Rev. Jesse Jackson says Amazon, Costco needs more minorities

For the second year in a row, the Reverend Jesse Jackson is in Seattle to attend Microsoft’s annual shareholder’s meeting, Wednesday, and to promote diversity in tech.

In recent years, he’s targeted his fight for race and gender equality at the tech industry, saying the exclusion of women and minorities in this field is “out of step with justice.”

“Microsoft has made some significant moves forward,” Jackson said. “John Thompson is the chair of their board, an African-American,”

“Amazon, on the other hand, still has no person of color on their board,” Jackson said.

He names Twitter, Facebook, and Costco, too.

“[They] have not yet seen fit to include us,” Jackson said. “African-Americans and Latinos are fast becoming part of America’s new majority. To leave us out is like a one-eyed quarterback. You can’t see half the field. You’re losing market, money, talent, location and growth.”

Jackson says tech industry leaders can’t argue that there’s a talent shortage.

“There are women and people of color who are either trained or trainable and many of them who served their time in the industry cannot get access to capital,” he said. “The lobbying interests that the industry has spent looking for youth in India and other countries … must be used in Seattle and Spokane and Olympia and around America.”

Jackson said the problem of diversity in tech is a civil rights issue as important as police brutality in Chicago.

Jackson lives in the Chicago area and has been outspoken against the actions of Chicago police. In Seattle on Tuesday, he responded to the firing of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy over the murder of 17-year-old black teenager, Laquan McDonald.

He said McCarthy’s release isn’t enough.

“It is grossly inadequate. The Police Chief cannot be the fall guy for this calamity of injustice.”

Jackson called for, among other things, an independent prosecutor to review more details in the case.