Amazon has unveiled a plan to increase Black leadership within the company. Within two years, the tech giant hopes to “double the representation of Black Directors and Vice Presidents in 2020 and again in 2021.”
“At Amazon, we’re constantly learning and innovating – and our long-term efforts in diversity and inclusion are no different,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“As part of this work, we are setting aggressive goals in our ongoing effort to be a top employer for Black employees.”
Amazon hopes to accomplish their goal by increasing “investments and programming designed to grow Black leaders from within.” Last week, the company put $700 million toward teaching new skills and developing traits that will assist them at work.
In addition to increasing Black leadership, the company is seeking to "ensure inclusive language in software coding" within their workplaces. As a result, terms like "blacklist," "whitelist," "master" and "slave" have been eliminated within their coding practices. Aside from coding, the company is requiring employees to participate in diversity and inclusion training.
Other tech giants are going Amazon's efforts to increase diversity within the industry. Over the summer, Microsoft also pledged to increase Black leadership within the company by 2025.
These commitments to diversity can go a very long way in improving representation across corporate America. A recent EEO-1 report found that less than 2% of America's 279 largest companies were Black.
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