The tech giant with its own diversity issues has given money to encourage more black boys into STEM.
On October 27th, Google announced they were giving The Hidden Genius Project a $1 million grant to promote more diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ).
The Oakland-based group mentors black boys and equips them with the skills they need to add more diversity in the tech world and inspire future technologists. The money will help the group expand to new cities, train more staff and impact more young people to encourage them to pursue careers in tech.
A million dollars is a lot of money for a non-profit but it is a bucket when you look at the breakdown of race in the tech world.
Looking at Google’s workforce, it’s currently 69% white male and just 2% African American. Just 20% of technical jobs are held by women. The company tends to hire white and Asian men over women and other racial minorities.
Not to diminish the importance of this grant but the entire tech world has a lot of work to do to even the playing field.
Source: Huffington Post, The Guardian
