Why Isn’t Twitter Paying More Attention To Its Black Users?
 

Tristan Walker, a prominent black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, logged onto Twitter after putting his kids to bed last night and found that the BET Awards were dominating his feed. The Black Entertainment Television program had also captured several slots on Twitter's list of trending topics. However, the event wasn't getting the kind of special treatment Twitter has given to other award shows such as the Grammys and Country Music Awards. The company “should pay attention,” Walker tweeted, rekindling a conversation about the lack of diversity in technology.

Twitter wasn't exactly ignoring the BET Awards. The company has been working with the event's organizers over the past several years.

However, like other Silicon Valley companies, Twitter is building a product that's meant for all audiences but designed by a mostly male and mostly white workforce.

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center study, 40 percent of black 18- to 29-year-old Internet users in the U.S. are active on Twitter, compared with 28 percent of white Internet users in the same group. Meanwhile, only 2 percent of Twitter's workforce is black, according to the company's diversity statistics.