A lawsuit stating Google favored white and Asian workers has been settled. According to CNN, Ana Cantu, a former Google employee who identifies as Mexican and racially Indigenous, brought forward a lawsuit that claimed the tech giant offered lower salaries and job levels to those of Hispanic, Latino, Native American, Indigenous, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Alaska Native employees at Google. It was filed in 2021. In the lawsuit, Cantu said that during her seven-year tenure working in Google’s people operations and cloud departments, she was not given a promotion or salary increase. She alleged that white and Asian workers with the same work performance were promoted and received raises, while other workers who complained about the treatment had these opportunities withheld. Cantu left the company in September 2021, claiming Google did not adhere to the California Equal Pay Act. Additionally, leaked documents showed about 6,632 diverse employees reported...

Verizon is receiving pushback for upholding its DEI commitments. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, pressures from conservative groups and efforts by President Donald Trump’s White House to dismantle DEI-related policies and programs have led major companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Google to follow suit. “We’re committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities, and over the last year, we’ve been reviewing our programs designed to help us get there,” a Google spokesperson told Business Insider in February. Not all companies are shifting gears. In fact, Apple’s shareholders voted against a proposal that would dismiss its diversity and inclusion program in February 2025. Additionally, Verizon is maintaining its DEI stance and sees it as a vehicle for success. “Verizon is committed to fostering an inclusive environment. We care about diversity in both our employees and our suppliers. Diversity and inclusion is how we achieve success,” a...

Salesforce is retracting its DEI goals. Business Insider reports that the major software company removed references to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals in its annual financial report. Regarding hiring, the company says it will now uphold equality as its core value. “While we are not specifying representation goals, we remain committed to our core value of equality,” a Salesforce spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg. This sentiment was also echoed in the filing, which read, “We value the equality of every individual at our company and in our communities and are dedicated to fostering a workplace that complies with these protections, creating an inclusive culture where every individual feels seen, heard and valued.” Salesforce joins a growing list of companies that have all followed a common pattern in recent months. Google, Amazon, and Meta are other technology-driven companies that are shifting their focus away from DEI. In retail, Walmart, Aldi, and Target have done...

Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Significant layoffs have been a consistent theme throughout the world of work for over three years. Whether you work in tech, media, or finance you have seen the news or know of those who have been impacted. Gone is the employment heyday of the pandemic, when firms across the board ramped up their hiring efforts in 2020 and 2021. This led to people embracing new opportunities and getting bumps in compensation that were not previously available. Unfortunately, when the boosts to businesses and balance sheets went away, firms started laying off their workforces in droves. Initially, the reasons behind the cuts were due to overhiring, and companies were looking to streamline their workforces and management in order to move the organizations more nimbly. The media started to refer to it as a “White-Collar Recession” because while other sectors like hospitality and health services saw employment...

Meta is being sued for allegedly directly contributing to education inequities in Black communities. A lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP on behalf of the Equal Rights Center (ERC) cites that Meta’s algorithm has shown bias by directing ads for for-profit colleges and universities to Black communities. In contrast, more ads featuring public and nonprofit colleges and universities were shown to white users. “Relegating Black students to receive information about for-profit schools, which often provide lower quality education at greater financial cost, also sends a negative message about who belongs in which types of institutions,” a statement from an email sent to AFROTECH™ by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights read. The difference between the two types of institutions is that for-profit colleges focus on generating profits...

Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. “Oligarchy” is the word that has been spread across the internet and used to describe what has been observed during Donald Trump’s inauguration. “Oligarchy” is defined as “a country, institution, or organization led by a small group of people.” Observers saw the leaders of the most powerful tech companies in the world not just in attendance but sitting where friends and family sit. They had better seats than Trump’s cabinet. It’s not uncommon for business leaders to convene in Washington D.C. to usher in the exchange of power, but the previous relationship that Trump had with these tech CEOs, and its change to what is seen now, is something to take note of. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; and, of course Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, were all close to the president during his swearing in. Each one of...

Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Before Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic ticket’s front-runner, support for the party was low among the tech industry. In fact, many who now back Harris had previously withheld support from Biden, even favoring Trump over the Democratic candidate. Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, is one of those people who recently shifted their support in favor of Harris. After Harris took over the ticket in July, the energy across the tech industry shifted significantly, leading to the formation of new groups representing tech professionals — groups that hadn’t emerged during Biden’s campaign. These groups are VCs for Kamala and Founders for Kamala. They have raised money for her campaign and increased awareness of her positions on key issues impacting the tech industry. I will cover the tech industry’s sentiment under Biden, the current shift with Kamala as...

Private equity law expert Joe Tillman has a passion for creating opportunities for others. It is what has carried the California native’s career more than a decade and even led to him walking away from a stable career as a lawyer. Tillman’s initial exposure into law was not engraved in his upbringing. He admits to growing up in humble beginnings in Perris, CA, and not having access to people who worked in law or other professional spaces. It was not until his final year at California State University San Bernardino, where he would obtain a bachelor’s degree in finance, that his professor introduced to him the idea of pursuing law. “At this time, I did not have the $1,500 that it took to take an LSAT prep course. And he basically got the College of Finance to write me an impromptu scholarship so they could pay to get my LSAT prep course paid for,” Tillman told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “So, he was one of the few people that was willing to put his money where his mouth is. I took the...