I always relish the opportunity to nerd out with fellow techies on The ReidOut Blog. Especially when we get a little existential with it.
So it was a treat to sit down with executives of Blavity, the Black media and technology company, to talk about where and how race intersects with the high-tech revolution we’re seeing across all industries these days.
My tech-centric blog posts have all been premised on a similar foundation: my belief that diversity is the only way to stem inequality (in everything from agriculture to art sales) that is sure to worsen if the levers of power in Big Tech are controlled by a few rich white dudes — which is largely the case now.
And there’s a war underway to wrest control of these levers.
With that in mind, you may remember that the idea of Big Tech diversity was criticized after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, when a Wall Street Journal columnist pointed to racial and gender diversity on the bank’s board as a factor.
That prompted a written response from Morgan DeBaun, Blavity’s founder and CEO; Jeff Nelson, a co-founder and Blavity’s chief operating officer; and Simone White, senior vice president of Blavity’s annual AFROTECH conference (think of this as a homecoming for Black techies).
Their piece, headlined “White Men Prove Incapable Of Handling More Than One Task At A Time,” turns the tables on right-wingers who allege emphasizing diversity is a detriment to businesses — whether SVB or anywhere else.
They wrote that the WSJ op-ed “entertained the classic argument that focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion was distracting from the ‘real’ business of running Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). How original and worthy of publication!”
But here’s the rub, so to speak, as they put it:
Those who promote this idea seem oblivious to the fact that they are essentially admitting that homogeneous leadership teams are incapable of multitasking. If incorporating the perspectives of women, LGBTQ, and…
Read the full article here
