
Racial Diversity In Tech By The Numbers - stephen_greet
https://www.beamjobs.com/diversity/racial-diversity-in-tech
======
rcatcher
It seems at the same time white employees are under-represented in tech
overall (see Racial distribution of tech employees relative to US population).

------
curiousgal
As a PoC, who the f cares. Fix the root of the issue. Anyone can point at the
fruits and say they're bad but that doesn't fix anything.

~~~
stephen_greet
Ya, I agree it doesn't fix anything. I think that the first step in addressing
the issue is to have companies be more open with this data so you can actually
track if things are changing for the better. That's my goal with this article.

~~~
nathanaldensr
I think defining "for the better" is the contention, not the existence or
visibility of the data. There are people who say that a workforce must be
exactly proportionate to the racial makeup of the population. There are people
that say no, we need more minorities to be hired to make up for injustice.
There are people that say no, it should be purely meritocratic. Resolving this
tension is key IMO.

~~~
stephen_greet
That's a fair point. Personally I've been convinced by research that diversity
improves business and financial performance.

Value of diversity in leadership: [https://www.mckinsey.com/business-
functions/organization/our...](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-
functions/organization/our-insights/is-there-a-payoff-from-top-team-
diversity#)

Another article: [https://hbr.org/2018/07/the-other-diversity-
dividend](https://hbr.org/2018/07/the-other-diversity-dividend)

------
somethoughts
It's interesting - mentally I break up "Tech" companies into many
subdivisions. I think the Tech-Tech portion of a "Tech"company (i.e. SW
engineers, chip designers) is probably decently good at being a meritocracy.

If you have a decent track record of being able to code/implement/ship
features that are on-spec with few defects, on time, with a decent attitude,
its a gross generalization but some company out there will probably hire you -
particularly if you have a solid GitHub profile and recs.

And if you don't feel the urge to grow career wise outside of Tech-Tech then
you'll be fine although your pay/leadership opportunities will probably reach
a ceiling.

But a "Tech" company also consists of Tech-Sales, Tech-Finance, Tech-Law,
Tech-Marketing, Tech-VC, Tech-Management, Tech-Product Management, Tech-
Management.

All of these other subdivisions that make up the rest of a "Tech" company are
actually much more like their counterparts in non-"Tech" companies with all
their much more plentiful issues of bias, discrimination and harassment.
Perhaps this is because a lot of the work is even less measurable on binary
terms and therefore graded based on subjective reviews by existing leadership
who as humans that have biases. They are also outward facing where you have to
deal with existing biases of society.

~~~
xsmasher
>I think the Tech-Tech portion of a "Tech"company (i.e. SW engineers, chip
designers) is probably decently good at being a meritocracy.

I don't think that's true at all. Engineers are not some sect of logical
beings that don't have human emotions and foibles. I think they're just as
likely to be discriminatory as anyone else.

------
JMTQp8lwXL
Part of the issue is lack of entry-level positions. When everybody is hiring
seniors, you're competing with the same existing pool of talent. You need to
grow the talent pool.

------
randyrand
Comparing to US population is a bit disingenuous when good tech jobs are not
available in most of the country.

------
naveen99
Good, now run the numbers for the world... us is a melting pot for the world
after all and projects power and currency all over the world. May as well
project social justice for all as well.

------
sreekotay
This is a great but how does everyone put half the worlds population under
"Asian"??! Lol.

~~~
bzb3
Well... It's a race right? ;) Personally I think racial divisions are stupid.
Cultural divisions are much more exact and useful

~~~
apta
Chinese, Nepalese, Indians, Turkics, Armenians, Arabians, Jews, Iranians etc.
are all "Asians".

------
25mph
Tech leadership really means the middle management, i.e. folks hired to manage
the line workers. Wait until they find out about the race of most capital
owners!

