Five Types of Racial Equity Advocates in Tech

By Naomi Uwaka, Research and Operations Associate

Whenever I see headlines about tech companies working to diversify their workforce, I always hope those efforts go beyond unconscious bias trainings to include work around building their capacity to actively advocate for racial equity. In other words, I hope to see resources allocated from work that fosters passive understanding to work that provides tools people can use to challenge racial inequity and build equitable processes. Just knowing I have unconscious racial bias, for example, has far less impact than creating systems that limit its influence (i.e. excluding applicant names from resume screenings to limit name-based racial discrimination). How then do we close the gap between passive and active advocacy?

Advocacy work can only go as far as the people driving it — the advocates. So understanding the different forms of advocates, ranging from more passive to more active, and how they engage in racial equity efforts in tech, gives insight into how to move along the spectrum of advocacy, hence closing the gap.

In 2017, Code2040 conducted research in our community to get a sense of the different types of racial equity advocates in the tech space (1). Here’s an overview of five advocate types on the spectrum of advocacy (and if you want to know when we share our full research and additional resources sign up here). Keep in mind that this spectrum is fluid, so it’s possible you may respond to different situations as different advocate types and you may move up or down the continuum throughout your journey as an advocate.

1. The Considerate Colleague

The considerate colleague is mindful about equity and inclusion efforts and is careful not to use language that perpetuates harmful stereotypes. For example, they’re likely to spend extra time crafting a job description that uses language encouraging people of various races and genders to apply.

In practice, this might look like an employee drafting a job description that states the company is looking for a candidate who encompasses the company’s values as opposed to a candidate who is a ‘culture fit,’ a term often implying the ability to adapt to White tech culture. In the tech space where systemic racism is a barrier to Black and Latinx people securing jobs, it’s important to acknowledge the ways in which language and apparent subtleties reinforce systems of exclusion. What this leaves out, however, is a plan of action for when you find that systems are still inequitable despite your thoughtfulness. This is a growth area for the considerate colleague.

If you find yourself at this point of the spectrum of advocacy, think about and list out both the covert and overt ways that racial inequity shows up in the workplace and brainstorm ways to tackle those issues on both the front and back end. For instance, perhaps you notice that very few people of color work at your company. Your first instinct might be to adjust job descriptions and recruiting collateral so that they attract more people of color, but here’s where you can take it even further and add reinforcements.

On the back-end, speak up about the lack of representation of POCs in your company so that other people are able to recognize the issue (and/or get comfortable talking about it — sometimes folks are thinking it, but too uncomfortable to voice it). Then on the front end, you can advocate for more POCs to be hired, because just wanting a racially diverse company isn’t enough — you have to actualize it.

2. The Affirming Advocate

Affirming advocates provide positive affirmation to those that actively work to increase racial equity in the tech space. They follow and speak up about equity and inclusion issues on social media by following and elevating influential thinkers and sharing posts that uplift racial equity and inclusion movements. Affirming advocates urge that more people of color should hold more jobs in tech and they often support racial equity efforts when they see the opportunity to do so.

You’ll see that as we move further along the spectrum of advocacy, the percentage of people identifying with each progressive form of advocacy reduces. It’s because it requires a greater level of capacity and willingness to be vulnerable to move along the continuum. The affirming advocate for instance, does important work around bringing visibility to systems of inequity and efforts to address these issues, but to move closer to the next form of advocacy, it is necessary to participate in efforts to increase inclusion and equity in tech. The active participant, the third point on the spectrum of advocacy, is the perfect example of what that looks like.

3. The Active Participant

The active participant is all about action. Whether it’s participating in employee resource groups or joining organizations working toward equity, they actively engage in work to promote racial equity in the innovation economy. The active participant brings much value to racial equity work because they keep up the momentum in equity and inclusion movements. When activists and organizers eagerly mobilize communities around important causes, it’s the active participants they can depend on to attend strategic planning sessions and rallies and to offer tactical and emotional support to community members in need.

In the tech space, the active participant is the person who signs up for the mentorship program geared toward employees of color and meets weekly with their mentee. They’re the person who researches racial equity workshops and leverages their professional development funds to attend. The active participant can take their efforts a step further by not just seeking out ways to engage, but by sharing their knowledge and providing ways for other people to engage in racial equity work.

