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1 YEAR, $3.8 BILLION LATER: HOW 2020’S RACE RECKONING SHOOK UP BIG TECH



A year ago, as our lives were being upended by the pandemic, Black Americans
were simultaneously processing the emotional weight and tragedy of the murders
of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others whose lives were cut
short due to police brutality.

The world watched as protest after protest erupted across the country over the
summer of 2020. But, unlike previous collective actions, this moment felt
different. Big Tech and corporate America—predominantly white environments—broke
their silence. Companies started pledging to do things differently, claiming
they would doggedly support Black workers, Black organizations, and Black
companies via investments, donations, and hiring pledges.

At The Plug, a subscription news and insights platform covering the Black
innovation economy, we quickly began documenting the commitments made by tech
CEOs, cross-referencing them with data points of what Black representation
looked like across their workforces and boards. (You can view the original
spreadsheet here.)

A year later, we’re proud to continue that work, in partnership with Fast
Company. Together we set out to try to understand—through data and first-person
accounts—if anything really changed. How have the lives of Black tech workers,
users, and citizens been altered by the bold commitments these companies made?

+ READ MORE
Tech giants pour billions into diversity, equity, and inclusion
An FC survey of 42 tech companies reveals how much money the industry committed
to DEI after summer 2020. Microsoft is committing the most money total ($772.5
million), but that's equivalent to just five days of profit.

advertisement

LAWRENCE HUMPHREY
Lawrence Humphrey is a design consultant and strategist at IBM, where he has
worked for more than four years. Last summer, in the aftermath of George Floyd's
murder and statements of solidarity from tech companies, Humphrey collaborated
with other Black tech employees to start Tech Can [Do] Better, an initiative to
help companies address systemic racism and inequities in the tech industry.
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04:20


 

>“I had what I call my racial awakening in 2016. I shifted from the ‘I’m just
not going to rock the boat; I’m going to make my own, do my work, and then in my
own private influence make a difference.’ It was the summer of 2016—after Alton
Sterling and Philando Castile—and that was when I was like, you know what? I’m
done being quiet with this shit. If I make it and am successful, that still does
nothing. That still won’t guarantee my life. So I’m gonna start getting
successful and obviously doing great work and overperforming, all that stuff—but
not at the sacrifice of speaking out.

+ READ MORE
The problem with money, especially donations, is that donations don’t change
attitudes and they don’t change policies.
The problem with money, especially donations, is that donations don’t change
attitudes and they don’t change policies.
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00:08






00:00

00:08


 
CHLOË CHEYENNE ROGERS
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of activism platform CommunityX
Previous employer:Google
The percentage of Black employees at the Big 5 remains stagnant
At the five biggest U.S. tech companies by market cap—Apple, Microsoft, Amazon,
Facebook, and Google—representation numbers show little progress, especially
among engineers and leadership.

advertisement

CHARLTON MCILWAIN
CURRENT ROLE:Historian, vice provost, and professor at NYU
Author of:Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, From the Afronet to
Black Lives Matter

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00:52


 
The under-representation of people of color in this industry reverberates: not
having people available to point and draw attention to devastating consequences,
or to think about alternatives, or to have the kinds of influence to say no to a
particular course of action or not…But moving forward, I think the greater issue
is that we have already nurtured such an investment socially, emotionally,
politically, economically in the buildup of technologies that serve to increase
inequality, to exclude people from the social and economic promise of technology
and the potential wealth that it brings.
Ifeoma ozoma
In June 2020, former Pinterest public policy manager Ifeoma Ozoma and her
colleague Aerica Shimizu Banks went public with allegations of race and gender
discrimination. Now Ozoma is lobbying for a California bill to release workers
who’ve faced any kind of workplace discrimination from their nondisclosure
agreements.
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04:48






00:00

04:48


 

“These companies spend…more on the marketing around their bullshit DEI programs
than they do on the actual programs, which I think says everything. Even if they
were spending money that was actually meaningful, you still have people at the
top of the companies who don’t actually care about these programs, don’t care
about any sort of accountability, don’t care about doing the very basics. And
the basics to me are hiring, paying fairly, and retaining talent of color and
particularly Black people and Black women. All of it is comms. All of it is
marketing….What I’m interested in is consequences, legislatively, from
shareholders, whether in the form of resolutions or lawsuits, and from workers.

