Why Aren’t There More Black People In Tech |  

I'm a black man that's been trying to break in for a year and a half now, still never landed a job after getting my CS degree back in may last year.... 1000s of job applications, 100s of interviews, countless rejections in final interviews. Its depressing watching everyone I knew in college go on to get jobs, live happy lives while I isolate myself in my parent's old house

I’m a black woman. That literally started a tech bootcamp almost 3 weeks ago and just recently landed my 1st Tech job at one of the biggest software companies. I’m 34, with a customer service background. No tech background AT ALL! I am so grateful to be a part of the ONLY 2.3% of black women in the tech space! No gatekeeping here! I am literally telling everyone I know to get into tech, while also providing them with the resources that got me here! Thank you for this! Our people need this information!

I don’t think it’s many of us taking tech I’m a woman I’m black and I’m in tech I will never see many of me in this field…..I’m rare but I know other black women it’s far and few…and I am currently an LPN who decided to go to school for my bachelors in software development/data analytics I did the thing to make my mom proud and family proud but now I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do be a computer programmer as their title was back in the 80’s….hey bro love the content and keep up the good work! 👏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

why can't we as black techs start our own company or business and help other black businesses ?

Thank you so much for sharing your opinions and experiences!

I think there's a huge lack of exposure in the black community when it comes to careers in tech. Going to school in low income neighborhoods means that more often than not, you're not going to have a computer science class or really anything adjacent. I honestly got lucky to experience writing code that early in life

There's not a lot of black people in tech because one, tech companies don't want to hire black people and two, there are very few black owned tech companies in the US. There's a push for more black people in tech because it's been called out so the government and organizations have been increasing incentives to hire black people. Do you want to work for someone who has to be forced or getting a diversity check to hire you? Absolutely not, if we want to help get other black people in tech, we as in Black Americans need to create our own tech jobs. I've been in tech for nearly 10 years and it's the worst feeling to be somewhere you're not unwelcomed or wanted trust me. If you get in tech learn as much as you can and replicate it in our community. This is why I'm so passionate about starting my own tech company so people of color don't have to feel that way.

Just wanna say it's really good to be in the beginning throws of self-teaching and see people who look like you providing perspective.....it honestly reassures me that it's possible and normal to finally pursue an interest that was kinda sort of looked down on in certain ways by the culture. Love your channel, you have a calling. Stay blessed bro.

Just came across your channel and this video is amazing. Thank you for speaking on this topic

Even though you don't upload as often i always rush to watch your videos. They are always nice to watch, insightful and entertaining.

I just got fired from my tech sales job. I always feel like I can do more; but, I couldn’t help but feel like white real estate investors didn’t want me as their point of contact. Once I went off camera, it helped; but was already too late. On to the next. This shit don’t stop.

I work in tech. I’m black. I had a director today ask me if I knew how to share calendars in outlook 🥴 ma’am if outlook is tripping me up, all hope is lost

Being a bi-racial tech worker I can count on my left pinky how many other friends of color I grew up with who where very strongly interested in STEM. Sports was pushed so heavily in my community it was almost a joke for me to not be interested in them given my size and athletic ability. Grew up not feeling represented by my community and now I feel like a outlier in an industry that doesn't represent with me.

Thank you for this video. Potential tech prospect

KEEP UP THE GREAT Work!!!

1) Because the lack of knowledge and inequities. 2) Often times Black people are being interviewed way harshly in comparison to other candidates. 3) Companies do not care to actually search for Black talent.

Great topic!!

When I was a child, my passion for science and technology sparked a desire to become a scientist. However, I distinctly recall abandoning that dream at the young age of 12 simply because I had never seen anyone who looked like me in those fields. Reflecting on this experience, it becomes evident that the lack of representation plays a significant role in the under-representation of black individuals in the tech industry.

I am very much not in the industry yet I just started college and I definitely count how many black people are in my classes and usually it caps out at 1, me.

I've been the black sheep on several IT teams I've worked on. Hella irritating the vibe I get from all the Bob's and Ken's.

