November 22, 2019

Once Again, Oracle’s Diversity Record Comes Under Fire

“You should recognize the optics.”

Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Over thirty members of Congress slammed tech giant Oracle’s lack of diversity Friday morning, sending a letter to company co-founder Larry Ellison asking for answers to questions about the company’s efforts to diversify its leadership.

“The fact that African Americans make up 13% and Asian Americans make up 5.6% of the US population but 0% of Oracle’s board and leadership team is inexcusable,” the letter reads. “As a company that has expressed a commitment to diversity and rejected claims of intentional discrimination, you should recognize the optics of Oracle working doggedly to sell software and technology systems to businesses and congressional districts, historically black colleges and universities and minority serving institutions, and communities of color—but not work to remedy the lack of diversity on your board.”

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In January 2019 Reveal reported that Oracle worked to block a public records request seeking the company’s diversity data under the premise that the publication of such data was a “very real threat to its competitive position.” The news organization successfully sued for the records, which showed that Oracle’s workforce, as of 2015, was 90 percent white or Asian, and that just under 13 percent of the company’s executives were women.

The letter, organized by Congressional Black Caucus and the House Tech Accountability Caucus, notes a February commitment by the company to not “intentionally discriminate against women and people of color.” According to Friday’s letter, the company ignored similar questions last year about the board’s lack of African American representation.

This is an issue Oracle has been dealing with for some time. Bloomberg reported that the company is battling a lawsuit alleging $400 million in short-changed wages to women and minority workers, and a separate case alleging that some women at the company earned an average of $13,000 less annually than male colleagues. The company has denied both accusations.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate