A nationwide assessment of the digital economy has found that Black Americans are overrepresented as tech consumers, but drastically underrepresented as tech employees, according to the 2018 State of Black America.
The State of Black America, the National Urban League’s seminal annual publication, has become one of the most highly anticipated benchmarks and sources for thought leadership around racial equality in America across economics, employment, education, health, housing, criminal justice and civic participation.
This year’s report, “Save Our Cities: Powering the Digital Revolution,” set out to answer the question, “Are the new job, business and educational opportunities created by increased digitization of our world being equally shared?”
African-Americans make up less than 5% of the workforce at social media and technology companies, vs. more than 50% for whites. Less than 6% of total Black employment in 2017 was in the tech industry, vs. 8.5% for whites.
“Historically, while great industrial breakthroughs have profited our nation, African-Americans have often been exploited, rather than elevated by these advancements,” National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial said. “Fortunately, the digital revolution is still in its youth—and ripe with potential for Black Americans. While it has positioned itself such that the barriers of entry are few and low, the findings of the National Urban League’s 2018 Digital Inclusion Index are unambiguous: we must separate the signal from the noise.”
The Digital Inclusion Index is a brand-new iteration of the report’s traditional Equality Index™ – a mathematical representation of the relative social and economic status of Black Americans relative to whites. The 2018 Equality Index remains 72.5%, unchanged from 2017, while the Digital Inclusion Index is slightly higher at 74.1%. An index of 100% would represent full equality.
Source: The ‘State of Black America’ Finds African-Americans Drastically Underrepresented in Tech
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