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The tech industry has some of the best opportunities to generate wealth for new and experienced professionals alike. It's also, unsurprisingly, one of the least diverse industries in the employment market.

Research from last summer found that big tech companies have not held up their promises to hire more Black workers. Over the last five years, Facebook made big leaps in employing more women. In the same period, the tech giant only managed to take its Black workforce from 3% to 3.8%. Other companies have done a little better, but across the board, tech continues to generate mountains of wealth while locking diverse workers out of that growth.

The common argument against minority inclusion in tech ("The talent pipeline just isn't there!") does not hold up to scrutiny. SAP's chief of diversity, Judith Michelle Williams, points out that the so-called pipeline problem is not the obstacle companies imagine it is. That interpretation of the issue simply passes the blame from the companies to the workers, allowing businesses to make token donations and say "we tried."

These old ways of shirking responsibility have to end. Companies must finally become accountable to themselves for increasing BIPOC representation within their ranks. The problem cannot continue as long as tech continues to be one of the largest drivers of wealth in the world. People of other races are earning generational money in startups and at big tech businesses. The longer these companies continue to delay real progress in diversity, the more of that wealth will remain inaccessible to qualified minority workers.

Fixing this problem starts at the top with the leaders of the companies responsible. No one can make the change for them. To that end, companies should address inequality across their organizations in the following ways:

Rashan Dixon

Writing since February 2022 · 1 story contributed