Making Black Lives Matter in the Information Technology Profession

Abstract

The phrase "social change is a beautiful thing," appeared in a tweet from a student during demonstrations at the University of Missouri in November 2015. The events that motivated this tweet point to the work that still needs to occur to bring greater racial equality to American society. In this regard, a question for IT professionals, both academics and practitioners, is: "What can the SIGMIS CPR community do to foster greater inclusion of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into our profession?" These panelists provide some answers to this question by discussing their research and interventions to diversify the IT field and promote greater racial and ethnic representation within it.