For example, if you’re an active participant who has attended workshops on how to address microaggressions in the workplace, think about what it would take for you to combine that knowledge and the knowledge of your lived experiences to lead a similar workshop so you can share your learnings. And then do it! This may sound daunting, but moving along the advocacy continuum often demands that you step out of your comfort zone, and it’s perfectly fine — encouraged even — to sit in that discomfort. It often means you’re challenging inequitable norms you’ve been conditioned to accept.

4. The Leader

The leader is an organizer. The racial equity leader organizes groups of people to engage in racial equity and inclusion work in tech. They’ll volunteer their time and resources to teach their colleagues about intersectional identities and often design and lead activities and programs promoting inclusion and equity. They’re the folks who will challenge co-workers’ racialized comments, and then tell them exactly why their comments were problematic. Most people in tech are not racial equity leaders. It’s only fair to acknowledge that being a leader requires that you take on a certain level of vulnerability and risk, and thus you don’t see this form of racial equity advocate as often as you see the considerate colleague or the affirming advocate.

The work of the leader is so crucial because it opens up space to change the way people think about equity and inclusion. When people begin to think in ways that are more equitable, they begin to do and build things in a way that’s more equitable. There’s a tension however, between thinking and building inclusively and doing so within systems that were created to be exclusionary.

For example, imagine a racial equity leader runs a well-received workshop on how the lack of racial diversity in their company is a pain-point. At the the same company, university recruiters recruit exclusively from “top tier” universities, which have low numbers of students of color. You see the tension? The workshop is important and necessary, but it won’t directly change the exclusionary recruitment system at the company. This is all to say that if you change the way people think without changing inequitable systems in place, you’ll continuously run into roadblocks.

So to take it even one step further along the spectrum of advocacy, the racial equity leader must also challenge systems at play in addition to challenging ways of thinking.

5. The Challenger

The challenger directly addresses systemic barriers to equity. They point out discriminatory company policies and practices and offer solutions for the implementation of inclusive systems in their place. They’re also likely to report co-workers for perpetuating discrimination in the workplace.

Challengers are able to see how racial inequity operates at the systems level and pinpoint how those systems show up in the workplace. This then provides an entry way to make concrete changes in practices that have real effects on the lives of employees. For instance, research has shown that Black women in tech make only 79 cents for every dollar their White male counterparts earn (2). A challenger might leverage this data to push for the creation and adoption of a transparent compensation structure at their company, so that employees doing work at a similar level are paid within the same salary range. While not a full proof strategy, this would help to offset wide pay gaps that occur when salary determination is left up to discretion.

Out of all the advocate types, the challenger is exposed to the highest level of risk and vulnerability to punitive responses ranging from the loss of social capital to the loss of employment. It can be helpful to weigh the resources you have (i.e. savings, strong relationship with managers or people in leadership, backing from Employee Resource Groups, etc.) against the risks you face to evaluate what ratio of resource to risk helps you to feel empowered to move through the workspace of as a challenger. Part of being a challenger may be looking for ways to increase your resources in order to proactively stack them against the risks you face as you spearhead systems change in the workplace.

I envision an industry where the majority is working together to deconstruct racism and discrimination, replacing one system of oppression after the other, with thoughtful, inclusive, and racially equitable processes. But to do so, it’s important that we each honestly assess our contributions to racial equity movements and consider what it would take to amplify those contributions.

So whether you’re a considerate colleague or a leader, take some time to think about how you can amplify your impact. Then make the leap and do it. We look forward to sharing more insights, resources, and opportunities for connection to help you find your fit.

Where do you fall on the Spectrum of Advocacy?

Take the Code2040 Spectrum of Advocacy Quiz to find out where you fall on the spectrum! Whether you’re a Considerate Colleague or a Challenger, we’ll give you a book recommendation that’s hand-picked for whatever stage you’re at in your journey as a racial equity advocate in tech.

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(1) Jalil Bishop and Celeste Winston. (2017). Code2040 Community Study, Code2040.
(2) Shawn M. Carter. (2017). Tech pays some of the highest salaries in the US — there’s just one problem, CNBC.