+ READ MORE
I don’t think you can have an anti-racist tech company at scale.
I don’t think you can have an anti-racist tech company at scale.
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00:34






00:00

00:34


 
CHRIS GILLIARD
CURRENT ROLE:Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center Visiting Research Fellow
Member of:the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry Scholars Council and the
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project community advisory board
advertisement

More whistleblowers are coming forward
This timeline of high-profile allegations of anti-Black discrimination in tech
reveals a rise in media coverage and attention paid toward the treatment of
Black tech workers.

It takes people standing in their truth and shedding light on the disconnect
that’s happening for there to be true change.
On why uncomfortable conversations are crucial for positive change
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00:30






00:00

00:30


 
Rhett Lindsey
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of recruiting platform Siimee
Previous employer:Facebook
It takes people standing in their truth and shedding light on the disconnect
that’s happening for there to be true change.
On why uncomfortable conversations are crucial for positive change
External and internal pressure pushed tech leaders to shift DEI policy
In FC's survey, companies shared how—and when—they changed internal rules and
structures with the goal of retaining talent and building a more diverse
workforce.

advertisement

Timnit Gebru
Renowned AI researcher Timnit Gebru says she was pushed out of her role as
co-lead of the AI Ethics team at Google in December 2020 after writing a paper
critiquing the technology that powers Google Search. She is an outspoken
advocate for DEI through her nonprofit Black in AI.
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04:23






00:00

04:23


 

“If [tech companies] actually paid their fair share of [taxes], which they spend
so much time trying not to, then we wouldn’t need their guilt million here, a
million there, which is nothing for them. It’s so offensive that [Google] even
had those commitments. The thing is that really irritates me is…we’ll give you
this money with one hand, and we’ll completely mistreat people with this other
hand.

+ READ MORE
Ken Chenault
CURRENT ROLE:Chairman and managing director of VC fund General Catalyst,
director at Airbnb

My view is you control the pipe and you control what goes into the pipe.
On CEOs citing the “pipeline problem” as an excuse for lack of diversity in
senior management
My view is you control the pipe and you control what goes into the pipe.
On CEOs citing the “pipeline problem” as an excuse for lack of diversity in
senior management
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00:31






00:00

00:31


 
2021 data shows an increased investment in Black founders
According to Crunchbase data, venture capital funding to Black founders in Q1
2021 exceeded $1 billion for the first time—but is still a fraction of overall
VC investment.

advertisement

This lighter was thrown into the mix, but I think it would have happened anyway.
On the increased investment in Black and brown founders after the racial justice
protests in summer 2020
This lighter was thrown into the mix, but I think it would have happened anyway.
On the increased investment in Black and brown founders after the racial justice
protests in summer 2020
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00:41






00:00

00:41


 
Arlan Hamilton
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and managing partner of VC fund Backstage Capital
Jennifer Bates
In May 2020, Jennifer Bates started working at a new Amazon fulfillment center
in Bessemer, Alabama. She was a key organizer and advocate behind a failed
effort to unionize the warehouse, even testifying at a Senate hearing in March.
The results of the union vote are still being appealed.
0 seconds of 5 minutes, 12 secondsVolume 90%

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05:12






00:00

05:12


 

“I worked for Amazon for a week, [and] I really said, ‘No way.’ My legs were
hurting, and I was limping. And I’m like, ‘This is not normal. Why you don’t
have elevators?’ So that’s how it started. That’s when I really started finding
out the gruesomeness of the facility. I was used to being on my feet and doing a
lot of work and walking and stuff. But it was nothing like at Amazon.

