The Tech Pioneer Who Dared to Speak out Against Racism in IT
Posted by Don Tennant Apr 5, 2011
This week, a technology pioneer is being honored as an inductee into
the IT Hall of Fame, in recognition of his lifelong contribution to IT
innovation. Yet chances are, you’ve never even heard of him.
The IT Hall of Fame, which is administered by the IT trade association
CompTIA, has bestowed the honor on Earl Pace, co-founder of Black Data
Processing Associates and chairman of the board of trustees of the
BDPA Education and Technology Foundation. I had the pleasure of
conducting an in-depth interview with Pace a couple of years ago, and
I was heartened by the fact that he had no inclination to steer away
from the issue of racism in IT.
Pace said it’s probably more subtle than it used to be, but it’s
still very much a problem that confronts the IT community:
It manifests itself in promotions. It even manifests itself in the
way in which companies interact with BDPA. We have companies who are
very anxious to come to BDPA's conferences because they want to hire
our technical people. But they are loathe to come to a BDPA conference
to demonstrate their software or hardware, to deal with us as a
high-technology organization where the people who are moving through
our expo are people who can and do influence purchasing decisions. …
It is not less of a problem. It is, perhaps, more subtle or
sophisticated. There are some promotions that have occurred. There are
probably more African-Americans and other minorities that have been
promoted to senior-level positions than existed in 1975 when BDPA was
formed. But the impact of those people at higher levels is marginal
with respect to bringing other African-Americans up the pipeline to
replace or to supplement them.
Not surprisingly, that outspokenness raised the ire of some readers
who steadfastly denied the existence of the problem. One reader
branded Pace as just another “race peddler”:
Once again you have the media trying to drum up controversy and
ease a fictitious guilty conscience of "white America". Come on does
anyone believe this? I put Earl right up there with Jessie Jackson and
all the rest of the race peddlers of the world. It's like saying
racism exists in the chicken business because I, as a white male, work
at Popeye's but am the only white employee. Get out in the real world
where people are hired, as long as affirmative action is not forced,
for their talent not their color or nationality. If, as it's appears
in my part of the country, that the majority of brain surgeons are of
Indian decent, does that mean the brain surgeon community is racist???
No it simply means that a certain race excels in that field, their
parents MADE them study long and hard or other races just haven’t had
the desire to go into that field. Do you hear the white mid-western
farm boy complaining that he can’t get a starting spot on a college
basketball team or a NBA bencher moaning about how 90% of the people
he is around are black? Think about it.
Another reader dismissed the matter as a simple fact of life that
didn’t warrant discussion:
Like it or not, people of all skin colors are biased, and tend to
consciously or unconsciously favor people they consider to be like
themselves, over people unlike themselves. It may be skin color,
religion, intelligence, football teams, or the kind of car you drive,
but no one is exempt from discriminating against those who are
"different". … So [Computerworld], and particularly Mr. Tennant, how
about "we" get off our high horse about equality and [get] back to
business.
Yet another said Pace was merely engaged in a self-justification exercise:
[People] like this guy look under every rock to find even the hint
of racism to justify their existence. There are CERTAINLY racists in
this world and there will always be to some degree. But, to suggest
it's endemic in IT is sickening. The vast majority of us are just
trying to keep our jobs – not "keeping the black man down".
That so much of our nation continues to be in denial about the
pervasiveness of racism, however subtle it may be, is exactly why the
topic cannot be allowed to be swept under the rug. And yet the
sweepers persist – sometimes well-intentioned, sometimes not.
Fortunately, Pace has maintained the strength to lift up that weighty
carpet.
Congratulations, Earl. And thank you not only for your decades of
service to the IT industry and profession, but for your courage in
reminding us all that we still have a long way to go in our country’s
struggle against racism.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/tennant/the-tech-pioneer-who-dared-to-speak-out-against-racism-in-it/?cs=46346
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