In the News

Yesterday, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) hosted a live stream panel discussion event to launch CBC TECH 2020, a new initiative aimed at increasing African American representation and inclusion in the tech industry. Through it, the CBC seeks to close the gap by encouraging industry leaders "to use the same entrepreneurial spirit they use when creating new technologies to become innovators in diversifying tech." 

“When I was sworn in, one of my promises was that we would launch an effort that would evaluate Fortune 500 companies to determine if they are diverse and inclusive. It has appeared to me over the years that they are not. 500 companies are a lot to evaluate at one time, but we will do it. We chose the tech sector to start because it’s one of the fastest sectors in the country and African Americans are a major part of its customer base,” Congressman G.K. Butterfield, chair, Congressional Black Caucus, told TNJ.com. 

He continues, “We know that over the next 5 years, there will be 1.4 new tech jobs created and we would like a fair shot at some of these jobs. All of these companies are greatly lacking in diversity from top to bottom; the stats are embarrassing and deplorable.”

Butterfield says that one way to close this gap is to start recruiting aggressively in high schools and colleges to make the tech sector appealing to African American kids.

News of the initiative comes amid numerous efforts that Black leaders have made in recent years to diversify the Tech space. In December 2014, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. spoke to 25 companies including Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Pandora about transparency in their hiring practices. In January at Jackson’s Wall Street Economic Summit, Intel CEO Brian M. Krzanich discussed Intel’s pledge of $300 million for the company’s “2020 Parity” commitment, a 5-year budgeted plan for the next generation of aspiring Tech professionals.

According to Butterfield, CBC TECH 2020 is also pushing these companies to include more African Americans on their boards and senior management positions.  

“The board of director issue shouldn’t take a lot of time – maybe 6 months to a year,” says Butterfield. “And there are qualified Blacks who could easily move up to senior positions. The workforce issue, however, is more difficult.”

He estimates that Tech companies are hiring thousands every day, but that there “isn't a sufficient number of Blacks in the hiring pool.”

“We want them to go to HBCUs and recruit students; we want them to give some of their philanthropy money to STEM programs geared towards African American students who just need the programs to give them the boost needed to move forward. It’s about community reinvestment – and that should be easy because these companies make millions of dollars in profits. There’s nothing wrong with making unprecedented profits, but I would hope that there would be some reinvestment,” explains Butterfield. 

President Obama has also been successful in encouraging Tech companies to tune into the lack of diversity issue. Last year, Apple pledged $100 million towards his ConnectED initiative “to bring cutting-edge technologies to economically disadvantaged schools." And there are several other companies that have made similar offerings.

But the problem still lies in the hiring.

The Network Journal

SERGIE WILLOUGHBY

May 20, 2015