The State of Blacks in Technology

Given that President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday night, it seemed fitting to explore the state of blacks in technology.  As the nation continues to recover from the recession, the manner in which African Americans collectively manage the potential offered by careers in technology will determine the effectiveness of efforts to help blacks economically recover.  The state of blacks in technology will be examined in light of the overall technology industry, attainment of the required education credentials for a career in technology, representation in the IT workforce, and entrepreneurship.  A plan for improving the number of blacks who pursue technology careers will be presented at the end of this article.

The Technology Industry

The state of blacks in technology must first begin with an examination of the state of the overall technology industry.  This industry continues to be a strong engine for economic growth.

Jobs like computer and information system managers, computer software engineers and computer programmers, computer network, systems, and database administrators, computer systems analysts, computer support specialists, are expected to increase much faster than average and present good to excellent job prospects.  Collectively, technology workers earned wages that were almost twice the 2007 national average of $40,690.

Despite the impact of sending jobs overseas, the technology industry is expected to be one of the fastest growing parts of the US economy.  Preparing a generation of black technologists to take advantage of this growth will yield positive results for many communities that have been hit hard by the recent recession.

Education

Education is a key requirement for pursuing a technology career since most jobs require a bachelors degree in a technical area like computer science or computer engineering.  Creating a pipeline of black students who pursue technical degrees has to start well before they decide to attend college.  Black youth need to be challenged to excel in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields.

Unfortunately, many young black people, particularly black males, cannot pursue the college degrees needed for technology careers due to tremendous high school drop out rates.  According to a recent study by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 47% of black males graduate from high school.  Black females do better with a 60% high school graduation rate, but the low combined graduation rate of black males and females lags far behind that of white students.

For those students who do enroll in college, according to the National Science Foundation in 2006, blacks made up 8.3% of those who were awarded science and engineering degrees.  While this was well beneath the 13% representation of blacks in the US population, it does show an increase from the 7.7% figure in 1997.  So, it seems that while high school graduation rates of black students are abysmal, we are seeing some progress among those who do go on to pursue technical degrees.

IT Workforce

According to the Bureau of Labor, the unemployment rate for black Americans is 15.2% as of December 2010 which is down from 15.6% a year earlier.  This is compared to an unemployment rate for whites of 8.3% in December 2010 (which was 8.8% a year earlier).

Representation of black men in technical roles goes from 0.4% in entry level roles to 1.8% in high level roles.  For women, the percentage goes from 4.6% down to 1.6%.  These numbers are clearly disproportionate to the number of blacks in America.

Black IT workers continue to be disproportionately impacted by the recent economic recession, and this exacerbates the problem of low black representation in the technology workforce.  Unless steps are taken to address this problem, the expected “jobless recovery” will continue to impede the entry of blacks into the technology field.

Entrepreneurship

According to the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency, (MBDA),African-American-owned companies generated $137 billion in revenue in 2007.  This compares to $514 billion generated by Asian-owned companies and $345 billion by Hispanic-owned businesses in the same year.  One of the leading industries for minority business owners to enter was “Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services”.

Although Asian and Hispanic-owned businesses generated far more revenue than African-American-owned businesses, according to the same MBDA report, blacks in 2009 had $910 billion in buying power, compared to $509 billion for Asians and $978 billion for Hispanics.  It seems that the buying power of blacks would be better leveraged by investing in starting and supporting black owned businesses, especially in the sectors served by STEM fields.

A Plan for the Future

Taking advantage of the rapid growth of the technology sector will require direct and sustained action.  First, black youth should be encouraged to pursue STEM fields at an early age.  Increasing the number of blacks with technical degrees will provide a pool of resources to fill the growing need for technically skilled employees.

African Americans should also be encouraged to start and support black businesses, especially those that offer technical services.  The tremendous buying power of African Americans should be redirected from flowing out of black communities to keeping capital within black neighborhoods.  By creating black owned companies that provide technical services, young black students who graduate with technical degrees will have expanded options for employment.

Blacks who have made it to the few technology positions held by blacks should mentor blackswho are not as far along in their technology careers.  Providing strong mentorship will provide the guidance needed for future African Americans to effectively work in technology fields.  This will create a self-perpetrating cycle of successful black technologists who contribute to the advancement of other black technologists.

Category: Diversity, Featured | Tags: blacks, Diversity, Information Technology, IT, state, Technology,underrepresentedhttp://www.blackweb20.com/2011/01/24/the-state-of-blacks-in-technology/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BlackWeb20+(Black+Web+2.0)