Diversity, Equity, and Layoffs: How Tech Changed Its Tune on Anti-Racism
This event took place on April 27, 2023.
Three years ago, as the Movement for Black Lives challenged institutional racism across the country, tech companies made pledges to enact new diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. How are those promises looking today?
Fast forward to 2023, where tech companies are laying off workers in droves. While the demographics of layoffs are generally opaque and underreported, we’re seeing signs that women and people of color are being disproportionately impacted by the layoffs. What’s more, we know that contract workers (who are disproportionately Black, brown, women, and nonbinary people) are often laid off immediately, without warning or severance payout. How do we hold tech companies accountable to the commitments they made? What does it say about the future of equity in tech when these commitments are the first thing on the chopping block when times get tough?
Join us on Thursday, April 27th 12-1pm PT to learn about how tech’s commitments to anti-racism are evolving, and what we can do to enact true, lasting equity in the tech industry.
The webinar will be moderated by Samantha Gordon, Chief Program Officer at TechEquity. Panelists include:
- Jade Magnus Ogunnaike, Vice President of Corporate Power at Color of Change
- Y-Vonne Hutchinson, CEO and Founder of ReadySet and author of How to Talk to Your Boss About Race
- Antonio Aguilera, Interim Executive Director of the Coworker Solidarity Fund and Senior Director of Worker-Led Projects at Coworker.org
Agenda:
- Webinar kicks off at 12:00 PM
- Panel discussion begins at 12:05 PM
- Q&A from attendees from 12:40-1:00 PM
About the Panelists
Jade Magnus Ogunnaike
Jade Magnus Ogunnaike is the VP of Campaigns at Color of Change. Initially starting as a Campaign Manager at COC, she has created and won key campaigns and victories at the organization, including #BlackWomensBrunch: a field event bringing together thousands of Black women across the country, #DropRKelly: the three year long campaign to get R. Kelly dropped from RCA Records, #QuitTheCouncil: the first campaign to convince a member of Trump’s business council to leave, and successfully strategized to convince five of largest wedding platforms to no longer feature plantation weddings content. Most recently, Jade led a successful campaign to convince Zoom to hire their first Chief Diversity Officer and created the #BeyondTheStatement hub: a set of campaigns designed to demand that corporations back up their verbal support of racial justice with a living wage.
Before Color of Change, Jade worked as a labor organizer at SEIU organizing nursing home workers, home healthcare aides, and adjunct professors. She is a Los Angeles native, Howard University graduate, and founding member of BYP100. In her spare time, she enjoys design, cooking, spending time with her husband and daughter, Sloane.
Y-Vonne Hutchinson
Y-Vonne Hutchinson is the author of How to Talk to Your Boss About Race and CEO of ReadySet, a diversity and inclusion product and services firm that helps tech giants, political leaders, media outlets, and Fortune 500 companies speak more productively about racism and turn talk into action. To date, ReadySet has worked with hundreds of companies around the world to build, manage, and grow diverse teams. In a former life, prior to founding ReadySet, she worked as an international labor and human rights lawyer for nearly a decade.
Antonio Aguilera
Antonio Aguilera is the Interim Executive Director of the Coworker Solidarity Fund and Senior Director of Worker-Led Projects at Coworker.org. Antonio is an innovator at the intersection of technology, entrepreneurship, and worker rights. Since joining Coworker, he coached and supported workers organizing in tech companies to access networks, skills, and tools to successfully improve working conditions, and address ethical concerns in tech workplaces. She helped develop an app for organizing low-income immigrant labor and domestic workers. They are based in San Francisco, CA.
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This discussion will be recorded and shared out to registrants afterwards. There will be an ASL interpreter and automated captioning will be available. If you have additional access needs, please specify when you register.
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