Google's Jason Steele Leads $11.5 Million Initiative To Fight For Racial Justice & Equality

Racism, bigotry, and intolerance can all be tied back to one thing: ignorance. As the saying goes, when you know better you do better and Google is again putting their money where their mouth is to help curb racial injustice.

According to USA Today, the information-driven tech company is issuing $11.5 million in grants to organizations that fight against racial disparities in our very flawed criminal justice system. 

Former chemical engineer and now principal at Google.org Jason Steele is leading the charge citing that Black men are incarcerated over five times more frequently than White men. "There is significant ambiguity regarding the extent of racial bias in policing and criminal sentencing," says Steele. "We must find ways to improve the accessibility and usefulness of information."

In addition to nine other organizations being targeted in this initiative, a concentrated effort is being made to help the Center for Policing Equity. Not only is Google.org awarding a $5 million grant, Google engineers are rolling up their sleeves to help improve the research center's database. 

"It's hard to measure justice," says co-founder and president Phillip Atiba Goff. "In policing, data are so sparse and they are not shared broadly. The National Justice Database is an attempt to measure justice so that people who want to do the right thing can use that metric to lay out a GPS for getting where we are trying to go. That's really what we see Google as being a key partner in helping us do."

Steele has a personal stake in seeing more responsible policing. His grandfather is a Port of Seattle police officer, his uncle is a Washington State trooper, and his father is a Snohomish County Detention Chief--all Black men.  As such, he has a unique perspective and understands the problem from many angles.

Google engineers shared their frustrations with Steele that very little data on police behavior and criminal sentencing is available on a national level. They want to change that reality. "We want to work with you to get that data set," Steele quoted them as saying. "We believe better data can be part of the solution," he continued.

This is not a one-time thing for the internet giant. Google has reinvested in organizations who have continued to fight racial justice in this country. "We have a strong commitment to this work and another healthy budget to work with this year to fund these organizations," Steele said. "You will continue to see Google step up for this work."

Well done, Mr. Steele. Well done.