aNewDomain.net — Diversity in Silicon Valley is seriously lacking. If you look at the table and infographic below, you’ll see that the gap of races (and gender, for that matter) in the tech industry is huge. And, as big as the worker disparity is, the executive roles in the valley are even further from diverse. Just one percent of VC-backed companies have a black founder, whereas 88 percent of the start-up companies have all white staff.
Diversity in the Tech Workplace
This is part of the reason for the clash between multicultural San Francisco and homogeneous employees of the Silicon Valley. Some question if the principles of meritocracy led to this situation. Or, as Chris Rock used to say, “If it is white (male) it must be right.” (Note view at 4:33 mark in video).
Critical voices on The New Inquiry say that, “By imagining nerds as a race of their own, Silicon Valley tries to disguise its white supremacy.”
The can be seen clearly in the Silicon Valley diversity numbers:
- Google: 61 percent white, 30 percent Asian, 4 percent two or more races, 3 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black, <1 percent other, 30 percent female, 70 percent male.
- Facebook: 57 percent white, 34 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 3 percent two or more races, 2 percent black, <1 percent other, 31 percent female, 69 percent male.
- Twitter: 59 percent white, 29 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic or Latino, 3 percent two or more races, 2 percent black, 2 percent other, 1 percent American Indian or Alaskan native, 1 percent native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 30 percent female, 70 percent male.
- Yahoo: 50 percent white, 39 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black, 2 percent two or more races, 2 percent other/not disclosed, 37 percent female, 62 percent male, 1 percent other/not disclosed.
- Apple: 55 percent white, 15 percent Asian, 11 percent Hispanic, 7 percent black, 2 percent two or more, 1 percent other, 9 percent undeclared, 30 percent female, 70 percent male.
As the USA population shifts into a Latino and Black majority we need to question about the STEM economy and its future job diversity. According to the infographic below there will be 70 percent unfilled tech jobs in the USA by 2020 — will they all be filled by HB-1 visa holders from Asia?
The disparity in the education pipeline is growing. Blacks and Latinos are left behind in the tech industry. Technology companies are only starting to recognize the importance of diversity and their accountability in measuring progress toward greater equal opportunity. Diversity isn’t a default position. We have to create it.
“Silicon Country” is an economic powerhouse, and it could do much better to increase diversity among its workers. A report says, “If the internet was a country, its gross domestic product would eclipse all others but four within four years.”
What do you do to make your workplace more diverse?.If you want to know what can be done go
to -http://www.blackgirlscode.com/-Oprah just gave the founder-Kimberly Bryant a standing O-vation.
For aNewDomain.net, I’m David Michaelis.
Credit: Code 2040
Feature Image: “Motherboards Diversity / SML.20120917.164110.IP3” by See-ming Lee via Flickr Creative Commons
