Read on Twitter
28 years ago, in the first case of its kind, a bystander shot a video that captured the brutal police beating of Rodney King. Corporate America swooped in with vows to rebuild South Central LA. But within a year or so, the companies lost interest. 1/9 https://marker.medium.com/the-redlining-of-black-corporate-america-903f0403a4f5">https://marker.medium.com/the-redli...
Today, America’s companies have pledged $1.7 billion and counting to black causes in the wake of the George Floyd killing. But history going back to Reconstruction suggests caution — when the attention has passed, the economy has turned, or both, promises have gone unkept. 2/9
Black and White America alike rightly see this as a moment finally for economic justice for black Americans. That means not doling out the usual low-wage jobs, but opening up the higher-paid, white-collar professions that can lift a family into the middle class and beyond. 3/9
Right now, these “jobs of the future”—physics, economics, engineering, venture capital, programming—largely exclude black people. It& #39;s as though tech and science have been “redlined,” in the tradition of the urban boundaries that until 1968 kept many neighborhoods white. 4/9
But the persistent nationwide protests, the apparent bipartisan support for them, and pure gut feel have a lot of people convinced that we are at a historic watershed in which black economic justice has been pushed ahead decades in just weeks. 5/9
Much of the attention is on Silicon Valley, the purported capital of US meritocracy, where an idea and some tech know-how can make you a zillionaire. That vision hasn& #39;t held for black people, who hold few of the tech jobs and are rarely funded. People want to change that. 6/9
The racial inequities of Silicon Valley are the subject of the equivalent of a street protest right here on Twitter. Consider this thread Monday about racial problems at Pinterest. https://twitter.com/IfeomaOzoma/status/1272546213322080258?s=20">https://twitter.com/IfeomaOzo... 7/9
The argument is that this isn& #39;t just about equity, but about profit—that white America is losing money by excluding black talent. Studies show that diverse management teams produce higher returns than all-white teams. Yet … yet … the bulk of startup teams remain all-white. 8/9
Is the tech world — and corporate America at large — ready to make the kind of massive, systemic cultural and personnel changes that black America is seeking? That is the drama unfolding before our eyes. 9/9
