Tech companies not hiring blacks despite ownership rates

AP ^ | May 3,2018 | JESSE J. HOLLAND

[Hojczyk]

Americans are among the top owners of mobile devices, but aren’t being considered when it’s time for social media and technology companies to hire.

The National Urban League is highlighting this new technology gap in its 2018 State of Black America report released Thursday, and pushing social media and technology companies to put in place safeguards and corporation solutions to make sure minorities don’t get left behind in the digital revolution.

“C-suite executives of tech firms publicly espouse the gospel of racial and gender diversity and inclusion, but these spaces do not reflect our nation’s demographic diversity,” said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. “Only increased representation from top to bottom will drive corporate change that prioritizes equity.”

Morial said that the latest Equal Employment Opportunity reports filed by Google, Facebook and Twitter showed that only 758, or 1.8 percent, of their combined workforce of 41,000 employees, were black. And their own research showed that in the majority of tech companies, fewer than five percent of the workforce is black, while at least half of the workforce is white.

The organization introduced a “digital inclusion” index that is supposed to answer the question: “Are the new job, business and educational opportunities created by increased digitization of our world being equally shared?”

[kingu]

We want tech companies to be color blind by hiring more black people.

[Hojczyk]

Only 50percent white...

The rest Chinese and Indian

[Wally_Kalbacken]

When you start to see tech firms seriously engaging in affirmative action, SELL!

[aquila48]

What a moronic article.

[Migraine]

Which racial group has the least work ethic, the most excuses, the most grievances, and who, if you dare to terminate them, it will be a guaranteed lawsuit with settlements in the $million$? Hmmmm?

Sometimes, people just hurt their own chances. And you could never explain it to them so they’d understand.

[Mark17]

Maybe the companies want people with more than two functioning brain cells.

[Cowboy Bob]

Apples vs. Oranges

[Myrddin]

Certainly a confused argument. A smartphone "owner" is an appliance operator. There is a chasm the size of the Grand Canyon between a user of smartphones and the engineering skills necessary to build the phones and web applications they consume. The latter group are top 10% college grads in computer science. To the extent that a black person falls in the elite group, they will likely have a shot at a technology job. My current project is web oriented and we have at least 4 black team members that I've met since starting the project last month. They are bright, top shelf performers.

[HighSierra5]

Combined workforce of 42,000? Talk about profit. Not that I am against profit but I thought these brainiacs were bigger than that. They are faker than I thought. They are not gods, they can bleed.

[Nifster]

One still has to either be able to write code or content

Blame the twerp MZ

[jonrick46]

Many tech companies require drug testing as a prerequisite for hiring. Much of the work requires very precise processes and any drug use can cause costly errors.

[dr_lew]

... unwarranted! ... and I’ve been around.

[Mogger]

It's kind of hard for a smart black kid in a school with a lot of other blacks to get ahead when he is constantly bullied and beat up for "acting white" just because he wants to learn.

Because of this, there probably aren't that many blacks with the education to do the high tech jobs.

Until black society changes and rewards those who are ambitious and smart, this won't change.

[BradyLS]

Tech job require demonstrable tech skills. Hardware and software don’t care what color you are.

[gubamyster]

Trump is making inroads to the black community. Black unemployment at historic lows. His approval is way up with black males. Kanye & Candace are opening the eyes of blacks.

Time for the LSM to trot out negative articles to try to drive down Trump’s numbers & create a wedge. More divisive “news” from the LSM.

[Nifster]

Let’s be realistic....start with 16% of the population. How many want to go to college? How many of the group want to take engineering courses? Brings the pool down significantly

[Rashputin]

I've talked to HR people from several companies, people I've known long enough that they don't BS me, about whether they're pressured to hire black folks or not. There answer is always something along the lines of, "Blacks from the US, Browns from India, what's the difference, they're 'persons of color' and that's all that matters, what you see when you look at group photos."

Somethin' tells me a lot of black folks are waking up to just how much the H1B scam screws them and not just the kids of well to do white folks.

JMHo

[lee martell]

Be qualified and act as though you are ready to work for that particular company. If you are not presently qualified, show that you are training or ready to be trained. Learn about where you are applying. Is it family owned? Is it a new company? Do not approach an interview with the attitude that ‘they’ owe you a job because you happen to want one that day. Do not talk negatively about a former employer.
Be as truthful as possible, but be clear and brief.

Act as though you are able to listen to others and learn without taking every correction as a personal slight. Act, dress and sound as though you want to be there, not as though you are job hunting to keep your unemployment bennies coming in.