A recent editorial in The New York Times on ways to improve
the cultural and ethnic diversity of Silicon Valley showed the extent to which
this issue has moved to the forefront of the national consciousness. This is
with good reason. In this day and age, it is simply unacceptable for a thriving
industry to ignore the growing ethnic and cultural diversity that will define
the 21st century.
The controversy over Silicon Valley’s lack of diversity has
grown on one misstep after another, all of which reveal how Google, Yahoo,
Facebook and other high-tech companies are completely out of sync with the
modern workforce. For years, these companies refused to release their diversity
data. When pressure from outside groups became too difficult to bear, Google
became the first company to release statistics. Over the subsequent months,
other tech giants followed suit.
The figures these companies ultimately released showed why they had been reluctant to be forthcoming. The number of African Americans and Hispanics in these firms was distressingly low: five percent at Google, five percent at Twitter, six percent at Facebook and six percent at Yahoo.
Faced with a window into this disturbing aspect of its
corporate cultures, Google led Silicon Valley’s defense, arguing that their
employment numbers reflected a paucity of minority graduates with technology
degrees.
As a lifelong educator and former president of both
Tennessee State University and Florida A&M University, I was immediately
skeptical of this claim, particularly since I have witnessed a procession of
young African Americans and Hispanics head into the workforce with critical
skills over the years.
It did not take long for gaps to appear in the case Google
attempted to make. In a comprehensive report, USA Today showed that African
Americans and Hispanics graduate with computer science and computer engineering
degrees at twice the rate that they are employed by Google and others.
Yet even as tech industry’s diversity problem has drawn
increasing scrutiny, some in Silicon Valley have responded to it as if it were
a grand theoretical problem with no immediate solutions.
Consider the recent article in The New York Times on Google’s response to its
diversity challenges. The newspaper reported that Google is undertaking “a
long-term effort” to diversify its ranks, including a series of workshops.
“There’s just one problem: The company has no solid evidence that the
workshops, or many of its other efforts to improve diversity, are actually
working,” the Times article states. “In some ways Google’s plan to fix its
diversity issues resembles many of its most ambitious product ideas, from
self-driving cars to wiring the country for superfast Internet.”
Driverless cars are a futuristic technology that, for the
most part, is relegated to science fiction. Diversity in the workplace does not
belong in the same category. With tech companies far behind almost every other
industry in terms of diversity in the workforce, it long past the time for
Silicon Valley to take tangible steps toward employing more African Americans
and Hispanics.
I am personally frustrated at the fact that qualified young
minorities are missing out on the life-changing employment opportunities
available at tech companies like Google. That is why I intend to take action by
working with my colleagues across America’s robust system of historically black
colleges and universities to make sure that Google, Facebook and other tech
companies know that minority graduates are ready to work and capable of
excelling in tech.
I will push tirelessly to ensure that these firms are aware
of the quality of minority candidates available for jobs anywhere in their
organizations. In doing so, we are willing to meet Google and the rest halfway.
If they come to our campuses and meet our students, we guarantee they will meet
a crop of young men and women as ready to take on the tech world as much as any
group they have ever met.