Where Are The Black Web Professionals?

Young and middle-aged white men are designing the modern Web.

It’s a rather obvious claim which can be supported by the results from the 2007 Web Design Survey results from A List Apart (ALA). According to ALA, “the results represent the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. Actually, Sitepoint beat them to it with their web development survey back in 2006, with results given from a more technical development standpoint. ALA actually breaks down their report data by race, age and gender, and lends itself to a couple of findings:

• Out of the 32,831 respondents, 1.2% (about 394 people) are Black…or rather, 1.2% identified themselves as Black. 1% of respondents (328 people) did not answer the question of race, and 3.2% of respondents (1,050 people) replied as “Other”.
• 302 of the 32,831 respondents are identified as Black males; 96 of the 32,831 respondents are identified as Black females. (Two responded as being Black without identifying their gender.)

What’s interesting mostly about the ALA study are the questions on perceived bias (by geography, age, gender and ethnicity), salary (by organization size, gender and age), job satisfaction (by organization type, gender, ethnicity, salary, age and job title). However, the results overall downplay both gender and ethnicity. No huge shock there considering the majority of the respondents were white males, but I hope next year’s survey delves into these areas because they are truly important. The survey does point out some other non-shocking findings (emphasis in bold is mine):

• All non-White respondents are less satisfied and more unsatisfied in their jobs than white respondents, with black respondents having the greatest disparity (30.8% are less satisfied; 51.2% are more unsatisfied).
• More non-white than white respondents perceive an ethnic bias that has slowed their careers. Approximately 8% of Asian and Hispanic respondents and 20% of Black respondents perceive this bias, compared to 1.7% of White respondents.
  
• Perceptions are similar in the US, Europe and the rest of the world. But in Europe and the rest of the world, greater percentages of all ethnic categories(including White respondents) perceive an ethnic bias that has slowed their careers than do their US counterparts.
• Similar patterns emerge when we examine the relationship between income and the perception of ethnic bias. Of respondents who work full time, Asian, Hispanic and White respondents who perceive ethnic bias appear to earn less than those who don’t. However, Black respondents who work full time and perceive ethnic bias earn more than those who don’t perceive ethnic bias.
  

Mo’ money, less problems? You decide.

The results of the survey are currently making their way around the Web, already showing up on Slashdot, Metafilter and Digg, as well as comments on ALA. They range from “why did you make this a PDF” to questions about fonts used in the document. There is a lot of talk about the huge gender gap in the web design field, but very little about race.

One thing I noticed from the raw data was a huge opportunity ALA missed, perhaps in the wake of the whole “where are the black tech bloggers” kerfuffle started by Loren Feldman — prevalence of blogging was not factored in by race, even though the raw data available from ALA shows 75% of Black respondents do have a website or blog. Blogging and web design fit together like hand in glove, particularly in this new Web 2.0 atmosphere; I don’t see why they would even include the question without fully exploring all the data related to it for the results.

Now you may think “what does all of this this really have to do with Web 2.0?” Well if there’s one thing which signifies the whole Web 2.0 movement, it’s the design. There are several trends in design which are just as recognized as the ideas, development procedures and programming which they represent. Gradients, reflective surfaces, and a move towards more minimalist, grid-based designs are just a couple of the many factors of Web 2.0 design.

Personally, as a Black web designer/developer/webmaster/writer/jack-of-all-trades…I’m not surprised by the results. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to a conference or a training session or a job where I’m the only Black male designer. And having worked in design from everywhere to my personal freelance business to the United States government, the bias is palpable. Co-workers, regardless of your skill, still downplay your abilities. Management second-guesses your input and ideas. And don’t even get me started on the freelance tip. These survey results spell out in hard data what Blacks in the web field are already cognizant about — we’re absent.

I guess the question to take away from this is, where are the Black web professionals? And furthermore, how (or will) they contribute their skills to this new Web 2.0 movement?