NEWS

Diversity has become something of a buzzword in tech, and it's one that companies are only too keen to bandy about at every opportunity. The likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are eager to demonstrate how diverse a workforce they have built up -- but the fact of the matter is that they have all failed abysmally.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus flew to Silicon Valley this week to turn up the heat on the nation's largest tech companies to hire more African Americans. Caucus members met with Apple's Tim Cook and Intel's Brian Krzanich as well as executives from Google, Pandora and SAP to discuss how technology companies plan to fix their troubling hiring record.

On August 4, the First-Ever White House Demo Day was organized to showcase women and minority founders in technology. The event, along with President Obama’s call for action, sparked some major tech companies to announce new diversity initiatives. Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon all jumped on the bandwagon to demonstrate that they are committed to improving their recruitment and hiring of women and minorities.

According to data from the National Science Foundation, the number of science, math and engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to Black men increased from 12,857 in 2002 to 18,601 in 2012, and the number of Black men who earn science and engineering doctorates grew by more than 20 percent in 10 years. Although the number of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees have increased, Black men are one of the only minority groups not making progress, with only 3 percent of Black men working as scientists and engineers.