Technological change, innovation, and disruption is occurring across all industries and significantly impacting our economy, our society, and our democracy, but Black communities have yet to benefit from technology’s promise and potential. Despite a decade of attention and recent statements of commitment to racial equity, current data suggests that very little progress has been made in increasing Black representation across all levels of the tech sector. As a result, Black communities are negatively impacted by automation, income inequality, lack of access to wealth creation through investment and entrepreneurship, while the tech products created and deployed create harms through algorithmic bias in education, employment, facial recognition and surveillance, mis/disinformation, and driving polarization, white supremacy and the fracturing of democracy. These disparities are not just harmful to Black communities, rather, this is an issue of significant national importance for meeting economic demands for a diverse and robust tech workforce, innovation in product and company development, and ultimately, global competitiveness. The State of Tech Diversity: The Black Tech Ecosystem report examines the current state of Black representation and inclusion across the four stages of the Leaky Tech Pipeline and concludes with a set of specific recommendations to increase racial equity in the technology ecosystem.

Inequitable education structures, policies, and practices continue to impact Black students in traditional institutions of higher education, as well as alternative educational pathways like tech bootcamps and apprenticeships. Addressing these challenges will be essential to the expansion of the Black technology workforce.

In February 2018, the Leaky Tech Pipeline report presented data on barriers to racial and gender diversity across the tech ecosystem. Black workers continue to be underrepresented across all levels of the tech workforce due to discriminatory practices in recruitment and hiring and experiences of harassment, discrimination, anti-blackness , and pay inequity in the workplace. Since the report’s release in 2018, there have been no meaningful or significant results in increased Black representation in the tech workforce.