I suppose it shouldn't have been much of a surprise, but after reading the July 24th issue of USA Today, an article pointed out the massive lack of minorities working at America's top-performing tech companies. Several of them included Twitter, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn; and I have to say I didn't think the statistics were this damning. All of these tech companies have black employees amounting to no more than 2% of its entire workforce, and the majority of them often comprise of white or asian employees, who also assume the managerial and executive roles of these companies. The article went further to point out the twisted irony that blacks and other minorities account for a large percentage of customers who use products and software that each of these companies produce on a consistent basis. But let's be frank... black participation in the business/corporate world has always remained minute, and more often than not there's a great deal of obstruction and bureaucracy that has slowed the progression of black participation within these industries. Without federal law enforcement, blacks will always remain beholden to infrastructures we have no control over to decide whether or not we'll be chosen for managerial or executive positions.
Now let's look at other tech companies for instance, electronic gaming... For many decades, millions of people have played arcade games and home consoles developed by Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and Sony; and its pretty safe to say that many of these games were also enjoyed by African-Americans as well. But has the point come up often enough, that not many of those companies or even game publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, had ever employed a racially diverse workforce? Were they ever encouraged to actively participate in employing capable programmers, artists, or musicians who weren't their own "ethnic persuasion"...? It needs to be understood, that much of our society as well as throughout the world are very stubborn and unwilling to adjust to our changing times and will often choose to stick to their "ethnocentric" way of life. But it certainly doesn't mean, blacks would need to wait for them to come around and offer real opportunity within these industries. The African-American community needs to understand that our "task for prosperity" remains far more difficult and obstructive then we may realize, and we must be vigilant in our efforts to produce a capable infrastructure that can provide real jobs and chances for advancement for ourselves. We must see the American and World economies for what it truly is, and not take the matter lightly if we are going to achieve real progress for our people.