Technology: Emancipation's Next Act

August 1 is celebrated as Emancipation day in Jamaica where I was born. This is similar to Juneteenth in the US when freedom from slavery is celebrated. And then on August 6, Jamaica celebrates her Independence from British colonialization. As a black tech executive of Jamaican and Caribbean heritage who has called the US her home for over 30 years, these days are a very important part of my fabric.

Slavery, and even worse, Jim Crow laws here in the US, along with Apartheid in South Africa, served to hold back the African diaspora from progressing at the same pace as other races. With a hundred year set back, we have had to play catch up. While we were trying to get off the farm (read plantation) where we were forced during slavery, our peers were at the heart of industrialization. And once we fought for the right to be equal and were able to get into industry and manufacturing, others were already paving the way in technology. And now that technology is accelerating with quantum physics and deep learning, we are still trying to break into the area that is playing a major role in the future of humanity.

In 2021, Blacks were about 12 percent of the adult population in the United States but made up only 9 percent of the STEM workforce, only a 2% increase from a decade before in 2011 according the The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education .

According to USA Today , "Blacks, Latinos have not been feeling welcome in STEM careers, and that's a big problem for our economy"

And maybe no wonder, because according to McKinsey’s report on Black workers in the private sector , "on the current trajectory, it will take about 95 years for Black employees to reach talent parity (or 12 percent representation) across all levels in the private sector". That’s not even getting specific with STEM careers.

There are so many organizations doing notable work in trying to close this equity gap and accelerate blacks and Caribbean countries into the technology highway - National Academy Foundation , CODE313 , Black Girls Code , Verizon Foundation, IBM Foundation, Imternational Telecommunication Union , GSMA , RSC International in Trinidad & Tobago, #employeeresourcegroups like BOLD at Verizon and so many more. I have been proud to support many of these organizations and more. The black tech executive has the additional responsibility of participating, leading, advising, and shepherding, something they don’t get credit for and for which he or she has to carve out additional energy and bandwidth. This is similar to the work female leaders do to advance women’s equity gap closure efforts.?

However, the black female executive has the largest gap to close for black women. She has had to be creative, gritty, build alliances, make many personal sacrifices and build a village around her as she strives for nothing but excellence at work while crafting equity gap closure strategies and implementation efforts with colleagues and allies. It makes us creative, efficient, savvy and with amazing capacity equipped to lead the toughest, almost impossible projects. She has to remember to rest, recharge and go again. Some may call this a burden, but for many of us it’s an honor and a calling. I see it as part of my vocation as a technical leader to help educate and inspire our allies, and convert those who have been apathetic towards this important work, social responsibility and basic business imperative to get as many ideas as possible in the room.

This “Emancipation Week”, I am reminding all Corporate & Tech leaders to keep this at the forefront. While the atrocity of George Floyd’s murder seems to have “worn off” as experts say DEI initiatives are being reduced amidst a recession, it does not erase this equity gap that many leaders said they were committed to eliminating 3 years ago. Our countries, regions and world can only benefit from more diversity of thought and different approaches to solving some of the world's biggest problems. We have an opportunity to push tech to transform what emancipation only started. Let Tech lead the way.

#Tech4good