This is a shameless reposting of an article I shared four years ago. ooli's post about tech company abusing H1B visa holders got me thinking about vulnerable people in the tech industry, whether they be migrants subject to predatory implicit pressures or POC dealing with implicit biases in an industry obsessed with "culture fit."

Until my tenure at Twitter, I strongly resisted being “the Black guy.” I didn’t want to be the sole representative of a multifaceted group of people or be siloed into focusing on Black issues. My position shifted after the shooting death of Mike Brown and the inception of the “Black Lives Matter” protests. I realized that I and other Black employees could be the voice for a community of users who had been largely ignored or misunderstood by social media companies.

The deficiency of people of color is a complex and cyclical problem that should be addressed at every point — from education and recruitment to employee retention. This change will require more than posting a hashtag in a public venue or darkening the color of a logo on a T-shirt. The key to a diverse workplace is the allocation of resources to internal and external initiatives and, most importantly, the will to see its improvement.