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The 2020 People of Color in Tech report is the first of its kind for TrustRadius, a review site for business technology.
Topics in the wide-ranging survey explore the tech industry’s attitude towards racial discrimination, cities growing diversity in tech at a faster rate, and leadership among other workplace issues.

“This report clearly demonstrates that tech companies need to do more to drive diversity,” said Vinay Bhagat, TrustRadius founder and CEO. “It also demonstrates that there is very real prejudice and unconscious bias that people of color face in the workplace. The US tech industry employs 12 million people and pays very well. Per the Brookings Institute, just 6.8% of computing and math-related jobs are held by Black and Latine people today.”

Nonetheless, a majority of survey respondents reported that there are more people of color in tech now compared to 10 years ago.


Other key findings from the study include:

  • 65% of people of color in tech and 58% of their white peers see increased diversity over the past ten years.
  • Out of all the major cities polled, respondents from Atlanta were the most likely to report an increase in people of color in tech in the last 10 years.
  • Respondents in Austin, San Francisco, Denver, and Los Angeles were less likely to report an increase in people of color in tech.
  • Only 21% of tech professionals report that their company’s leadership teams are more than a quarter of people of color. 67% report their leadership teams are ¼ or less POC. 12% are not sure.

There is a big debate now regarding whether to refer to people of color collectively as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) vs POC, or use more specific terms.

    29% of POC respondents prefer the term “People of Color,” followed by “BIPOC” with 22%.
    22% have no preference while 7% prefer that specific terms such as Native, Black, Latine, etc. be used whenever possible. 20% prefer the term “minorities,” which is the more historically popular term.
    40% of white respondents chose the “no preference” response.
    • When asked whether or not D&I initiatives are actually effective, 60% of TrustRadius survey respondents reported that they do believe D&I initiatives can be effective, very effective, or extremely effective. Only 14% of respondents see D&I initiatives as not at all effective.
    • While 81% of white respondents reported never having any issues at work due to their race or ethnicity, 43% of people of color reported that they have.
    • Of the 19% of white tech professionals who did report issues, all were of ethnic minorities, such as Latines, who despite being white, experienced xenophobia at work.
    • Despite there being a gap in workplace discrimination for white respondents and people of color respondents, they believe in the effectiveness of D&I initiatives at similar rates, 61% and 62% comparatively.

2020 People of Color in Tech Report

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