+ READ MORE
A homogenous workforce builds racist products
Over the last five years, users, journalists, and researchers have highlighted
how technologies harm Black people, from biased facial recognition to
exclusionary advertising.

advertisement

CHLOË CHEYENNE ROGERS
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of activism platform CommunityX
Previous employer:Google

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01:45






00:00

01:45


 
When Mike Brown Jr. was murdered in Ferguson, no one was talking about it, not
even the Black Googlers network...I realized a lot of that discussion had been
oppressed by the dominant white culture of tech. And so the good part about
opening that gateway was that a lot of people felt like they were finally able
to express themselves, express how they felt about the situation, and feel heard
to some extent. We were asking for more infrastructural change, real products
supporting real problems, and [leadership wasn't] willing to do that. So when it
comes to the question of should we be satisfied by all of these commitments and
donations that all of these brands in and outside of the tech industry are
making, my opinion on that is absolutely not, for so many reasons. But mainly
because those things are just cover-ups for them addressing the real systemic
things within their company and within the communities where they operate.
DURETTI HIRPA
While working as an engineer at Slack, Duretti Hirpa founded and ran Earth
Tones, an employee resource group for people of color. After a stint at
Mailchimp, Duretti now works as a principal engineer at project management tool
Zipper. She is also a speaker and essayist with her own newsletter.
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02:37






00:00

02:37


 

>“I worked at one place where they were really excited to say, ‘we have this
particular police department using our software.’ And employees were like…let’s
Google this police department. One of the first things that came up was that
this police department has some pretty serious allegations of police brutality.
Maybe we should take this [deal] down. And the response back was like, ‘Well,
your coworkers worked really hard on this case study.’ And Black employees were
like…”That’s great that everyone has worked really hard, but that police
department has [these] pretty serious allegations around police brutality and
murdering people, so is that something we necessarily want to be associated
with?’ And at the end of the day [the decision was made to] to keep this case
study up.

+ READ MORE
Tech companies are working on going to Mars. And so to look at a social problem
and throw [their] proverbial hands up is inexcusable.
Tech companies are working on going to Mars. And so to look at a social problem
and throw [their] proverbial hands up is inexcusable.
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00:37






00:00

00:37


 
MIMI FOX MELTON
CURRENT ROLE:CEO of Code2040
What they do:a nonprofit that works to eliminate systemic barriers for Black and
Latinx tech workers
advertisement


In partnership with The Plug

Reporters: Pavithra Mohan, KC Ifeanyi, Yasmin Gagne, Harry McCracken

Editors: Katharine Schwab, Julia Herbst

Editorial Advisers: Sherrell Dorsey, Monica Melton

Design: Chelsea Schiff

Illustrations: Broadie, Maja Saphir

Animation: Holly Bernal

Development: Adam Noonan-Kelly, JJ Guaragno, Brian Jin, Hung Huynh, Eric Perry,
David Chan, Bryan Cuellar

Companies surveyed included U.S.-based tech firms with greater than 1,000
employees that Fast Company covers: Apple, Google/Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon,
Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, PayPal, Intel, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Dell, Adobe,
IBM, Square, Zoom, Snap, Slack, Lyft, Dropbox, Pinterest, Twitter, Stripe,
Coinbase, SpaceX, Box, DoorDash, Peloton, Zillow, Instacart, Yelp, Etsy,
Grubhub, WeWork, eBay, Salesforce, Cisco, Oracle, Roku, Intuit, Qualcomm. Stripe
and Roku declined to participate in this project. Tesla, Coinbase, and SpaceX
did not respond to repeated questions.

All financial commitments data is as of June 14, 2021. In the financial
commitments visualization, private companies are sorted by last public
valuation.

Interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

Sources, from top: David Vox Avila (Lawrence Humphrey); Adria Malcolm (Ifeoma
Ozoma); Philip Cheung (Rhett Lindsey); Kimberly White/Getty Images for
TechCrunch (Timnit Gebru); Sarah Deragon (Arlan Hamilton); Lynsey Weatherspoon
(Jennifer Bates)

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SOUTH AFRICA WANTS TO GIVE EVERY RESIDENT FREE BROADBAND. CAN IT PULL THAT OFF?

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TWITTER

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K-POP STARS BTS DISCUSS ANTI-ASIAN HATE CRIMES WITH JOE BIDEN: WATCH THE
LIVESTREAM HERE

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REPORT: TWO-THIRDS OF LGBTQ+ AMERICANS HAVE A ‘HIGH AMOUNT OF FINANCIAL STRESS’


CO.DESIGN

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CLIMATE CHANGE IS BLOWING DOWN HOUSES. THIS COULD SAVE THEM

Co.Design


THIS TINY DEFIBRILLATOR TURNS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD INTO A COMMUNAL ER

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TRY THESE 3 SIMPLE FRAMEWORKS TO MANAGE YOUR ENERGY RESERVES

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Work Life


WHY MORE BUSINESSES ARE CONSIDERING ENDING THE 40-HOUR WORK WEEK

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1 YEAR, $3.8 BILLION LATER: HOW 2020’S RACE RECKONING SHOOK UP BIG TECH


+ READ MORE
Tech giants pour billions into diversity, equity, and inclusion
An FC survey of 42 tech companies reveals how much money the industry committed
to DEI after summer 2020. Microsoft is committing the most money total ($772.5
million), but that's equivalent to just five days of profit.

advertisement

advertisement

LAWRENCE HUMPHREY
Lawrence Humphrey is a design consultant and strategist at IBM, where he has
worked for more than four years. Last summer, in the aftermath of George Floyd's
murder and statements of solidarity from tech companies, Humphrey collaborated
with other Black tech employees to start Tech Can [Do] Better, an initiative to
help companies address systemic racism and inequities in the tech industry.


>“I had what I call my racial awakening in 2016. I shifted from the ‘I’m just
not going to rock the boat; I’m going to make my own, do my work, and then in my
own private influence make a difference.’ It was the summer of 2016—after Alton
Sterling and Philando Castile—and that was when I was like, you know what? I’m
done being quiet with this shit. If I make it and am successful, that still does
nothing. That still won’t guarantee my life. So I’m gonna start getting
successful and obviously doing great work and overperforming, all that stuff—but
not at the sacrifice of speaking out.

+ READ MORE
The problem with money, especially donations, is that donations don’t change
attitudes and they don’t change policies.
The problem with money, especially donations, is that donations don’t change
attitudes and they don’t change policies.

CHLOË CHEYENNE ROGERS
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of activism platform CommunityX
Previous employer:Google
The percentage of Black employees at the Big 5 remains stagnant
At the five biggest U.S. tech companies by market cap—Apple, Microsoft, Amazon,
Facebook, and Google—representation numbers show little progress, especially
among engineers and leadership.

advertisement

advertisement

CHARLTON MCILWAIN
CURRENT ROLE:Historian, vice provost, and professor at NYU
Author of:Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, From the Afronet to
Black Lives Matter


The under-representation of people of color in this industry reverberates: not
having people available to point and draw attention to devastating consequences,
or to think about alternatives, or to have the kinds of influence to say no to a
particular course of action or not…But moving forward, I think the greater issue
is that we have already nurtured such an investment socially, emotionally,
politically, economically in the buildup of technologies that serve to increase
inequality, to exclude people from the social and economic promise of technology
and the potential wealth that it brings.
Ifeoma ozoma
In June 2020, former Pinterest public policy manager Ifeoma Ozoma and her
colleague Aerica Shimizu Banks went public with allegations of race and gender
discrimination. Now Ozoma is lobbying for a California bill to release workers
who’ve faced any kind of workplace discrimination from their nondisclosure
agreements.


