Statement on DEI

America250 Tech Series

In light of the 250th commemoration of the United States of America, BGT has curated selected op-ed pieces made for dialogue and advancement of our community.

While acknowledging our past, our progress, and where we’d like to go, our goal is to create discourse that leads to a lasting and better future for change.

We hope you enjoy.

Our country was established with certain inalienable rights, including all are created equal with the pursuit of liberty and happiness. The fight to actualize these rights has been met with resistance and upon the reckoning of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a hopeful New Era of Civil Rights was created for America and the DEI movement was born— leading to the establishment of a corporate consciousness and reflection point for the soul of a nation and communities around the world.

And to our benefit or detriment, others defaulted us to the newly formed DEI category providing the opportunity to view and participate in the movement from a front row seat. Gaining inspiration from social missions before the initiative began, such as the NAACP of the past and others, we intentionally focused on outcomes that led to the advancement of technical careers and entrepreneurial ventures to better serve our local communities and overall country. While we witnessed certain companies lead for strategic partnerships and efforts, other corporate program commitments were futile and leadership was biased, leveraging status for personal gain or social pressures that led to emotional dollars not economic sustainment. By no means does this encompass all who also serve as advocates and those who have actively advanced the cause and the fundamental rights of our nation.

Formed with great potential, the danger of DEI was not the origins, rather the theory of people and proximity to power. The facade that success was mimicked to incompetence or cheating the system. Though not all, some did experience this and the narrative of reverse discrimination began. The effort could be compared to growing a new tree in bad soil.

Although admirable, it was too ingrained in society to systematically cure racism and the impacts from within the foundation. Minimizing accomplishments to fads while realizing another layer to the puzzle: scarcity of resources results in competition over collaboration— even more so within our community. Ultimately, this resulted in the eradication of DEI and its perceived injustice in its entirety. Ending as quickly as it started from government to corporate America, it gave unrest to the divided black tech workforce impacted; with black women disproportionately affected, and comfort to the other side of the black tech workforce who were non recipients of the initiative in the first place— no longer having their competence questioned.

In transparency, we are proud to welcome all backgrounds and voices. We are also disappointed in the financial schemes that some orgs and people exploited with this power while leveraging skin color and other archetypes as a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, this was a common practice across the industry in response to the newly found social status.

This is not to negate the amazing progress, purpose, and passion that some have exemplified during this time period in these respective roles. We hope these efforts look to have even more fruitful outcomes as adoption and evolution persists of the initiative.