They don’t think we know what we’re talking about, I’m in Audio Engineering and I notice so many micro agressions

Because a lot of us hear tech and think of coding only and there are other positions in tech that don't require coding

I have to say it great to see u backnmy dude, regardless of the content. I would check to see if you were back uploading every now and then. Glad ur ok

I'm so glad I found your channel 😊

Great vid Larry… I love how you shed light on an issue most people are ignorant about

There are very few Black men in tech because there's very little interest. Studies have shown that Black kids want to be rappers or sports stars when then they grow up. Not all, of course.

The people need you again. You’re truly inspiring thank you 🙏🏿

I'm a Software Engineer, I feel this is the least racist field I've worked in. However, when I did face discrimination, racism it was mostly white men. Not all white men, in fact, not even most. It usually was other co-workers on my level, jealousy, competition, and passive aggressiveness. It was usually never the CEOs or someone high up to where they aren't "competing" with me. Sometimes a manager who was bias in my work, but since I usually keep track of projects I do that's somewhat difficult. There's multiple jobs so I don't feel tied down to companies or teams like this, I'll just go elsewhere. I try to avoid working with these groups of people. A side from that I haven't had to many issues with racism. I think one issue a few years at a company trying to hire. I haven't had any racism working with Indians, Asians, or other black people. I worked fairly well with Indians and they have a similar thought process to me as an individual and I'm a black man. There were some languages barriers with working with some Asians as some accents were strong, but not really racism. But I have came across some white male individuals who felt entitled to a certain job because their white. I literally had heard this come out there mouth. Again, not all but this is just my experience.

hey man. hope you're good. was thinking about you few days ago and boom an upload

I saw your video the first time you asked this question, glad you made a new one. I'm black and speaking as one, a lot of the underprivileged blacks are never told that it's possible. That's the way it was for me growing up, and all my friends. We're more told to just work as long as we don't sell drugs (that kinda gives you tunnel-vision to just be a worker). So blacks focus mainly, on just gettin that job, but not that there is way more to life and money. Like you see it in movies. to get out of the hood you gotta be a rapper or an athlete. I heard you're story about how you got into tech, when you said all those what if's, that was correct because others fall on the other side of the what if's where nothing went good lol. But we have a chance to change if we teach the younger generation early. I'm 37 and started coding 6 months ago, I sold 2 websites and plan to sell more. Hopefully, as time goes on I can show other young black kids (and hopefully you as well) that we are all good enough to reach a higher level.

I’m happy you voice your opinions / observations. I’m happy to work on a primarily minority team, but this industry has a LOOOONG way to go.

I look for black employees in every company i go into

Trying to pivot into tech sales with experience in face-to-face consultative sales and telesales (inbound, outbound, B2C and B2B), still waiting for the opportunity for an interview 😩

I think owners are more comfortable around people that look and act like them. Plus they don't like competition.

Convincing a racist heart not to be a racist heart is somewhat futile. Racist culture is a thing, but I admire your bravery for speaking on this topic nonetheless. It's just sad that society doesn't always receive that racism exists in the tech-world.

Seeing the people who look like you succeeding on RU-vid gives you the will to believe you can get there! Work in an IT Helpdesk , aiming for Data analyst and Cloud since UX didn't result in a job. Freelance might be worthwhile later on .

Well spoken

No black people in tech is probably due to the fact that it isn’t something that is heavily pushed in our community. I am still iffy about this due to the fact that this may have been true when I first went to college 2013/2014, but I feel like a general recent push for tech should have created some type of exposure. I didn’t know anything about tech in high school besides the robotics club we had there. That same robotics club was looked at as nerdy. I started to learn about CS in my 3rd year of college from a non-black person. By time I found out about CS, it was a little too late to do a full on major switch.

Can I apply to US jobs from overseas, as a contractor? Do you know something about this?

And another question brother I am a blek being, if I joined the software engineering work will I need to cut my hair? Due to coworkers looking down upon? My hair is a big afro that I rarely comb does it matter how my hair is?

