WTIA Anti-Racism in Tech Pact
Be Culture facilitated Washington Technology Industry Association's “Call To Action to End Systemic Racism in Tech”. This resulted in a Pact signed by more than 50 member organizations with a clear roadmap outlining the changes these companies will make to overcome barriers to success and belonging for Black and Latinx people in the tech sector. Read the WTIA press release below to learn more.
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About the Anti-Racism in Tech Pact
The tech sector creates millions of high wage, meaningful jobs across this country — so many that more than two million jobs remain unfilled — yet overall we continue to hire and retain mostly white men. This is unacceptable.
"Our economic strength gives us both the opportunity and a moral obligation to offer a platform for learning, discussion, and the elevation of equality. To meaningfully address systemic racism, the technology industry must gain the trust of Black and Latinx communities. We can begin to build that trust by listening to, recruiting, developing, and promoting people of color.
We acknowledge there is a massive inertia against hiring people of color in tech. The very few Black and Latinx employees that do gain access to jobs in tech face an inhospitable environment at work, which is why they are more than three times as likely to quit compared to their white counterparts.
We believe the tech industry can and must do better.
The Pact
We therefore commit to:
Educate ourselves and our teams fully on implicit bias, cultural awareness, and anti-racism in the workplace.
Share with each other best practices on how to effectively recruit, develop, and retain people of color.
Share ideas on how to build a lasting change in behavior among ourselves and our companies with the goal of delivering more equitable outcomes in the workplace.
Work diligently to ensure that within five years of signing this Pact, our company fully reflects the populations in which we operate, including the board of directors, management, and all of our employees. For example, in King County today this would mean approximately 6% Black and 9% Latinx, and nationally, this would mean 18% Black and 14% Latinx.
Share with each other the specifics of our approach and the results of our efforts on a semi-annual basis.
None of us can conquer systemic racism or transform our industry alone. In fact, we will only succeed if we plan, measure, learn, and grow together.
Please join us!
Download The Roadmap
The Roadmap for Anti-racism in Tech provides a way to frame our collective aspirations, articulates action steps that individual companies can undertake, and includes proposed progress at one and a half years as a guideline for the pacing anticipated to deliver on our goals. This Roadmap lays out a clear and measurable pathway for collective success.”
Released November, 2020
Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA)
https://www.washingtontechnology.org/the-anti-racism-in-tech-pact/