{"id":201,"date":"2011-02-01T11:49:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T10:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xenonique.co.uk\/blog\/?p=201"},"modified":"2011-02-01T15:01:32","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T14:01:32","slug":"black-people-will-never-be-promoted-audio-boo-rough-174","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xenonique.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/02\/01\/black-people-will-never-be-promoted-audio-boo-rough-174\/","title":{"rendered":"Black People Will Never Be Promoted (Audio Boo Rough 174)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I write this early in the morning I am really tired on being on the back side of what counts as information technology. Recently a friend asked me to simple two questions. I could not give a satisfactory answer.  The questions were why are you (as in me) not yet a manager of a team? Why are they no black people who are senior managers in banks? I could not answer without embarrassment and a bittersweet taste of foreboding of the excuses that I was about to make to the individual. In fact I was confused, disappointed and then suddenly very annoyed by the questions. Emotions ran high, as blurted out a weak answer, that I consider myself more technical and an engineer type rather than a manager. Okay I thought, I can clearly talk about my personal situation. The second question left me vacant of expression. I could not answer it at all. <\/p>\n

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\"audioBoo_logo\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Listen to AudioBoo: Black People Will Never Be Promoted <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Through my own eyes, you see, I have certainly met plenty of black people working in IT, inside investment banks, for over my 13 years of experience in the City of London and the  Docklands. During that range of times I have met many Afro-Caribbean, Afro-North-Americans, Afro-South-Americans, and just Africans. However you are unlikely to see an abundance of smart and intelligent black people in the London work place. Much of this is down to simple city and national demographics.  In the capital city, London, whose population is 7 million people. Black people would count statistically as a one in ten. Inside an investment bank it is safe to say this is 1 in 100, thus we are few and far between. <\/p>\n

However it is not the demographic the ratio that upsets me. The job titles of have been depressingly non-inspirational such as PC Support<\/strong>, Oracle Database Support<\/strong>, IT Support<\/strong>, CISCO Phone Engineer<\/strong>, Hardware Support<\/strong>, Network Administrator<\/strong>, IT HelpDesk<\/strong>, Quality Assurance<\/strong>, Systems Tester<\/strong>, etc. .. I think I have met one other Black senior developer in my 13 years of investment IT software development.  I cannot<\/em> recall from memory any one in my career path, who has been a Software Architect<\/strong>, Team Manager<\/strong>, Line Manager<\/strong> or Technical Leader<\/strong>.  Most of black staff, therefore, which I have witnessed in 13 years, have been in the non-creational roles. In other words they have not been typically software engineers or developers. Why is that so?<\/p>\n

Where is these other notable Black engineers, designers and developers? And where is that other inspirational leader? It may be just because we are missed each other in engagements, yet, in the square mile. Maybe they have been working in C# and Microsoft Dot-Net, or perhaps they have been working in another investment bank completely opposite to my the one I was involved during any time in a decade.<\/p>\n

During my time in banks and IT, whilst I can take away five years of contracting, 2003-2008, I never witnessed a promotion of a single black individual of note inside Information Technology inside an investment bank. In many of the institutions, the company sends emails, memos and announcement of senior management personnel who received promotions, I cannot recall one with a black person. Maybe I was blind to it or did not pay attention.  Tell a lie, I can remember one senior manager, three staff levels above me, however only just one. He was Black and definitely African. <\/p>\n

The source of my chagrin was the question that I could not affectively answer without deep resentment about my profession: <\/p>\n

Technical versus managerial career path \u2013 the fact that software creation people, technical engineers do not have path to follow<\/p>\n

Poor excuses about our communication skills \u2013 the fact that black people are continually being put or marked down for poor communications<\/p>\n