I’m a Ux designer trying to get my start, I have a great portfolio and resume but I never get a call back. I honestly think there is some bias because I have applied to over 40 positions without getting an interview offer

I am a black woman who started in tech in 1980 in the Navy. Continued as civilian in 1990, retired as a govt public service a analyst few years ago. In a 40 yr career in tech my experienced went from being the only black person to the only black female in technical cert courses. I retired from public service as the 1st and only black woman in a Networking dept implementing MANs n Campus LANs. If your experience is being hired as the "token" person of color I'm dismayed this continues. I ❤ tech but eventually adjusted my way of thinking about my field. We're hired to tick boxes, have more formal education and experience than most our peers but are expected to continue to provide solutions others get credit for achieving way too often. Young man, I'd hoped this would've changed by your generation. I hope you help to continue to put further cracks in that ceiling! BSCS CCNP

People help others like them. Think Walmart in the UK, so many Indian people. A few grind their way up and bring their crew with them. Doesn't happen enough in black culture :( nobody looks like me in these tech "about us" pages

we think in order to be in tech ,we must be smart .

The resolution to this needs to start with black people. There are blacks in managerial positions purposefully rejecting black candidates do to their own prejudices and insecurities. Blacks just have it bad. Indians, Whites, Asians and our own black people refuse to give us a chance. The only resolution is to start creating our own companies and hiring ourselves.

0:48 😂😂😂

1. Enrollment in CS degrees or the hard STEM engineering is low for black people in general. 2. Hood sounding names

I have 4 certificates in I.T and I applied for like 6 jobs and still get denied and I'm very discouraged

yes, but also you need to check the amount of black people that's pursuing a career in tech as well, i feel like there needs to be more mentorships where black kids are shown how to code.

So what should we do if we feel there are things that happen that show that stuff is not fair , if you work for an at will state? Do you spend time finding someone to looking into it? Is there like an attorney that specializes in representing marginalized groups, or how does a person even begin figuring out effort to look for help? Yes Aaron brokovich for it done , but it’s not exactly the same … just wondering , is there a lawyer out there that can help make quick decisions like “yeah pursue that, here’s who can back you up , now focus on finding your next gig cuz we know you don’t have daddy big pockets to let you slide while you make it selling chocolate.”

Coder and Proud! I am one of a few black developers in my department.

Litterally anytime we have a joint project with overseas companies im the only black guy in the chat

You can use a better microphone. The sound is low.

What roles can black people play in tech companies？

💯💯💯

You’re pretty spot on. I work at one of these companies and most of the folks in leadership are white or Indian. It’s not surprising to see entire teams with nothing but Indian or white people. Same goes for culture bias. I’ve seen managers come over from Amazon, and hire a bunch of people to fill there new team from Amazon. Tech is very much a gate keeping profession, especially for people of color. The virtue signaling is strong, but the amount of people of color our company hires remains low.

Glad to see you back bro. There is bias and always will be bias against us. Only we can make the change ourselves. Im an engineer in the semiconductor industry and i hardly see any black folks. The answer is simple, we just need more of our people interested in STEM. It all starts with representation, those of us in the spaces need to dedicate free time to exposing the next generation. Its why i volunteer for minority outreach programs and work on projects.

they don't competition.

Background. It isn’t pushed in almost any black community except immigrants and even then it’s doctor, lawyer, or engineer, choose one. Computer science isn’t even a thought.

I’m in tech and the only black woman. My role is in cybersecurity. But I don’t implement or do any of the actual tech work. From my experience tech is great to get into and something more black people should get into. However, I got to be honest. It has been rough and I feel excluded at work a lot but I’ve learned to create my own space and zone out with my music so it no longer bothers me as much. Unfortunately, I do feel that the feeling of exclusion and being the other makes a lot of blacks not want to stay in tech or even consider it. As we are rare. But this can also be a benefit in the hiring process. As a lot of companies want that.

