I Back Trump Because I’m Tired of the Discrimination in Tech

By: - November 2, 2020

I want to preface this with the statement that America is not a systemically racist country.  However, in the world of liberal dominated tech, there are serious issues.

When citizen Donald J. Trump first launched his campaign, I was like most people and thought, “Really?”.  As his campaign pressed on, I paid attention to his words, not his tone.

After spending nearly a decade during the Obama/Biden years going from city to city to stay ahead of the next round of layoffs and off-shoring, watching incredibly talented black tech workers lose their jobs in record numbers, the “unconscious bias” rear its ugly face, and being the only person in the workplace to take a stand, I paid attention to all of the candidates during the primary.

As the left screamed, “Racist, racist, racist,” I remembered everything he had done for minority communities.  The media forgot that, along with all of the salacious gossip that peppered Page 6, People, Variety, etc., there were also articles about citizen Trump ensuring his golf courses in Florida were open to Jewish people and black people.  That was still an issue in the 90s and citizen Trump did the right thing and shattered that red line.

I remembered citizen Trump helping a black farmer in Georgia, his close relationship with Mohammad Ali, the awards and recognition he received for helping black communities. I also remembered his shining his spotlight on the AIDS pandemic that was ravaging the nation simply by showing up.  Where citizen Trump went, the paparazzi followed, and he utilized that fascination to bring light to issues facing our country.

By the end of the 90s things had gotten much better.  Black people were making as much as their white counterparts.  Project manager roles at the time were pulling $200k plus per year and black people were paid that salary.  I know because people told me their rates and it wasn’t because they were black and had to fill a diversity quota, it was because they were that damn good.

Throughout the 2000s, the tech space had somewhat stabilized, but the wages had flatlined and started declining.  Toward the end of the decade, as the 2008 election drew near, the work environment gradually started to revert.

After Obama was elected, the tensions in the workplace accelerated as mass layoffs became the norm.  The first couple of years most people did not notice because the economy had crashed, the Tea Party gained steam, and tech started “flushing out” Republicans.

One contract I held was for a company known for diversity.  Imagine my surprise when I landed the first day and discovered the diversity had diminished.  I literally walked around and counted the skin color of the people sitting in the cubes.  50% of the occupied were white, 49.5% of the occupied seats were filled with H1B workers.  In the tech area, there was one black person and one Latino.

I asked one of the old timers what happened, and he stated it has been going on for 7 years. His theory was the H1B visa workers fill the “diversity quota” so they let most go.  The same thing happened with a substantial number of women.

As the life of a contractor went on, I went from state to state trying to stay ahead of the next layoff and mass offshoring.  The pattern was pronounced.

“Managed service” contracts became the norm as teams of H1B visa holders came in.  They were put in charge of the projects and programs, sometimes pieces, often, the entire program.  The full-time employees were expected to train the visa holder.  After a 6-month training period, the plans to reduce headcount were made.

The first on the list were black people, then women, then Latinos.  One by one people were let go because it is just not in the budget.  Then the mass quarterly layoffs would occur.

A few contracts, myself and my teammates from the same agency were brought in specifically to fill the quarterly layoff requirements.  But I still had a front row seat watching the most talented black and Latino men and women get their pink slips while 5 H1B visa holders replaced the 1FTE who were let go.

One was particularly painful to watch.  A phenomenal network engineer who immigrated from Venezuela when socialism took over was making plans to smuggle food in for his family, which included his 90-year-old father, because there was literally nothing on the shelves.  His family used to be middle class.  Things were so bad they could no longer afford food. He received notice that he was getting let go at the end of the year while he was smuggling food across the border for his family.

Another contract had a room where new contractors from one agency were housed. The first person to get “rolled off” were women, then gay people, then black people until the only people left were H1B visa holders.

Not only were the jobs gone, so were the salaries.  That $250k project manager role was now billing at $100k-$120k if you were lucky.

Things somewhat settled down during President Trump’s first 3 years.  People were employed at record paces and the salaries were starting to creep up to normal ($120k for experienced project managers).  As 2020 neared, Democrats were back to the same old tricks and the closer we get to Tuesday, it becomes more tense.

For those asking the question why I do not take a stand, I do and I am the only one.  During the Obama/Biden years, there was only one time HR acted.  Just.One.Time.

I had a conversation with one of the chief engineers of the “unconscious bias” campaign at one company, very white and voting for Biden, and, in his arrogance, he spilled how he’s been doing it for over a decade.  He keeps one Latino and one Asian, has a handful of women whom appear to be very loyal,  uses his “social bank” and the executive in charge of human resources is not only fully aware of it, she orchestrates it behind the scenes. In his words, he has a, “tremendous amount of respect for her.”

Not only did he disclose HR is involved, but he also disclosed there have been other lawsuits about the “toxic environment” that were summarily dismissed. Unfortunately for him, that disclosure leaves those other lawsuits open for re-examination due to a pattern he established during that marathon call, one I had already identified with data to back it up.

The reality is, under the Biden/Obama administration, black people were left behind and black people and minorities had the rungs in the ladder of opportunity stripped away by people like the person I had the marathon call with and others just like him.  Under Trump, more black people and other demographics exited poverty and had record homeownership rates and people like him didn’t test the waters.

If you want more of the Biden/Obama same, record unemployment, record layoffs, no opportunity, no voice, and no recourse, vote for Biden.  If you want zero action and more broken promises, vote for Biden.

If you want to keep your feet firmly on that ladder of opportunity, vote for Trump.  President Trump’s ACTIONS are louder than his words and he kept his promise to the black community, and all of America.

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