What it’s actually like to be a Black employee at a tech com

[pescalita]

This is absolutely, 100% true:

The most impactful detriment to diversity in Silicon Valley is the idea of “culture fit.” Employees are actively encouraged to suggest friends or former colleagues for open roles. The premise is if the employee and the candidate have a congenial relationship outside of the company, the new recruit is more likely to work well with other staffers. The recommended candidates are given preference or special attention during the recruiting process. It should come as no surprise then that there aren’t more applicants of color to select from.

White Americans have 91 times as many white friends as Black friends, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Three-quarters of whites have entirely white social networks without any minority presence. If current employees don’t know any people of color then they have none to recommend.

But. The bay area as a whole is 6.7% black, 23% Asian, 23% Hispanic/Latino. Santa Clara and San Mateo counties (where tech is mostly based) are under 3% black and roughly the same quarters Asian & Hispanic/Latino.

I am really trying hard not to show my ass here, promise. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say exactly except that I've felt like we have a different race problem here than a lot of the rest of the country (not any better. maybe worse?). Why don't Black people live here? That is a problem, a deeply institutionalized one. But there's another, maybe more obvious problem in the full quarter of the population that is Hispanic/Latino not being proportionately employed by tech.

I'm not saying that this argument isn't valid and shouldn't be heard, but I think there's a Latino argument too, and it's different. I think there was an article about police on Latino violence that got to some similar themes, I'll see if I can find it.

I'm interested in meshaliuknits take on this.

[WanderingWinoZ]

interesting. I'd be curious to know the stats on all minorities (women, etc) in the computer sciences vs. actually employed in tech jobs.

My BFF's husband just got 5 offers in SV & he is AA. He is director of engineering level now though & I feel like many of his coworkers are Indian or SE asian.

[tacosforlife]

pescalita, I'm sure that the racial makeup of the Bay area and the West Coast generally doesn't help the issue, but the recruiting issue is still the same. Google and Apple and Amazon and loads of other tech companies recruit people from all across the country - and pay hefty relocation packages - yet the numbers remain that low.

[meshaliuknits]

Sept 21, 2015 15:18:54 GMT -5 pescalita said:

This is absolutely, 100% true:

The most impactful detriment to diversity in Silicon Valley is the idea of “culture fit.” Employees are actively encouraged to suggest friends or former colleagues for open roles. The premise is if the employee and the candidate have a congenial relationship outside of the company, the new recruit is more likely to work well with other staffers. The recommended candidates are given preference or special attention during the recruiting process. It should come as no surprise then that there aren’t more applicants of color to select from.

White Americans have 91 times as many white friends as Black friends, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Three-quarters of whites have entirely white social networks without any minority presence. If current employees don’t know any people of color then they have none to recommend.

But. The bay area as a whole is 6.7% black, 23% Asian, 23% Hispanic/Latino. Santa Clara and San Mateo counties (where tech is mostly based) are under 3% black and roughly the same quarters Asian & Hispanic/Latino.

I am really trying hard not to show my ass here, promise. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say exactly except that I've felt like we have a different race problem here than a lot of the rest of the country (not any better. maybe worse?). Why don't Black people live here? That is a problem, a deeply institutionalized one. But there's another, maybe more obvious problem in the full quarter of the population that is Hispanic/Latino not being proportionately employed by tech.

I'm not saying that this argument isn't valid and shouldn't be heard, but I think there's a Latino argument too, and it's different. I think there was an article about police on Latino violence that got to some similar themes, I'll see if I can find it.

I'm interested in meshaliuknits take on this.

Which part? Why black folks don't live here? IDK. Too expensive and we can't get jobs at Twitter? Per wiki CA's Af Am percentage matches the Bay Area stats you have. So the bay is representative of the state as a whole, but not the US. So if there's a problem, it's why don't folks live in Cali? But again, per wiki, CA has the largest Af Am population of the western states, so maybe we're doing OK? At least for an area in a western state.

For the "culture fit" definitely we have that in biotech. But it doesn't become really exclusionary here until you hit mgmt levels. Mfg operators are a diverse lot. It becomes more monochromatic when you hit mgr and up. You start picking up an accent around director level, too, because that's how this company rolls.

[ttt]

Sept 21, 2015 15:18:54 GMT -5 pescalita said:

This is absolutely, 100% true:

The most impactful detriment to diversity in Silicon Valley is the idea of “culture fit.” Employees are actively encouraged to suggest friends or former colleagues for open roles. The premise is if the employee and the candidate have a congenial relationship outside of the company, the new recruit is more likely to work well with other staffers. The recommended candidates are given preference or special attention during the recruiting process. It should come as no surprise then that there aren’t more applicants of color to select from.

White Americans have 91 times as many white friends as Black friends, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Three-quarters of whites have entirely white social networks without any minority presence. If current employees don’t know any people of color then they have none to recommend.

But. The bay area as a whole is 6.7% black, 23% Asian, 23% Hispanic/Latino. Santa Clara and San Mateo counties (where tech is mostly based) are under 3% black and roughly the same quarters Asian & Hispanic/Latino.

I am really trying hard not to show my ass here, promise. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say exactly except that I've felt like we have a different race problem here than a lot of the rest of the country (not any better. maybe worse?). Why don't Black people live here? That is a problem, a deeply institutionalized one. But there's another, maybe more obvious problem in the full quarter of the population that is Hispanic/Latino not being proportionately employed by tech.

I'm not saying that this argument isn't valid and shouldn't be heard, but I think there's a Latino argument too, and it's different. I think there was an article about police on Latino violence that got to some similar themes, I'll see if I can find it.

I'm interested in meshaliuknits take on this.

This seems like a chicken/egg thing to me. Black people aren't employed here because they don't live there and they don't live there because they aren't employed there.

[pescalita]

Sept 21, 2015 18:35:19 GMT -5 ttt said:

This seems like a chicken/egg thing to me. Black people aren't employed here because they don't live there and they don't live there because they aren't employed there.

Yes, but, Latinos aren't employed here (by tech) and they do live here.

[ringstrue]

Sept 21, 2015 16:27:33 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

You start picking up an accent around director level, too, because that's how this company rolls.

Totally dead.

[cville]

Sept 21, 2015 21:19:14 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

Sept 21, 2015 16:27:33 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

You start picking up an accent around director level, too, because that's how this company rolls.

Totally dead.

I'm dying to know what sort of accent. I'm picturing a room full of Madonnas after she married Guy Ritchie.

[aurora]

For a recent search for a high level position at my company, the recruiters were working hard to identify and recruit minorities (both sex and race). The only name I recommended to them was a black man, but he didn't even want to apply. I don't know his reasons, but I can't help but wonder if he thinks his family fits in better in their current racially diverse area than they would here (very white).

Obviously an anecdote with all the disclaimers, but I can see how there is a chicken and egg element to this. (I definitely agree tech companies need to work harder to recruit a diverse workforce.)