I work in a marketing tech company, and less than half of 1 percent of the workforce is black. About 80% are white, the remainder are Asian (Indian, Chinese, Korean, etc). I think it’s a combination of factors, with the most prominent one being: (a) racism - these employers tend to look down on blacks and the hiring teams will almost never consider a black person for a leadership role. You could be 10 times more qualified and experienced than your white/Asian counterparts, you will very likely not get considered. And if you happen to somehow make it into these companies as a qualified person, you will likely get bullied/harassed/ostracized/have subordinates be insubordinate, have your work unfairly critiqued, list goes on. If you’re lucky you will have a good advocate/mentor that’s not racist who helps you out, but those cases are few and far between so what happens is a lot of minorities leave their jobs looking for greener pastures which they may not find as the grass is not always greener on the other side. Asians can be quite racist as well! With all that being said, we also can’t forget factors like competition and envy. Competitive blacks can also make things hard for other blacks, and very few blacks who make it into leadership roles look out for other blacks, sad bad true🤷🏾 Racism sucks, corporate life is a rat race, but that’s life. Great video!

Bro, I’m in the Bay and I code 👨🏽‍💻 Let’s link!

Ah my boy back,,, it’s simple we live in America, I’m literally the only black person on my job site

No I do email marketing.

I grew up surrounded by drugs, crime, and homelessness. The odds are stacked against those that don't have a stable household, but more afterschool programs would be nice moving forward. That helped me cope back when I was a kid. But it's a real grind, and we can't hold ourselves back due to our past and sum it up as a "black vs. white" thing. Get help, get counseling, achieve greatness. Give back.

I would say the IT field has much more black people in it. I work remote help desk for a major hospital in NYC and most of my coworkers are black, including at least 5 black women off the top of my head that I can think of and my supervisor is a black man.

Dang

Diversity is about diversification… of backlash

Where u at B ?

Another question for you: What is the mix of black people in STEM at your local 4y college? Now, what is the the mix of black people in Physical education majors? Can we stop this victimhood mentality? Nobody owes me / you anything. We are the only community that complains instead of taking action at the individual and group level. Keep complaining, it'll work out someday... smh

Its very much a gatekeeping culture. Masters degree in Computer Engineering and getting jobs worth my education and experience is tougher than finding Tupac. Dont get me wrong I get interviews for 6 figure jobs but the final boss (aka white, Asian, or Indian manager) opinion usually says no for lack of experience that you can ONLY get by previously working for that said job. Keep pushing tho ✊🏾

"Shout out to black people"

It's a damn shame honestly.

There needs to be a Black person to start his/her OWN business. one door closes does not mean it is the end.

I think it's even worse in game industry

ROFLMBAO I won a National Merit Scholarship in 1970. I went to college for electrical engineering. Other Black kids in high school made sarcastic remarks, "You're a scholar and a gentleman." But two of them paid me to take their SATs. I'm sorry, but watching basketball and football is boring. I soldered together my first computer in 1978 after I was hired by IBM. I offered to pay some neices and nephews to read some science fiction books I selected. They refused! Black Man's Burden (1961) by Mack Reynolds It is free on the Internet.

truly is just a handful of black people in tech

Its sad, because this video will be relevant until we see a difference, 1 year later still the same thing, Ive heard stories on how people disclosed information about race just to get an interview smh

power/ an effort to create a larger gap between the rich and the poor. The powerful and the oppressed. Period. Like we don't know these tired tricks. ugh

Bro ur just promoting dice 😂

It is easy to get a job in tech. Go get your A+

I think this has to do with your area. I'm in Atlanta, been in tech since the mid 90s and there is NOT a shortage of Black people in tech here. If Black people are 13% of the population, you have to consider that.

