9

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A BLACK MAN IN TECH

by LeRon L. Barton

As a Black man who has worked in the technology sector for more than 20 years, I can tell you that my race has almost always been a factor in how I am viewed and treated. In many of the companies I have worked for, if not in all of them, I have been one of, and sometimes the sole, African American in my department.

When you’re the only Black person in an office, you notice it.

Glancing around, you notice that no one looks like you, talks like you, or has a story like yours. Nobody has the gall to approach you and say, “Hey, out of the 40 people on this floor, you’re the only Black guy.” But you sense that everyone else notices it too.

You sense it from the stares you receive when you walk through the door, from the looks on people’s faces when they learn that you’re competent at your job, from the alienation you feel after not being invited to lunch with your peers, and from the awkwardness they project when they try to engage you in everyday conversation.

Being Black in tech, like being Black in America, is an exercise of mental toughness. Your mind is constantly wondering, “How long can I last?”

The underrepresentation of African Americans in tech has been an issue since the 1970s, when the Bay Area became known as “Silicon Valley.” Frederick Terman, former Stanford University dean of engineering, had been encouraging his students to start their own companies since the 1950s. The Bay Area ultimately became home to Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and later Facebook, Apple, and Google. Though the lack of diversity at these companies has been questioned and criticized for decades, the problem hasn’t seen much resolution.

In 2018, according to Silicon Valley Bank, only 1% of venture capital dollars went to Black startup founders and Black employees made up only 2.8% of Google’s technical roles and 4.8% of their entire workforce.1 More recently, Twitter reported that Black employees made up only 6% of their staff and Facebook reported 3.8% of their employees were Black.2 All of this contributes to an environment that continues to be hostile toward African Americans, one that tells us, “You are not welcome.”

Over the years, I have talked to many Black folks who also work in tech, from technical support representatives and system engineers to network architects and programmers. We have swapped stories that would make your jaw drop: stories about having the validity of our work badges questioned by the companies that employ us, stories of white team members who perceive us as the “diversity hire” and are surprised that our educations were not paid for by sports scholarships, and stories of peers who are shocked that we didn’t come from broken homes or that we can speak correct English. The number of times we have heard, “You are so articulate,” when answering a question or speaking up at a meeting is mind-blowing.

All of these stories, along with the unending microaggressions—the mispronouncing of names, the questions about where we are really from, and the awe at the fact that we can fulfill and succeed at the jobs we were hired to do: It wears on us—on me—mentally.

To create real change, much work still needs to be done at the organizational and leadership levels. At the same time, Black people cannot afford to wait around for this change to happen. We deserve to take up space, move up, and thrive in Big Tech—and we should, even as we continue to fight for more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workspaces.

If you are Black and you are interested in or currently entering the tech industry, know that it is not going to be easy. You are a minority in a sector that is incredibly slow in addressing race and diversity. But also know that you can find comfort and learn from people who look like you and who share your experience. I’ve spent more than two decades navigating this space, and I can be one of those people. I can offer you some advice.

Below are three lessons I have learned as an IT professional. These points are not meant to solve racism at work or convince tech companies to hire more African Americans. They are meant to provide you with skills you can use to navigate this industry, set healthy boundaries, and protect your mental health and your career development as you grow.

The most powerful thing you can do is be yourself.

The first piece of advice I can offer any Black person entering a predominately white tech company is: Don’t change yourself to fit in. Many times, as one of the few African Americans in a firm, I downplayed who I was and how I felt. I would code-switch, ignore microaggressions, and bypass things that were not professional. Why? Because I wanted to fit in. I didn’t want to be excluded or make waves, and I feared that if I did, I might be fired.

But there were consequences to this. My coworkers felt comfortable making racist jokes around me. “I hear police sirens—they must be coming to arrest LeRon,” got a lot of laughs. These kinds of comments about Black people were said often, and just as often they went unchallenged. I felt the constant stress of “wearing two masks,” one for work and the other for my life. I understood what W. E. B. Du Bois meant when he wrote about “double consciousness,” living as a Black man through the eyes of society and himself.

It took 10 years for me to grow tired of “shrinking myself” at work. I started to speak up for myself, and for others. I brought attention to discussions that could be considered inflammatory by confronting the people who initiated them. I escalated these issues to management. Unfortunately, there were consequences to this too.

When I became more outspoken about race—about how few Black folk are employed in tech and how we are treated—I became known as “that Black guy.” There were certain discussions and panels I was not privy or invited to, opportunities I was not presented with, and possibly even promotions that I did not receive. But I was more OK with those consequences than the ones born out of my silence.

There is a saying, “I would rather be rejected for who I am than accepted for who I am not.” When you are true to yourself and honest with who you are and where you are, that is a powerful thing. In my experience, when you stop trying to be the nonconfrontational Black person and call out the inequalities you see, a weight will be lifted from your shoulders. You will carry a new weight—the weight of being your authentic self in a space that may feel threatened by that. But this is the first step toward your personal growth, toward figuring out what you value and who you want to be at work, and maybe, one day, toward a larger systemic change.

The second most powerful thing you can do is speak up.

Being the only Black person on your team often means that other people begin to view you as the designated “Black expert.” Whenever the questions come up, “Do Black people like this?” or “Why do Black people do that?” you will be approached first.

