Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition Demands Diversity At Google, eBay
SILICON VALLEY (CBS SF) -- Watch any episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley" and you'll see four white male techies, and one Pakistani-born programmer, and that's an example of why the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition is in the Bay Area this week at eBay and Google shareholder meetings, making a case for more blacks, other minorities and women in the real Silicon Valley.
Jackson wrote to tech companies including Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Hewlett Packard, Google and others earlier this year about the problem he sees saying, "Technology is supposed to be about inclusion, but sadly, patterns of exclusion remains the order of the day. When it comes to African-Americans on Board[s] – ZERO. C-suites, ZERO. Minority firms in IPO's and financial transactions, advertising and professional services – ZERO. These ZEROES are contrary to the enlightened values exposed by the industry. Rainbow PUSH is seeking meetings with tech leaders to address these ZEROES head on."
Jackson will be at the eBay shareholder meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Town Square on North First Street in San Jose, and at Google on Wednesday, for the 2 p.m. meeting on Amphitheater Parkway in Mountain View.
The group wants tech companies to use minority-owned firms in its business deals and stock offerings.
Jackson has not described specifically how it hopes to nurture black and minority leaders to take these roles, but said, it is "...seeking meetings with tech leaders to identify strategies and solutions."
While in the Bay Area, Jackson is also expected to join rallies with groups united in the #BringBackOurGirls movement to demand the release of 276 teenage girls kidnapped by Nigerian extremists.
