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I’m an Ex-Google Woman Tech Leader and I’m Sick of Our Approach to Diversity

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791 points 317070 | 2 comments | 14 Aug 17 16:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.43s | source
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okreallywtf ◴[14 Aug 17 19:21 UTC] No.15011848[source]▶
I see some good points on both sides of the discussion here but one thing occurs to me about the current diversity-pushback that I'm seeing(I'm not going to call it anti-diversity because I think a fair amount of it is well-meaning or at least not explicitly hateful).

We've surprisingly quickly moved from periods where it was common to simply refuse to even consider minorities or women in many fields to a time when many people see political correctness and reverse-racism/sexism as a greater problem than sexism and racism themselves.

I'm glad to see people being very thoughtful about fairness and equality, but I have an honest question: Before quotas and social justice warriors, were you thinking about fairness and equality when the status quo potentially benefited you and excluded others not on their merit but race and gender? I'm asking honestly, not trying to point fingers but I would like to know because this community, while left-leaning on many issues (I think) tends more towards libertarian on issues of race and gender and seems especially defensive when it comes to the tech industry (especially when the term "privilege" is used, it turns downright hostile).

If you were active in supporting equality and diversity (by resisting arbitrarily exclusionary practices) when it wasn't popular to do so and now you are seeing the negative aspects of a push for artificial diversity I would like to know that.

If you have never even considered diversity issues until recently when seeing hiring practices that could negatively affect you I would like to know that too. Do you believe any specific action needs to be taken to promote diversity or will the problem solve itself, or does the problem even exist at all?

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mooseburger ◴[14 Aug 17 19:53 UTC] No.15012205[source]▶
When was the tech industry deliberately excluding people based on race and gender? The 50s? 60s?

I don't believe any specific action needs to be taken to promote diversity. As far as I can tell, people can work wherever they will, as long as they can pass the interview.

>arbitrarily exclusionary practices

Please name these.

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1. okreallywtf ◴[14 Aug 17 20:50 UTC] No.15012728[source]▶
In terms of arbitrary exclusionary practices, I mean simply refusing to hire people based on race, gender, religion etc. This could be based on name or gender on an application or failing that, post-interview and it would be amazingly stupid if the company communicated the reason honestly to the applicant since the 50's.

Do you think discrimination just ended immediately after the civil rights act[1]? Personally I don't think peoples mentality changed at all just because certain practices became illegal, it just got less overt. Saying "women aren't cut out for our line of work" became "not a culture fit" or something else.

Its not my goal to try to prove discrimination exists and existed, I could search and try to put together a comprehensive list of first-hand stories about discrimination in tech but my guess is that would not be an effective use of my time and that isn't the goal of my post anyways.

[1] https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/fu...

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2. mooseburger ◴[14 Aug 17 20:57 UTC] No.15012806[source]▶
Well, it wouldn't be a goal of your post, since you take it as a given that the tech industry employs arbitrary exclusionary practices against women and minorities. Surely, in the 53 years since the Civil Rights Act, someone has already compiled comprehensive evidence of these practices. It shouldn't be too hard to find.