It goes against discrimination in the tech industry – E24

SAN FRANCISCO (E24): It was the declaration of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that became decisive.

Just days earlier, two Pinterest employees had quit due to what they experienced as racism, discrimination, and a toxic work environment. When the tek company published the statement, Aerica Shimizu Banks and Ifeoma Ozoma decided to present their experiences.

“The discrimination I found on Pinterest is unlike any other I’ve experienced in my entire career,” Banks told E24.

She has experience with the Obama and Google administrations, and was brought to Pinterest’s Washington office in 2019 to help shape the company’s policy and strategy for corporate social responsibility. But it didn’t turn out as I had thought.

– When I tried to implement what they said they had recruited me, I was constantly questioned and criticized, says Banks.

– It was revolutionary. They exposed me to government techniques, lied to me, and reprimanded me just because I fought for what was right.

Asked for a better pay

Banks claims he received racist comments at work and that he received a lower salary than white male colleagues who performed the same types of work tasks. His colleague Ifeoma Ozoma also experienced this.

He worked in the same department and led, among other things, an initiative to block vaccine content, which received a lot of press coverage.

A few months after being recruited to Pinterest from Facebook in July 2018, Ozoma found out what salary level she was at compared to others.

– I remember sending an email where he wrote: «What is this? They pay me as a junior assistant, ”he says.

Ozoma thought the company would address the issue as soon as it was raised, but nothing was done. After four months, she hired an attorney and then began what she describes as persistent harassment.

– It was a terrible experience, she says.

– Some days were so miserable that I felt a hint of panic just from being in the office.

– Working to improve culture

Pinterest is an image sharing service with over 400 million monthly users, and Banks and Ozoma got a lot of attention when they came out.

Emails supporting their stories have been leaked to the press, and the Washington Post has spoken to several anonymous sources with similar experiences.

– We never want anyone to feel the same way as Ifeoma and Aerica while working on Pinterest, a company spokesperson tells E24, continuing:

– We work to improve our culture to ensure that Pinterest is a place where all of our employees feel included and supported.

The spokesperson notes that CEO Ben Silbermann has initiated an external review that will address discrimination and harassment at the company, as well as how employees are promoted and paid.

– It may be revealing for some, but if it has no consequences for those involved, what will change then? Ozoma says.

– Year after year, we have seen that these figures do not improve. It’s frustrating, says Sarah Kunst, who runs her own venture fund, Cleo Capital.

It has been six years since Google started publishing statistics on diversity within the company. At the time, 2.4 percent of its employees in the United States were African-American. This year, the figure is 3.7 percent.

Facebook has grown from 3.0 percent to 3.8 percent of black employees in the past five years, according to the Los Angeles Times, while Apple’s workforce consists of 9 percent African-Americans, including store employees.

I have seen many being rejected

Systematic problems with not enough people to recruit are often cited as the reason the numbers have remained so low.

– But we know that, in general, it is not true, says Kunst.

She has been on Forbes magazine’s prestigious “30 under 30” list and has been named one of Vanity Fair’s Future Innovators. With her fund, she invests in entrepreneurs with different backgrounds.

– I know hundreds of black and Hispanic wonderful in technology, and thousands of women. We are here and we are not that hard to find, he says.

Art is supported by Joshua Encarnation. She has extensive experience in the tech industry, where she has worked in recruitment for Google and helped create a development program for Uber. You are now working to help job-seeking developers prepare for the interview processes.

– I’ve seen rejection from many competent job seekers of color, he says.

– On social media, it seems that many in the industry care about the problem. Do you notice anything about it?

– Honestly not. If there is a problem with the product, it will be fixed overnight. These types of problems can be solved in the same way if people are only willing to prioritize them. Much talk, but little action.

Hunt down the “best artists”

John Kenney has an African American background, founded his first company at Stanford, and has worked with several startups in Silicon Valley.

– I always had to team up with a white man when I had to raise money from hedge funds, says Kenney, who is now Netflix’s engineering manager.

According to Kenney, the technology industry is characterized by a culture comparable to sports, with a focus on the search for “better athletes.” Leaders are happy to hire employees who they can recognize themselves in, and there are many jokes and behaviors that are reminiscent of fraternities in American universities, he believes.

– It’s a club that has always been like this, says Kenney.

– Many companies try to adapt, but real inclusion is about Really accept people for who they are and their way of working, not just those who are capable of adapting to the rules that exist today.

According to John Kenney, Netflix is ​​struggling with many of the same challenges as the other big tech companies: The company wants its employees to represent the company’s 182.8 million subscribers, but the majority of its employees are white and Asian. . Some have an African American background.

– We work hard to deal with unconscious biases, so it’s easier to hire people with different backgrounds, he says.

Five years ago, Dotson co-founded the Devland company, where he works closely with entrepreneurs to help them build viable businesses that can attract funding.

– Capital is based on connections. If you are not part of these networks, it is quite difficult to access essential capital, he says.

– And without access to capital, you quickly get stuck in the mud. Then the company stagnates.

Unused capacity

Since many people of color come from poorer backgrounds, they already come out crooked from the edge of the jump; very few can afford to go to the best universities, where many companies in the technology industry hire new employees.

In Oakland, east of Silicon Valley, Techbridge Girls is working to introduce girls with minority backgrounds in technology at an early stage.

– We know that the girls are not the problem, but we have to remove some barriers so that they can help make a difference, says general manager Nikole Collins-Puri.

She believes this is important, not just for the girls themselves.

– There is so much unused capacity in this industry. If we can’t use these resources, how are we going to reach our full potential?

Many comments

Like Pinterest, tech companies and venture capital funds in Silicon Valley have responded to protests in recent months with messages of solidarity. Several of the big companies have donated sums in the millions to organizations that fight against racism.

– But what will be the result? Are the initiatives working? I don’t think we’ll get the answers to this for a while, says Paris Athena Chandler, founder of Black Tech Pipeline, a platform for blacks in the tech industry.

Aerica Shimizu Banks and Ifeoma Ozoma have received many inquiries after sharing their experiences on Pinterest.

– I have been contacted by so many women, especially black, who say they have experienced very similar things, but they have not managed to talk about it, says Banks.

He still fears there may be consequences for standing out.

– Like everyone else, I want my experiences, my expertise and what I have achieved in my career to define me. I don’t want to be defined by this experience, although it has been defining for me, she says.

– At least this has made me even more aware that we need fundamental structural change, both in the technology industry and in business in America.