“These companies spend…more on the marketing around their bullshit DEI programs
than they do on the actual programs, which I think says everything. Even if they
were spending money that was actually meaningful, you still have people at the
top of the companies who don’t actually care about these programs, don’t care
about any sort of accountability, don’t care about doing the very basics. And
the basics to me are hiring, paying fairly, and retaining talent of color and
particularly Black people and Black women. All of it is comms. All of it is
marketing….What I’m interested in is consequences, legislatively, from
shareholders, whether in the form of resolutions or lawsuits, and from workers.

+ READ MORE
I don’t think you can have an anti-racist tech company at scale.
I don’t think you can have an anti-racist tech company at scale.

CHRIS GILLIARD
CURRENT ROLE:Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center Visiting Research Fellow
Member of:the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry Scholars Council and the
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project community advisory board
advertisement

advertisement

More whistleblowers are coming forward
This timeline of high-profile allegations of anti-Black discrimination in tech
reveals a rise in media coverage and attention paid toward the treatment of
Black tech workers.

It takes people standing in their truth and shedding light on the disconnect
that’s happening for there to be true change.
On why uncomfortable conversations are crucial for positive change

Rhett Lindsey
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of recruiting platform Siimee
Previous employer:Facebook
It takes people standing in their truth and shedding light on the disconnect
that’s happening for there to be true change.
On why uncomfortable conversations are crucial for positive change
External and internal pressure pushed tech leaders to shift DEI policy
In FC's survey, companies shared how—and when—they changed internal rules and
structures with the goal of retaining talent and building a more diverse
workforce.

advertisement

advertisement

Timnit Gebru
Renowned AI researcher Timnit Gebru says she was pushed out of her role as
co-lead of the AI Ethics team at Google in December 2020 after writing a paper
critiquing the technology that powers Google Search. She is an outspoken
advocate for DEI through her nonprofit Black in AI.


“If [tech companies] actually paid their fair share of [taxes], which they spend
so much time trying not to, then we wouldn’t need their guilt million here, a
million there, which is nothing for them. It’s so offensive that [Google] even
had those commitments. The thing is that really irritates me is…we’ll give you
this money with one hand, and we’ll completely mistreat people with this other
hand.

+ READ MORE
Ken Chenault
CURRENT ROLE:Chairman and managing director of VC fund General Catalyst,
director at Airbnb

My view is you control the pipe and you control what goes into the pipe.
On CEOs citing the “pipeline problem” as an excuse for lack of diversity in
senior management
My view is you control the pipe and you control what goes into the pipe.
On CEOs citing the “pipeline problem” as an excuse for lack of diversity in
senior management

2021 data shows an increased investment in Black founders
According to Crunchbase data, venture capital funding to Black founders in Q1
2021 exceeded $1 billion for the first time—but is still a fraction of overall
VC investment.

advertisement

advertisement

This lighter was thrown into the mix, but I think it would have happened anyway.
On the increased investment in Black and brown founders after the racial justice
protests in summer 2020
This lighter was thrown into the mix, but I think it would have happened anyway.
On the increased investment in Black and brown founders after the racial justice
protests in summer 2020

Arlan Hamilton
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and managing partner of VC fund Backstage Capital
Jennifer Bates
In May 2020, Jennifer Bates started working at a new Amazon fulfillment center
in Bessemer, Alabama. She was a key organizer and advocate behind a failed
effort to unionize the warehouse, even testifying at a Senate hearing in March.
The results of the union vote are still being appealed.


“I worked for Amazon for a week, [and] I really said, ‘No way.’ My legs were
hurting, and I was limping. And I’m like, ‘This is not normal. Why you don’t
have elevators?’ So that’s how it started. That’s when I really started finding
out the gruesomeness of the facility. I was used to being on my feet and doing a
lot of work and walking and stuff. But it was nothing like at Amazon.

