SAVE OUR CITIES: POWERING THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION 7 NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUEStruggling to establish their place in the burgeoning economy, Black migrants encountered the exclusionary effect of racial segregation laws and codes in the North. To make matters worse, as the growing Black community began to establish a toehold into America’s robust industrial economy, manufacturers abandoned the cities for suburbs and shed jobs through automation, initiating the shift to today’s digital revolution. Fortunately, this third revolution is still in its youth—and ripe with potential for Black Americans. While it has positioned itself such that the barriers of entry are few and low, the findings of the National Urban League’s 2018 Digital Inclusion Index are unambiguous: we must separate the signal from the noise. The great promise of the digital age to right the historical wrongs visited on African Americans during previous industrial eras will be an empty one until our private, government and corporate sectors focus on minority ownership, workforce hiring, management positions, and increased racial and gender representation in c-suites and on boards of directors. We are doomed to repeat history if we throttle the bandwidth to key drivers of economic opportunity and mobility. African Americans have proven to be eager, early adopters of technology, leading influencers and content creators in social media—as evidenced by the power of “Black Twitter.” Yet, nearly one-third of low-income families with school-aged children have no access to broadband at home. Lacking this vital tool, many students are left with few realistic options to access the internet, leaving them digitally undeveloped and vulnerable to low earning outcomes. While Blacks and Hispanics are avid consumers of digital technology, they are grossly underrepresented in the digital workforce.Young, Black entrepreneurs tap into technology to solve everyday challenges—and become wealthy in the process. But the latest Equal Employment Opportunity reports filed by Google, Facebook and Twitter showed that out of a combined workforce of 41,000 employees, only 758, or 1.8 percent were Black. C-suite executives of tech firms publicly espouse the gospel of racial and gender diversity and inclusion, but these spaces do not reflect our nation’s demographic diversity. Only increased representation from top to bottom will drive corporate change that prioritizes equity. Our findings show that in the majority of tech companies, fewer than five percent of the workforce is African American, while at least half of the workforce is white. The tech sector is a fast growing one in which people with high school degrees are averaging annual salaries in excess of $80,000. This represents an opportunity for advancing the workforce participation of women and people of color and reducing the income inequality gap. Digital technology is changing the way we interact, seek and receive services, obtain information, fall in love, complete homework and apply for work. In the midst of this change, the National Urban League continues to push for jobs, promote entrepreneurship and advocate for justice and equality on behalf of still marginalized communities. The National Urban League has entered into memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with telecommunications giants Charter Communications and Comcast and NBC Universal, ensuring that both would expand diversity and inclusion initiatives in their workforce, corporate governance and programming, among other areas. We are a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Employment and have entered into a contract with the Department of Labor to develop apprenticeships in the wireless infrastructure industry. We are taking our calls to action to the world wide web, streaming our priorities with For The Movement, a weekly podcast that discusses policy, civil rights and social issues relevant to African Americans and communities of color. And our growing affiliate network is plugged in, providing constituents with tech-oriented programming, workforce training and business incubation. This ain’t your grandparents’ industrial-revolution-era civil rights organization.The stakes are high. If we do not strategically leverage this moment for the broader goals of justice, equity and economic opportunity for all, new technology will widen the cavernous opportunity gap still faced by African Americans and communities of color.Without full, equitable inclusion into the digital economy, communities of color will continue to be forced to the fringes of every marker of well-being. Therefore, the National Urban League stands on the digital horizon, poised to secure the promise of the digital future.And there is no app for that.Justice that upends longstanding, structural inequities requires movements, strategy and steadfastness. There is no hardware to purchase, software to download or social media platform that can bend the arc of history towards that long awaited goal.Historically, while great industrial breakthroughs have profited our nation, African Americans have often been exploited, rather than elevated by these advancements.
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