The good ol’ “rev”…following the shakedown model of his buddy Al Sharpton.
Peas in a (profitable) pod…
The Seattle Times reported that Jesse Jackson was going to be in Seattle to attend Microsoft’s shareholders meeting yesterday. Jackson is on a campaign to push technology companies toward making their workforces look more like their customers and the U.S. population. The Times said Jackson would ask the company to set goals in its efforts to diversify its workforce.
Jackson attended Microsoft’s shareholder meeting last year and is still fighting for race and gender equality at the tech industry, saying the exclusion of women and minorities in this field is “out of step with justice.” “Microsoft has made some significant moves forward,” Jackson said. “John Thompson is the chair of their board, an African-American, Amazon, on the other hand, still has no person of color on their board,” Jackson said.
“[They] have not yet seen fit to include us,” Jackson said. “African-Americans and Latinos are fast becoming part of America’s new majority. To leave us out is like a one-eyed quarterback. You can’t see half the field. You’re losing market, money, talent, location and growth.”
Jackson says tech industry leaders can’t argue that there’s a talent shortage. “There are women and people of color who are either trained or trainable and many of them who served their time in the industry cannot get access to capital,” he said. “The lobbying interests that the industry has spent looking for youth in India and other countries … must be used in Seattle and Spokane and Olympia and around America.”
And in typical Alinsky fashion , Jackson made a big leap when he said the problem of diversity in tech is a civil rights issue as important as police brutality in Chicago.
Dare I say the problem has to do with the public education system and individuals’ desire to learn? But that might be raaaaacist.
DCG