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Snap's first Equity Survey states that only 4 percent of the organization is listed as Black.
Snap, the corporation behind Snapchat, published its first diversity study today following years of fighting pressure to make the figures public. The study outlines the marginal expansion of the 3,195-person organization with respect to the recruiting of persons of color and women. Black and African American workers make up just 4.1 per cent of the overall population, according to the survey, and Hispanic / Latinx people made up 6.8 per cent. All classes account for just 3.2 per cent of leadership; Black and African Americans account for 2.3 per cent of tech jobs, while Hispanic / LatinX accounts for 3.4 per cent.
Elsewhere, women make up just 32.9 per cent of Snap 's staff, with just 16 per cent in professional positions. Along with the figures, Snap says it sets ambitious priorities, including doubling the number of tech women at Snap by 2023 and doubling the number of under-represented U.S. racial and ethnic minorities at Snap by 2025. Long-term, the team says it needs to represent the ethnic and gender diversity (including non-binary) of the various places where we work.
To meet these goals, it will also introduce innovative programs, such as connecting leadership success to diversity, increasing its mentoring network, and innovating its computer learning software to combat bias. In addition to the Diversity Survey, it presented the "CitizenSnap" survey, a 50-page paper detailing the focus on social and environmental issues. This also discusses how Snap offers workers working in its Santa Monica, California headquarters with a "robust minimum wage" of $70,000 and changes the figure depending on where workers are located.
The publication of the Diversity Report comes after more than a month of heightened criticism of Snap's diversity and services. CEO Evan Spiegel told staff at a meeting last month that the team will not disclose such diversity figures publicly because it could fuel the myth that Silicon Valley businesses are not diverse. (Facebook issued its seventh Diversity Report for example this year, and 45.3 per cent of the workers describe themselves as women, Black or Hispanic.) Spiegel made these remarks following Mashable's comprehensive article on racism and gender-based jobs.
One employee, for example, said they were asked to replace the lead image of Black actors with a "friendlier face." The same boss told another employee that the story was "too over-heavy" and requested that any Black characters be replaced by people of other races.
While Snap was allegedly reviewing these allegations, the company continued to struggle for recognition. Last month, an augmented reality lens was released for Juneteenth, a holiday marking the liberation of slavery in the US, which allowed users to "smile and break chains." People thought this was an inappropriate view of the holiday.
It was not the first lens Snap has apologised for, either — the firm has previously launched a lens featuring Bob Marley in 2016 and an anime-themed filter later that year. For the Juneteenth filter, Oona King, Snap's Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, apologised and said Black staff members were actively interested in making the filter and did not care about the consequences of white people using the lens.
We analyzed Lens from the point of view of Black artistic art, created by and about Black people, and we did not understand how it would feel as used by non-Black members of our culture, she said.
Today, Snap is joining all of its peers in publishing their diversity figures, which, while not very high, set it up to be more transparent to the public.
