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A scheme led by an ex-Facebook employee has come to light. CNBC reports that on Dec. 11, Barbara Furlow-Smiles, a former Facebook global diversity strategist, pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Federal prosecutors detailed that Furlow-Smiles stole over $4 million from the company “to fund a lavish lifestyle in California and Georgia.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies are all the rave right now for the private sector and nonprofit organizations. And while everyone is seemingly treating DEI as the proverbial popular kid in school, many strategies that have been implemented are working to create more just and equitable cultures. Although there is evidence of intentional work being done to increase diversity at companies, the ever-evolving nature of the job market has created certain norms, pushing diversity to the forefront. For the folks at Facebook, implementing remote work increased their diversity metrics. According to The Washington Post, since Facebook implemented a more liberal remote policy, the company saw noticeable increases in employee representation. Between 2021 and 2022, the tech company grew among Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial employees. Its number of white employees decreased by 1.5 percent. The increase in minority employment also applied to its leadership group. A...
Julie Wenah doesn’t necessarily want to address the elephant in the room about Facebook, but she knows she has to. “When it comes to the product, itself, I know there’s a lot of work to be done,” she told AfroTech. “Leaving aside the privacy concerns, there is also no shortage of safety concerns, as well. The trust in our brand is lost amongst a certain segment of the population — we understand that, and we appreciate that. But more than anything, we’re doing everything we can to re-establish the trust in the brand, in the product — and we thank people, in advance, for their patience.” The shattered trust in the Facebook brand, of course, comes from a combination of sources. Black people in general — and Black women, in particular — don’t feel safe in the space; according to Pew Research, almost 60 percent of all Black Internet users say they have experienced a form of online harassment — and social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram could be incubators for such...
The pipeline might not be the problem — according to this new report at least. Kauffman Fellows recently released a report debunking the pipeline problem, a myth used by big tech companies that seeks to blame the lack of qualified Black and Latinx talent for the lack of diversity among their workforce. Simply put, big tech has said there aren’t enough educationally qualified Black and Latinx people which is why representation of people of color is so low among their employees. In 2016, Facebook came under scrutiny for its explanation about its diversity problem. According to a HuffPost article Facebook’s global head of diversity, Maxine Williams blamed the public education system. “It has become clear that at the most fundamental level, appropriate representation in technology or any other industry will depend upon more people having the opportunity to gain necessary skills through the public education system,” Williams said. Williams’ attempted to back her argument with unrelated...
We've had our eye on Silicon Valley diversity hiring issues for a while now, and reported that diversity in tech appears to be getting worse . After being hit with hard numbers, some major tech companies vowed to step up and improve (such as Facebook ), but we all knew the undeniable proof would be in the pudding. In May, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) took a trip to the Valley to check on the tech titans' diversity progress. And they were less than impressed. “I’m not about diplomacy,’’ Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) said during the visit. “I’m not urging; I’m not encouraging. I’m about to hit some people across the head with a hammer. I know how to do this, and I know how to do it well.’’ After learning only 1 or 2 percent of workers at certain prominent tech companies are black, Waters was "floored" and threatened regulation. Following the CBC's visit, Bloomberg compiled the latest tech diversity data from eight of Silicon Valley's largest tech companies...
When we talked with Facebook’s global director of diversity , a few months ago, she stressed that things were getting more diverse at the company, pointing the number of black people in non-technical roles rising a few percentage points. Despite the sunny picture she painted, the fact remains that tech is very white. Facebook, for instance, is three percent black; just one percent of its technical talent is black. A new report from the nonprofit organization Ascend Foundation, Hidden In Plain Sight , suggests that tech may be becoming less and not more diverse, especially at the managerial and executive levels. The study examined the marginalization of people of color in the tech field from 2007–2015, and the findings are grim. “There have been no changes for Asians or any other minority over time – men or women,” said the study’s co-author Buck Gee. And that happens when you take Asian workers out of the same group, and just look at other people of color? According to Gee, “It’s...