Justin Edmund’s essay on Medium was a response to the tech world's silence after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It's been a widely shared call for plurality and inclusivity in tech.
The seventh employee at Pinterest, Edmund is one of a small number of African-Americans in the Valley, which doesn’t sound easy.
Now he’s been interviewed on USA Today about his experience of isolation.
Here’s a quote from his essay, whose brilliant title Growing Up hints at, but withholds, the word "Black":
"Powerful leaders, be they in technology or politics or Hollywood, don’t actually seem to care. Focusing solely on Silicon Valley, one of the most progressive places in the world, powerful companies like Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter all have stood up for LGBTQ rights, immigration reform, and most recently awareness for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), all of which is respectful and very welcome. I have not seen a single technology leader (edit: besides @jack) acknowledge the crisis in Ferguson. And why would they bother?"
Edmund draws much needed attention to “the 2% problem,” or the portion of the technology workforce that is African-American:
"At mostmajor technology companies, an average 2% of their workforce is African-Americans — we’re talking tens of people at companies employing thousands of people. At my own company, its even worse at only 1%. I can count us all on one hand."
How to address this unfair gap? "Inspiring people when they are young,” he told USA Today, “and showing them like, 'Hey, you like Vine? You like Instagram? Cool, you can actually work on those things if you start now and you work on these kinds of problems and you take this kind of path.' That kind of awareness will go a long way."
[H/t: Valleywag, USA Today, photo by Stephanie Taylor for USA Today]
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