TechMDinc would like to show our support for the Black Lives Matter movement. We believe that the history of systemic racism has made our country disproportionately challenging for people of color. It has targeted BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities not just with violence, but also with fewer opportunities to thrive, making certain career paths inaccessible or virtually nonexistent. The Audio Video and Themed Entertainment industries are no exception to this. TechMDinc holds the belief that companies with a diverse workforce are made stronger by every new perspective that comes to the table. We believe that a thriving company should strengthen the community around it. However, we recognize that claiming these ideals without tangibly contributing to making them a reality is simply not enough.
TechMDinc is a company of highly skilled professionals who serve the entertainment industry. We take pride in the precision and elegance of our design work and custom programming. We also recognize, for all of our hard work and the diversity represented on our team, that we fall short of the ideals listed above. While it is easy to state that we have not actively harmed efforts towards equality, we recognize that we have not done enough intentional work to help these endeavors either. Our team is disproportionately white, specifically in leadership positions. Additionally, our efforts to reach out and give back to our communities have unfortunately been a lower priority than they deserve to be; something that sounds nice and is well-intentioned, but is relegated to rare moments of “spare time.” The fact of the matter is that these actions are worth more than just our spare time.
We acknowledge the shortcomings of our past and we do not just pledge to do better, we will do better. Our plan includes the following:
- We are dedicating ourselves to putting together a community outreach program. We plan to establish partnerships with afterschool programs, high schools, and community colleges in Southern California to create a curriculum that we can share with young BIPOC who may not have exposure to our kind of work, or access to the equipment and tools we work with. We will use our knowledge of the industry and technology to teach students core concepts that they can use in whatever field of work they choose to pursue.
- We at TechMDinc are dedicated to expanding our applicant searches beyond the circles with which we are already familiar. As a small business, we have been hiring individuals based mainly on recommendations from people and organizations we know and trust. As we have grown, that habit has not been broken, severely limiting the talent pool from which to choose. We have been able to put together a very talented team of men and women from various walks of life, and we are proud of the team we have made. We also recognize that, while some diversity exists at TechMDinc, we have still fallen short. TechMDinc will actively seek out different sources for potential applicants. We are dedicated to diversifying our hiring pools.
- We at TechMDinc must look inwardly at our own day to day actions to identify areas in which we can improve; identifying the moments in which we, intentionally or not, contribute to or simply tolerate, patterns of erasure, microaggressions, or the undermining of equality. Looking honestly at our interactions with each other needs to be prioritized. We are not perfect and we need to commit ourselves to progress. We must make these changes internally in addition to the efforts listed above. In addition, we must not silently stand by when we witness such behavior on the part of our professional counterparts. We need to commit to encouraging positive behaviors and discouraging microaggressions or racially insensitive actions on the part of all with whom we share a working relationship.
Our country has been destabilizing, disrupting, and ignoring the BIPOC communities which have literally built it for far too long. We at TechMDinc hear you, see ourselves clearly, and vow to work actively to dismantle the patterns of systemic racism pervasive throughout our communities.
