If you're unfamiliar with the concept, in November, Blavity hosted AfroTech, an inaugural, one-of-a-kind conference intended to connect founders, techies and employees with the fastest-growing tech startups. 

Conversations ranged from raising venture funding, to combining tech and culture, to navigating the tech industry and much more.

To say it was "lit" would be a huge understatement. 

On Wednesday, Black Twitter decided to get Dropbox up out of the paint after the tech company boasted on Twitter about its ever-growing diversity….in a picture that wasn't so "diverse" at all. In doing so, Dropbox proved the very reason why a conference such as AfroTech is needed and exists. 

People were left seriously looking for the "diversity" in the photo, but they came up with nothing.

Is this what it has to come to?

This was an important lesson in the course of #HireBlackTalent. 

As well as a lesson in #ThinkBeforeYouTweet.

After their mentions were in flames, Dropbox released the following statement.

Nice try Dropbox, but this just shows that you have a lot of work to do. Even after the photo flop, if you take a look at Dropbox's actual year-end report which is linked in the tweet, it shows that the company is still 55 percent white and 65 percent male. Women only make up 1/3 of the leadership roles in the company. The majority of the new hires are still white.

Photo: Dropbox

We saw the same thing happen with Facebook just earlier this year when they released their diversity reports. Those reports found that an overwhelming majority of their employees are white males. 

Companies have to invest in diverse talent. The same old excuse doesn't work, because there is talent out there. The work just has to be put in to decrease this gap from the start. There has to be an existing thirst to actually want to have diverse talent, as opposed to just seeking to feel a quota. 

And as for Dropbox, we hope to see you at next year's AfroTech. 

Photo: Giphy


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