Under a Trump administration, the outcomes for 2025 look inevitably bleak. He has promised to invest in an economy that is anti-woke, bolstering his cabinet with provocateurs — such as Brendan Carr, his pick to chair the Federal Communications Commission — who have led the DEI. promised to end Project 2025, the 900-page conservative policy agenda Trump will likely base much of his administration on, takes aim at organizations that employ “racial classifications and quotas” and repeals an executive order promises to guarantee equal opportunity to federal contractors. (And big tech companies were already cutting DEI programs, even without threats from a hostile president.)
“The idea that DEI is hurting productivity,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the only state representative present. “Look at the numbers.” For example, McKinsey & Company’s 2020 report shows that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are actually good for business. “Authenticity” was the most popular buzzword of the week—repeated profusely in every discussion I attended—which felt both on-brand and surprisingly odd, given that authenticity. Business will be a target over the next four years.
“We never saw what was going to happen,” artist William said on stage, and that much was true.
All the big players were included in the recruiting expo — Netflix, American Express, Exxon, Meta, Google, Oracle — as people stood in snacking lines that were sometimes longer than the after-party. As I took in the extravagance of the exhibit floor, with its giant swooping signs in every direction, I thought back to my first day in Houston when a Microsoft recruiter joked that I had someone What he did must not be told, for fear that they might overpower him. With resume and questions about openings at the company.
Still, it was hard to tell how effectively the conference was preparing the next generation of its heroes. It was not a question of programming but of effect. Naturally, all eyes were on AI, but others’ concerns were significantly elsewhere, in the here and now — and that meant getting a job.
“I’ve always been upfront about job security. I’ve always had uncertainty. This was my first time at AfroTech,” said Candace Madison, who works in legal tech at data organization software company Relativity in Chicago. I don’t think the election added to it, but with the election and DEI not being a priority, you have to be on your toes more,” she added. Still, she was optimistic. “Whatever happens now. Networking is the way to stay ahead of it is,” though she admits she’s met very few people in her field so far.
In an elevator at the Le Méridien in downtown Houston, a graduate student completing a PhD in data science who was also looking for a job put another spin on her experience. “This is my eighth. [conference] of the year,” he said. “I’m doing my best networking but I’m not getting much out of them.”
On Instagram, the conference was hailed as a success. In a story post, a product engineer at a Fortune 50 company animatedly described how the conference was a “full-circle moment” for him, having landed an internship at the expo in 2017 that led to his current position. The job started. Another post, by a high-ranking marketing executive, described the year’s experience as “a balm in Gilead.”
As might be expected, everyone at AfroTech had their eyes on the future—only, no one could say what was coming next, or how much of a say they had in it. Everyone, it seemed, wanted a piece of what they felt they were owed: the promise of a stable tomorrow. How they would get there was another matter.
