PRESENTING: After a Twitter thread exposed the mistreatment of Black employees at Google, I ended my company’s partnership to connect HBCU students with the tech giant. Here’s why we decided to pull the plug.

Nicole Tinson is a social entrepreneur and founder of HBCU 20×20, an organization that matches Historically Black Colleges and Universities students and graduates with major companies. Tinson says she recently dropped Google as a HBCU 20×20 partner after a Twitter thread alleging racism and discrimination by a former Google recruiter went viral.

In 2017, Tinson asked Google to partner with her company, but they declined. It was only after the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, as well as the swelling support behind the Black Lives Matter movement, that Google reached out to begin a partnership. 

Tinson shares the issues she’s dealt with surrounding race, class, and gender diversity in the tech community, and offers six steps businesses need to take immediately to make more equitable workplaces and change for the better. 

“From Google to Pinterest, this year has shown us that injustice will always make its way to light because Black women like Ifeoma, Aerica, Timnit, and April, among countless others, have encouraged speaking out and been torchbearers in the workplace,” Tinson said. 

Subscribe here to read our feature: After a Twitter thread exposed the mistreatment of Black employees at Google, I ended my company’s partnership to connect HBCU students with the tech giant. Here’s why we decided to pull the plug.