayne Sutton, formerly of  NewMe accelerator and founder of PitchTo, believes African-Americans all over the nation are active in the technology industry. The problem is that no one knows or have heard about them.

Businessinsider.com published a 2013 article highlighting the most influential black people in the technology industry. These black men and women are thriving in the heart of the technology industry in many various roles. We need to know who they are and what they are doing.

You may ask why? Because even though we are under-represented black people are present in the technology industry. And because we are present we have an influence on whats happening. And technology is whats happening, make no mistake about that. 

According to Inquirer.net Apple Computer, the sweetheart of Silicon Valley, employs mostly white and Asian men. The website reports that Apple Computer employees  are made up of 54% white males and 23% Asian men making on average $100,000 annually. Currently 80% of Apples employees worldwide are men. In their defense most major technology companies do not hide or deny the problem.

Google, the worlds most powerful search engine, released its employee diversity numbers  last week.The numbers clearly indicate the seriousness of the problem. The Google report revealed only 30% of the company’s employees globally are women. Only 35% in the United States are non-white. Asians make up 30% of non-whites at the company.

Silicon Valley management positions are nearly devoid of minorities and women. Wayne has written about the problem of gender imbalance in his Wall Street Journal Blog.   Wayne stated; “Three words keep coming to my mind as I think about why there is a gender imbalance: money, power and respect.”  

But as I have said before its not always the technology company’s fault. Blacks and minorities suffer the curse of not coming prepared for the jobs the technology industry offers.  And who’s fault is that? There are few African-Americans in college majoring in IT or computer or software engineering.

According to a 2013 New York Times Report nearly one half of the nation’s workforce are women. Unfortunately they take up only 26% of science, technology, engineering or math jobs according to the U.S. Census Bureau. African-Americans make up  just 11% of the workforce but hold only 6%  of technology jobs. Hispanics are 15 % of the work force but are only 7 % of the technology work force.  Women and minorities have made progress in science and math in the last several decades. But this progress has been slow. In the technology sector and the rapidly growing field of computer science, women’s slice of the pie has actually shrunk in the past 20 years, while other  minorities saw only small gains.

The question remains; how will this issue be addressed? The website Thinkprogress.org has an interesting article outlining some possible solutions to making the nations technology heart a little more colorful.

The African-American Cyber Report believes that technology is taking a greater and greater role in the life of black people. And we need to find our place in the technology industry. But that does not mean that we are always welcome. There has been some talk of discrimination in the great Silicon Valley. We have to fight for our place at the table and the the technology industry is no different. Black people can only take our place in the technology industry if we prepare ourselves. So if we are not educating our children to take their place in the technology field we can’t expect things to change. Can we?

Now you know.