Hey y’all, 

Back in 2014, some tech companies gave in to years of public pressure and released breakdowns of their workforce demographics. Maybe unsurprisingly, it revealed that the industry is indeed very white, Asian and male. For example, at Google, only 2% of its 50,000 employees were Black. The company promised to do better and hire more diverse candidates. But years later, while there’s been some improvement (now, 3.7% of Google’s employees are Black), tech still has a lot of work to do. 

This week, we take a look at tech’s diversity and inclusion problem. Plus, I talk with one woman in the industry about her fight for better pay.

— Reema

The receipts

Your stories (with proof)

This week’s receipt is an earnest payment for a new home from Marketplace producer Candace Manriquez-Wrenn. If you have a receipt you want to share, let us know.

The first home I ever owned was a cute, 1920s Spanish-style house that I shared with my kids and their dad, my ex-husband. Considering all of the stars that had to align to get it, including an $8,000 tax credit that was part of the 2009 economic stimulus package, it looked like it would be the last house I’d ever buy. But it went on the market once we filed for divorce and I set off for grad school at the University of Arizona, little ones in tow.

When I met my now-husband, I was living in a two-bedroom duplex with my 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in Tucson. It cost a mere $500/month. As we dated and got engaged over the next year, we always talked about having our own home together. I decided that it was time to move back to L.A., closer to the kids’ dad, so I started to look for jobs, accepted a position at Marketplace and had to find a new place quickly. It was only one week before I was scheduled to start work that I found an apartment and rented it sight unseen.

Luckily, the apartment was great … but I wouldn’t be able to share a home with my new husband. It would be another four months before he was able to move to California. Now, for the first time, we’re buying a house together. This is the earnest money we sent to let the seller know we were serious. Our new house is just a few minutes from my ex-husband’s, in a city I swore I would never live in — and we couldn’t be happier.

This week on the podcast

The fight for fair pay in Big Tech

One woman's fight against Silicon Valley's racial pay gap. Plus, why it’s so hard for Black workers in tech to get ahead. (Listening time, 22:53)

The comfort zone

What our team is into right now, and what would make it even better. 

It’s mango season, and Megan is revisiting this episode of the America’s Test Kitchen podcast “Proof,” all about the underground market on WhatsApp for some of the best mangoes money (a lot of money) can buy.

Pride Month just ended, but Daniel says that shouldn’t stop you from checking out “Disclosure,” the new Netflix documentary about trans representation in media. He says it does a good job not just looking at the history of that representation, but being critical about what it has meant. This Twitter thread is a good primer.

Finally, Reema has been spending some time with Nikole Hannah-Jones’ latest for The New York Times Magazine. In it, she lays out a comprehensive history of injustice against Black Americans and makes a compelling case for reparations.