Sony Partners With Four Non-profits To Support Black Communities

Sony has announced a string of partnerships with four different non-profits with the ultimate goal of "improving access to the tech and gaming industry" for the Black community.

The four non-profits Sony has partnered with--which the company unveiled in a blog post from late-February--are Black Girls CODE, Black In Gaming, Gameheads, and The Hidden Genius Project. It's unclear how Sony intends to bolster these non-profits' efforts; however, the company committed $1 million in June 2020 to support organizations aimed at ending systemic inequality following George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Each of the non-profits targets the same goal: increasing the number of Black employees in the fields of gaming and technology. A couple have specific parameters--such as Black Girls CODE focusing on girls between the ages of 7 and 17--but all are intent on ensuring Black employees are well-represented in a burgeoning industry, where 83% of Black teens play video games as compared to 71% of white teens, according to a 2015 Pew Research study.

This partnership comes almost a year after Sony--along with other gaming companies like Nintendo and Xbox--has urged for the plague of racism to finally dissipate. Each of the major players in gaming has made their own commitments, from pledging hundreds of thousands of dollars to support organizations to releasing lengthy statements lambasting discrimination.