America's Racial Gap & Big Tech's Closing Window
Paul Trussell
Apjit Walia
In this episode
The exponential growth of the digital economy is going to leave large chunks of minorities with little or no access to jobs. We conduct a bottom up societal study and it shows that 76% of Blacks and 62% of Hispanics could get shut out or be under-prepared for 86% of jobs in the US by 2045. If this digital racial gap is not addressed, in one generation alone, digitization could render the country’s minorities into an unemployment abyss.
Also available on these platforms 
What we discuss
- Digitization and the Racial Gap
The exponential growth of the digital economy is going to leave large chunks of minorities with little or no access to jobs. We conduct a bottom up societal study and it shows that 76% of Blacks and 62% of Hispanics could get shut out or be under-prepared for 86% of jobs in the US by 2045. If this digital racial gap is not addressed, in one generation alone, digitization could render the country’s minorities into an unemployment abyss. - Minorities & Tech Connectivity
We went into the study expecting a gap, but the data is far more glaring. Due to the structural and infrastructural inequities, Blacks and Hispanics are 10 years behind Whites in levels of broadband access and almost 4 times more Blacks have poor Tech connectivity than Whites - Is Data privacy the Seminal Tech question of our time?
Contrary to the national conversation on Privacy and Big Tech, just over 1 out of 20 Blacks feel privacy is a primary concern as it relates to Tech. - November Elections & the Shift from China to Big Tech
We believe that regardless of who wins in November, national scrutiny is going to turn away from China and onto Big Tech & Digital Inequality. Only 1 in 3 Americans now hold a positive view of Big Tech. The window for Big Tech is rapidly closing. - What should Big Tech Do?
Can Big Tech given its windfall of recent success post Covid, pre-emptively step in and help reduce the digital gap? With a cost of $15 Billion over the next five years, Big Tech could start to make an impact on the racial digital divide. That is less than 1% of the $2 Trillion increase in Big Tech 5’s market cap during Covid. We believe such an initiative could create a decisive precedence, dramatically increase goodwill, and position Big Tech as part of the solution instead of being increasingly seen as part of the problem. In essence, this could reduce or mitigate the potential costs of ongoing and upcoming scrutiny of these companies.
Related Reading