+ READ MORE
A homogenous workforce builds racist products
Over the last five years, users, journalists, and researchers have highlighted
how technologies harm Black people, from biased facial recognition to
exclusionary advertising.

advertisement

advertisement

CHLOË CHEYENNE ROGERS
CURRENT ROLE:Founder and CEO of activism platform CommunityX
Previous employer:Google


When Mike Brown Jr. was murdered in Ferguson, no one was talking about it, not
even the Black Googlers network...I realized a lot of that discussion had been
oppressed by the dominant white culture of tech. And so the good part about
opening that gateway was that a lot of people felt like they were finally able
to express themselves, express how they felt about the situation, and feel heard
to some extent. We were asking for more infrastructural change, real products
supporting real problems, and [leadership wasn't] willing to do that. So when it
comes to the question of should we be satisfied by all of these commitments and
donations that all of these brands in and outside of the tech industry are
making, my opinion on that is absolutely not, for so many reasons. But mainly
because those things are just cover-ups for them addressing the real systemic
things within their company and within the communities where they operate.
DURETTI HIRPA
While working as an engineer at Slack, Duretti Hirpa founded and ran Earth
Tones, an employee resource group for people of color. After a stint at
Mailchimp, Duretti now works as a principal engineer at project management tool
Zipper. She is also a speaker and essayist with her own newsletter.


>“I worked at one place where they were really excited to say, ‘we have this
particular police department using our software.’ And employees were like…let’s
Google this police department. One of the first things that came up was that
this police department has some pretty serious allegations of police brutality.
Maybe we should take this [deal] down. And the response back was like, ‘Well,
your coworkers worked really hard on this case study.’ And Black employees were
like…”That’s great that everyone has worked really hard, but that police
department has [these] pretty serious allegations around police brutality and
murdering people, so is that something we necessarily want to be associated
with?’ And at the end of the day [the decision was made to] to keep this case
study up.

+ READ MORE
Tech companies are working on going to Mars. And so to look at a social problem
and throw [their] proverbial hands up is inexcusable.
Tech companies are working on going to Mars. And so to look at a social problem
and throw [their] proverbial hands up is inexcusable.

MIMI FOX MELTON
CURRENT ROLE:CEO of Code2040
What they do:a nonprofit that works to eliminate systemic barriers for Black and
Latinx tech workers
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In partnership with The Plug

Reporters: Pavithra Mohan, KC Ifeanyi, Yasmin Gagne, Harry McCracken

Editors: Katharine Schwab, Julia Herbst

Editorial Advisers: Sherrell Dorsey, Monica Melton

Design: Chelsea Schiff

Illustrations: Broadie, Maja Saphir

Animation: Holly Bernal

Development: Adam Noonan-Kelly, JJ Guaragno, Brian Jin, Hung Huynh, Eric Perry,
David Chan, Bryan Cuellar

Companies surveyed included U.S.-based tech firms with greater than 1,000
employees that Fast Company covers: Apple, Google/Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon,
Microsoft, Tesla, Nvidia, PayPal, Intel, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Dell, Adobe,
IBM, Square, Zoom, Snap, Slack, Lyft, Dropbox, Pinterest, Twitter, Stripe,
Coinbase, SpaceX, Box, DoorDash, Peloton, Zillow, Instacart, Yelp, Etsy,
Grubhub, WeWork, eBay, Salesforce, Cisco, Oracle, Roku, Intuit, Qualcomm. Stripe
and Roku declined to participate in this project. Tesla, Coinbase, and SpaceX
did not respond to repeated questions.

All financial commitments data is as of June 14, 2021. In the financial
commitments visualization, private companies are sorted by last public
valuation.

Interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

Sources, from top: David Vox Avila (Lawrence Humphrey); Adria Malcolm (Ifeoma
Ozoma); Philip Cheung (Rhett Lindsey); Kimberly White/Getty Images for
TechCrunch (Timnit Gebru); Sarah Deragon (Arlan Hamilton); Lynsey Weatherspoon
(Jennifer Bates)

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