African Americans working in the Tech industry
African-Americans are obsolete when it comes to working in the tech industry. Why is that? Are they being given the same opportunities as their counterparts? In regards to the African-Americans who do work for these huge tech corporations are their ideas taken seriously? DeJohn Muhammad who is a young African-American male works for Facebook in San Francisco as a technical recruiter. Muhammad sheds light to the aforementioned questions.
As mentioned earlier in the article African-American make up a small percentage of the tech industry workforce. In actuality to be exact they make up roughly 3% of the workforce according to an article titled 'the digital revolution is leaving black people behind'. Here is an excerpt from Muhammad when asked if he believes his input in business meetings is valued the same as his counterparts "what I bring to the table is value so I feel like people seek me out for my expertise," Muhammad said. However, there are times when Muhammad feels like he should conceal his thoughts "Maybe I shouldn't say this because it may get taken a certain way and I don't want to be seen as the angry black dude," Muhammad said.
Tech companies for years have been faced with the arduous task of making themselves more diverse by hiring African-Americans. Muhammad gave some interesting insight as to how tech companies can do a better job of increasing the percentage of African-Americans workers "one thing they could do is have people participate in diversity trainings. Also as a black man you don't want to seem cocky in interviews because they are looking for someone that is innovative, "Muhammad said.
In conclusion, the percentage of African-Americans working in the tech industry is relatively low. However, as Muhammad alluded to in his interview diversity fairs can serve as a starting point in changing the narrative. Also having tech companies come to middle schools and high schools in areas where African-Americans live can help change the demographics. If young African-American kids are exposed to tech at an early age they'll be more inclined to major in some short of tech field during college. Once they graduate from college they'll be better equipped to compete with their counterparts for those tech jobs. Lastly, tech companies should be required to hire certain amount of African-American engineers by law just to make the playing field fair.
