Twitter exec on diversity in tech: “It is going to require all of us to work together”
Twitter (TWTR) is among the tech companies participating in Pledge 25X25 — a diversity and inclusion movement of Silicon Valley companies pledging to have at least 25% of their leadership composed of women and people of color.
Candi Castleberry, Twitter's vice president of diversity partnership strategy and engagement, joined Yahoo Finance to talk about the initiative and diversity in the tech industry.
“You will not only find that we’re committed to that, but our deeper commitment goes through our workforce being 50% women, 25% of our “tweeps,” which ... Twitter employees [are called], being from underrepresented groups. That would include 10% Black, 10% LatinX, and other multiracial and indigenous groups,” Castleberry said.
It is no secret that social media platforms like Twitter can be a hotbed of rancorous debate and hostility. Castleberry tells Yahoo Finance that social media is “a reflection of who the world is,” but notes that social media companies cannot solve societal problems.
“Sometimes there appears to be an expectation that social media and particularly social media companies can solve for that, which are societal issues that are only expressed on social media. Differences are still only barriers because we allow them to be,” she said.
“I know that I, along with a number of DEI people who are working internally and externally to get up every day to try to ensure that those differences aren’t barriers in workplaces — and for those of us who have a focus on community to ensure that we are working together to create unity of our voices, as well as amplifying those who are doing amazing work,” she added.
Castleberry, one of Diversity Woman’s first annual Elite 100 Black Women in Corporate America, says that Twitter works closely with a number of Black, Latin, X, Asian, LGBTQ organizations "to think about ways that we can strategically work together to not just think about how [to] make improvements in the industry, but specifically how we can work together to create sustainable change. It is not going to be sustainable if only Twitter gets it right. It is going to require all of us to work together,” Castleberry said.
“Sadly, I think that many people lean in on a single organization or a single industry, and many of the issues that for those of us who’ve been in this space for any period of time, know that they are systemic; they have gone on for decades. And that the only way that these changes come about is through collaboration, across industry, across disciplines, and more specifically that they are integrated into systems change and not just words that are supported by actions.”
Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.
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