Breaking Down Barriers
Last Sunday, 22 football players suited up and took the field to play in the NFL’s 50th Super Bowl. Like any given Sunday, a large percentage of the players on the field were black. In fact, in 2014, 70 percent of NFL players were black, but until 1946, black players were shut out of professional football completely. The year that color barrier was broken, talent of all colors flooded in and changed the face of the game forever.
The Color Barrier in Tech
Fittingly, the 50th Super Bowl took place in the heart of Silicon Valley, where a very public battle has been waged to remove color barriers of their own. Longtime civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson first began demanding release of tech diversity data in a run on shareholder meetings in early 2014. Many companies reversed their previous position of claiming that their diversity data was a trade secret and instead started to publish their numbers.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
What came to light wasn’t pretty. Many of the tech giants have hired fewer than 2 percent black employees, far below the 12 percent that black Americans represent of the population. Companies like Apple have resisted efforts to diversify their board, claiming that it is an undue hardship. Despite a tech talent crunch, Silicon Valley hires only half of the young black engineering grads with newly minted diplomas each year.
Venture Funding: A Grim Reality
Venture funding for and by black people is similarly grim, with only 1.5 percent of funders and 1 percent of founders identifying as African-American. This color barrier in tech – the product of implicit and explicit bias and a valley phenomenon known as ‘pattern matching’ coupled with long-time systemic issues of educational and economic access in black communities – is starting to collapse.
Early Success Stories
Early success stories like Google’s chief counsel David Drummond, Intel corporate VC Lisa Lambert, and early Zappos investor Erik Moore are being joined by a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors. These individuals are breaking down barriers and paving the way for others to follow in their footsteps.
The Black Tech Community: A Support System
Denmark West of Connectivity Ventures Fund notes that "Anyone who understands team sports recognizes that there is often a difference between the written rules and the unwritten rules that dictate how the games are officiated." He goes on to say, "I have found that the technology community has been very supportive in general, but I have relied on the Black Tech Community to help explain the nuance between the written and unwritten rules of success. I, in turn, try to pass along what I have learned as well."
A Marathon, Not a Sprint
Much as championships aren’t won in one big play, nor will success and an eradication of the color barrier in tech happen all at once. But the ball is moving down the field and we keep moving the chains to an eventual win.
Topics
- african-american
- Column
- diversity
- Include
- race
- Venture
Sarah Kunst Managing Director
Sarah Kunst is a managing director at Corundum Group, a venture capital firm that invests in companies that are changing the world. She has been a vocal advocate for greater diversity and inclusion in tech.
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