by Barbara Lach

A picture is worth a thousand words…envision a white workforce with less than 2 percent African American representation.  Google, Facebook and Twitter employ 41,000 people; 1.8 percent of them are black.

Owning mobile devices does not get African Americans jobs in social media and tech companies any more than it provides adequate technology to do homework even at elementary level.  African Americans enjoy less than 75 percent of the benefits of the digital economy when compared to white Americans today. The National Urban League highlights this technology gap in its 2018 State of Black America report released May 3.

The League has created a Digital Inclusion Index to demonstrate how often African Americans get a fair opportunity at upward mobility within the tech sector. The index measures three areas: digital skills and occupations, digital access, and digital policy. African Americans are at 74.1 percent.

In some areas African American score above average digital equity. Although 2.8 percent of African Americans and 2.6 percent of white youth earned degrees in computer and data science in 2015-16, racial diversity in social media and technology companies remains minimal—fewer than 5 percent of the workforce.

“Historically, while great industrial breakthroughs have profited our nation, African Americans have often been exploited, rather than elevated by these advancements,” said Marc H. Morial,  National Urban League President and CEO.