Come join snipers you get lifetime protection and we stand on biz

The bigger reason you touched on in my opinion more black people are not in tech is mainly due to econimic and cultural issues around the black community. For black people, our idols are mainly in entertainment or are in sports, it is extremely rare to see in general in our communities people that have actually made a career for themselves in tech to be able to look for questions in relation to it unless you purposely seek it out. I've heard from many black people they do not think themselves as capable of doing not just coding, but topics around stem as a whole, even the phrase "I'm to dumb to understand math", which is a common reason why a lot of people do not even seek it out. Software engineering is also seen as generally a nerdy thing, I remember back in 2013 people checking my blackness due to my interest in computers, and being well educated in mathmatics. If the culture around us shames black people for being software engineers at a young age, does not provide us the tools to be able to even learn about tech in our schools or even basic computers when chromebooks exist for literally a few hunred dollars, then we can't foster the interest needed for people to actually wnat to jump into tech. Racism in companies exists, but thats a natural side effect of not having a diverse set of people within those comapnies. I remember a soap dispeser that was lauched out to the public that literally couldn't register skin that was too dark, because the QA team didn't forsee that scenario, quite literally having a black person in the room would've probably saved the product. I don't think intentionally most people are trying ot be racist, but the network that you are going to have is probably going to be people that are similar to you. Companies do cringe stuff of DEI and changing their logos to rainbow colors because communities will throw an outrage if they don't do this. It isn't removing internalized biases, it's just a survival mechanism that any company will do in the publci face. If the public was more racist, then companies would simply follow that trend. The way to get more black people in tech in my opinion is to provide the tools necessary for people to learn about it at earlier stages in life. I didn't even know what a computer science degree was until I actually hit and researched colleges, but I knew for a fact that I wanted to do something in computers because thats where most of my enjoyment as a youth was in through playing online games. Even though I didn't go do video game developemtn as my first role, I still loved doing programming as a whole because it was everything that I personally enjoyed doing that I knew I would be well marketed for.

Children do what they see

Because we invented everything. And they it. But will never admit it.

systemic racism

*"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the CONTENT of their character."* People or companies still don't comprehend this quote. The content of skill inside of you, should have nothing to do with how you look.

Nice content. Trying to stick with coding but it just doesn’t keep my interest. Just boring to me.

Hm as a Mexican working in tech in the US I am not quite sure about racism... 80% of people are either Indian or Chinese, and sometimes Indians only hire Indians, there are leven lawsuits about it. Now, a lot of Mexicans in the US, but they don't work in tech, at all, and I don't think is racism, is just that a lot of people rather pursue different careers. When we interview people, most are Indian, maybe a white but it's rare, so, not sure. I can think about being expensive to get a degree in CS, that's the only real explanation that I can find and yes, racism is something that contributed to that, but indirectly.

are there no black tech companies out there that can hire black people?

No blaks in pwi. And its ok. All hite corps they dont thing its a problem 😊

I think there is a lack of black people in tech because of the stereotypes but i do see more and more black people like us putting our foot in the door. I honestly feel like it is partially our fault also because of the culture like you mentioned it's just unfortunately natural for the culture to think that things like tech are just not for us. It's just the way some of us grew up but hopefully this can change I love the tech community even if sometimes i feel like I am an outcast or if i don't belong, I am determined to show others that WE BELONG.

why does it matter? what really matters is performance and not how many black people are in a company. Users really care about how good a company performs and how it really benefits them and not how many black people or women are in a company.

Let's me ask you this then: why is it okay to turn on an NBA game and mostly see black people? Is it racism as well? Should we do something about it too?

While I do think racism is an issue….black culture is a bigger issue… where I’m from “Baltimore” most black people don’t even know that working in tech is an option.

Imagine being affirmative action trash

Perhaps companies do not want to open that door to "racism". If a company hire a poc then we got to tread lightly with them otherwise it will get called out for racism. If we don't hire poc company still called racist. I think it's been engraved a bit into our culture, and the cultures of various groups that make up the populace have their own takes on tech. We call out racism 'institutional' or otherwise; but nothing is done to solve it. Yet we continue to prop up the same leaders, companies and institutions who continue to grift off the same talking points. Rinse and repeat. That's my surface level opinion. I like your video tho.

I've been working as a Software Developer for the past 5 years. The majority of the people I've worked with have been either Asian or Indian. This isn't a Black/White thing. You're not a victim, get over it.

Stop complaining about black not getting in to jobs, black people are well represented. Please look at Asians and population. Black and white are pretty much on the same level. The real minorities are Asians sounth Asians and asians