In my experience, these questions are annoying but often innocuous. But the mood changes when there is a police shooting of an unarmed Black man or when yet another video of a white woman accusing a Black man of stealing or trespassing goes viral. Interactions, even casual ones, become more tense. In moments like these I’ve come to realize that in my teammates’ eyes, I represent all Black people—regardless of age, sociological background, nationality, or other factors.

Confrontation is never easy, but my advice here is to be up front the first time something like this ever happens to you—and it probably will. By letting people know immediately when their comments or questions are offensive, they will grow more aware of how inappropriate their behavior is.

The first time someone approaches you with a question you aren’t comfortable answering, let them know that you are not the authority of all things Black. Explain that we are not a monolithic group but people who have all lived different experiences. If someone jokes and asks, “Hey, do all Black people ?” I would respond in a firm but assertive way, “I don’t know all Black people, so I wouldn’t know how to answer that. Your question is offensive.”

If you are not comfortable confronting the person in the moment, schedule time to talk to them privately and let them know why their comment was hurtful. Either way, speak up and let your teammates know how you feel. Set the precedent that those questions are unacceptable.

Finally, know when to ask for help.

Whenever I give a talk at a corporation, I emphasize: “If someone files a complaint about racism, it is everyone’s responsibility to address it.” Once it happens, everyone needs to stop, direct their attention toward the incident, and listen.

One of the biggest failings I’ve seen in tech management is the lack of ownership. If you tell your manager that you have experienced discrimination, that you feel the work environment is hostile, or that you have seen an act of racism, know that your concerns are always valid and they deserve to be taken seriously.

Sadly, in my experience, these complaints are almost never taken seriously and there is very little, if any, discipline issued to the offending party. The first instinct of most supervisors and managers I have dealt with is to put the blame on the person being discriminated against, tell them they need to learn how to take a “joke,” or explain away the racist incident as an example of “cultural insensitivity.”

When this happens, you, the Black employee, will not feel heard. You may feel gaslighted or think, “Maybe the problem is me? Maybe I don’t fit in here? Maybe I need to change?”

Let me answer those questions for you: No, you are not the problem. You may not always fit in, but that doesn’t mean you need to change. This is not an employee issue or a departmental issue, it is an organizational issue—and your organization needs to be held accountable.

If management is not addressing your report of discrimination and racism, escalate it. Schedule time with your manager’s manager and explain why you are raising the issue to them. If that person does not address it properly, go to their manager. Do not be afraid to continue to escalate the issue. At the highest level you would report it to Human Resources.

To present the strongest case possible, provide documentation. Write down every incident you or your colleagues experience, including the times and dates of each occurrence, what was said or done, and who was involved. If you have allies who can back your statements and support you, even better. It’s harder to ignore a group of people than it is to ignore just one person.

Sometimes you may have to decide if you truly can be who you are at your company. If you have to compromise yourself and your morals to stay, then it is not the right place for you. And it is OK to choose to leave.

In times of fear or doubt, do as I do, and think about this quote from Zora Neale Hurston: “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”

As a Black employee in tech, tell your truth. Talk about your experience. Do not water down what you have faced as one of the few in the field. When I started to be more outspoken and follow the advice that I’m giving you, I realized that I am not an individual but part of a collective. My efforts to make tech more equitable are not just about me but also about the networking engineer, the programmer, the project manager, and all of the other professionals that will come after—and that includes you.

TAKEAWAYS

The underrepresentation of Black people in tech has been an issue since the emergence of Silicon Valley. There is scarce venture capital for Black-owned startups, and the percentage of Black employees at tech firms is low. Microaggressions and noninclusive cultures are the norm.

  • Much work still needs to be done at the organizational and leadership levels to create real change, but we cannot afford to wait around for this change to take place. Black people deserve to take up space, move up, and thrive in the tech industry, now.
  • If you are Black and you are interested in or currently entering the tech industry, know that it is not going to be easy. But also know that you can find comfort and learn from people who look like you and who share your experiences.
  • Black people should consider three pieces of advice when entering the tech industry: Be yourself, speak up, and know when to ask for help.

NOTES

  1. 1.  Nitasha Tiku, “Black Tech Founders Say Venture Capital Needs to Move Past ‘Diversity Theater,’ ” Washington Post, June 10, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/10/racial-gap-vc-firms/; and Nick Bastone, “Google Employees Are Circulating a Memo Written by a Former Googler Who Says They Encountered Racism and ‘Never Stopped Feeling the Burden of Being Black’ While Working There,” businessinsider.com, August 15, 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/black-former-google-employee-writes-memo-about-racism-at-company-2019-8.

  2. 2.  Justin Philips, “Does Twitter Love the Idea of Black Employees as Much as It Loves Black Twitter?” San Francisco Chronicle, July 15, 2020, https://www.sfchronicle.com/living/article/does-Twitter-love-the-idea-of-Black-employees-as-15410658.php; and Alison Durkee, “Black Employees Allege Racial Discrimination at Facebook in New Legal Complaint,” forbes.com, July 2, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/07/02/black-employees-allege-racial-discrimination-at-facebook-in-new-legal-complaint/?sh=68ff534f426d.

Adapted from content posted on hbr.org, March 4, 2021.

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