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Black IT Pros On (Lack Of) Racial Diversity In Tech
Nerval's Lobster writes While pundits and analysts debate about diversity in Silicon Valley, one thing is very clear: Black Americans make up a very small percentage of tech workers. At Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, that number is a bit less than 2 percent of their respective U.S. workforces; at Apple, it's closer to 7 percent. Many executives and pundits have argued that the educational pipeline remains one of the chief impediments to hiring a more diverse workforce, and that as long as universities aren't recruiting a broader mix of students for STEM degrees, the corporate landscape will suffer accordingly. But black IT entrepreneurs and professionals tell Dice that the problem goes much deeper than simply widening the pipeline; they argue that racial bias, along with lingering impressions of what a 'techie' should look like, loom much larger than any pipeline issue.
Aren't you over this charade that the every white person on the planet is a racist and that everyone and society as a whole is against you? Can you stop victimizing yourselves now?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._incarceration_rate_by_race_2.gif
And maybe their diversity in tech would improve.
Since when did RACE only mean black... That's weird.
Oh shit i said black. Downmod me. I'm racist!
How about the fact that in urban America, there is an overwhelming mentality of selling out your black-ness if you do "smart white people" stuff... like going to college, studying, getting jobs where you wear suits, etc. Our kids are getting ostracized for not being black enough when they get good grades or have good behavior or dress well. Come on!
I applaud the young black people who make it through that and become successful professionals.
It has everything to do with brothers not getting into STEM fields. The few of us that are here get jobs pretty easily, actually. Companies want to be diverse, they just don't have the applicants for it.
Are they not also a significant minority in the US? And yet somehow, they managed to vastly over-represent themselves in STEM fields. Maybe, and this may be just a wild ass guess, but maybe it's because they spent their time focusing on their homework rather than whining about diversity?
It's sad, but we're rare birds. It's not the fault of any one thing. Culturally, families DO encourage it, however, there are few mentors. I just lucked out and had a dad who was a real dad worthy of mentorship, in engineering. It's rare because of.... I'll leave it at "forces of history" (internal, and external, both).
The stereotypes can be hard to shake, though. Being taken seriously can be an obstacle. It's a different experience, I'm sure. The only way to break the cycle (IMO) is to get out there and try to teach/mentor/train (which is an entirely different can of worms.)
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
I Graduated HS in class of 200 - 95% black, 3% white, 2% other in rural America.
How many went to college from that class? 4 total, 3 whites, 1 black (on a full ride athletic scholarship)
How many graduated? Two that I know of, I'm half. I got an Engineering Degree. The guy with the scholarship flunked out of NCAA eligibility in his 2nd year and one of the other two got an education degree. I hope more have graduated since, but I moved out of state so I don't know.
Who do they remember from my class at that school? The kid that flunked out of a full athletic scholarship.
It's not that this school was full of stupid people, it wasn't. None when to college because they didn't want too leave, or didn't want to be seen as a traitor to their race and get shunned by their friends. Many got stuck in the cycle of dependance. "I cannot wait to turn 18 so I can move out and start getting my own welfare checks!" was a commonly heard sentiment in the hallways. It still makes me sad to think many of my friends didn't even try.
This is a cultural issue not an opportunity issue. It is also a perception issue where we somehow think Outcome=Opportunity, regardless of the effort put in. This is an issue of dependance on welfare. Yet many of these people would be more than willing to look at me, a middle aged, middle class, white man as the problem. They think I am why they never succeed, but it's really because they never tried.
This is not to say racism is not a factor in some cases, I'm just saying it is not THE factor in why the statistical numbers looked skewed. We need to be totally honest with ourselves before we start suggesting solutions to this, or we will NOT fix anything, only make things worse.
Now, it is also undeniably true that such talent is not present in proportional numbers amongst various minorities. That's a problem, but it's not of the tech industry's doing. There's plenty of blame to go around. Many of those minorities still suffer from inadequate education. The members of those communities must shoulder some of the burden as well - it is, all too often, still not cool to be smart in those communities. Intellectual achievement is often met with derision even within families. Girls are usually conditioned against pursuing STEM interests. Such observation is not racist, or sexist. The lack of achievement is nothing to with race or gender. It has everything to do with what the community is doing, or not doing.
Okay, here's the deal. I am passionate about computer science and programming. It's what I do, both for my job, and as my only hobby. I write code for open source projects, and I write code for work, and I design little one-off projects for my own entertainment.
I stayed up all night every summer growing up teaching myself how to code. When I go to the used book store, I go to the section and buy old computer science textbooks talking about esoterica (I'm the only person I know under 45 who knows any APL, for example). My bedtime reading last week was the Oberon System manual that I got off eBay for $5.00.
All this was despite the fact that I grew up in rural Texas and got my ass beaten on a daily basis for being a "geek". The fact that my family was the only non-Christian family in town meant that I couldn't go to the school administration for help; when I tried it turned into a "let's pray for you, son." And yet, I kept doing it because I was passionate about it.
And guess what? If you're that passionate about something, you'll do it regardless of what your peers think. You'll *make* it happen. We didn't have any money growing up, so I'd stay after school and work on the computers there. When we finally scraped up enough money to buy a used Commodore 64 in like 1992, I had that hooked up to an old black-and-white TV and taught myself 6502 assembly.
So yeah, I'm sick of people saying "it's someone else's fault that I can't do this." No, it's not. If you're passionate enough about it, you'll *make* it happen.
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...
First, we have constant articles on gender discrimination. Are we now going to get race discrimination articles? If we're all such white male racists here in Tech, why would women or black people even want to work here. These articles are getting so tiresome it almost feels like we're getting deliberately trolled.
Okay, but here's the thing. Your conclusion was that it happened because you're black. I think that's a hasty conclusion.
Not only are you black, but also you were dealing with a big, probably disorganized company. The larger the organization, the more moronic its hiring practices can be, and the more they can accidentally poop on candidates. I'm white, have a CS PhD, and have experienced similar things.
Also, even if you did actually run into racism, I suspect it's rarer than you expect. Running a software company is so difficult that one generally wants the most productive, high-quality software developers available. There's rarely enough wiggle room to accommodate personal bigotry. Most of us care a lot more about having our company succeed so we can be wealthy, than we do about skin color.
Also, you had one bad job interview experience, right out of school, and you quit the entire profession? I know that's discouraging, but seriously, you need to grow some backbone.