Slashdot Mirror
WSJ: Facebook's Point System Fails To Close Diversity Gap
theodp writes: Gizmodo and others are picking up on a Wall Street Journal story (Warning: may be paywalled) which reported that Facebook's failure to move the needle on diversity is all the more surprising because the social network awarded Facebook recruiters double points for a "diversity hire" -- a female, Black, or Hispanic engineer -- compared to the hire of a White or Asian male. Facebook declined to comment on whether this points-based system is still in effect. The WSJ also notes that Intel has paid its employees double referral bonuses for women, minorities, and veterans. The reward schemes evoke memories of gender-based (and later race-based) incentives offered for K-12 coding and STEM programs run by tech-backed Code.org (to which Facebook just pledged $15 million) and Google, which offered lower funding or no funding at all to teachers if participation by female students was deemed unacceptable to the sponsoring organizations. Facebook's efforts also seem consistent with the tech-backed Every Student Succeeds Act, which calls for increasing CS and STEM access to address a tech-declared national crisis, but only "for students through grade 12 who are members of groups underrepresented in such subject fields, such as female students, minority students, English learners, children with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students." Hey, sometimes "every" doesn't mean "every!"
LGBT people and atheists don't usually have a massive great chip on their shoulder and go out and riot if they don't get what they think they're owed by society.
They don't riot, they litigate.
Citation please? Where are those "actual numbers" you reference?
But here's my citation, putting black CS grads at 4.5% but hires at 2%...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/12/silicon-valley-diversity-tech-hiring-computer-science-graduates-african-american-hispanic/14684211/
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
If you call people with differing political opinions "assholes" in online discussion, there's a good chance it's you who's the asshole in person.
The hiring managers have no incentive to do anything other than pick the candidate they think is best
I really, really doubt that's true.
Every large company has policies for quotas/affirmative action/cultural diversity/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. In the last Fortune 500 company I worked, a hiring manager had to write a letter justifying why they didn't offer a job to any minority candidate sent for an interview by HR. No letter was required for white males.
That's exactly what affirmative action is. It says blacks are not as good as whites, can't compete, and thus need a loving, guiding hand to help them up.
No, it is saying socio-economic factors make it less likely for African Americans to succeed, and this will not be changed for hundreds of years if society does not lend a hand. The average household wealth of a white family is $656k, while the average for African Americans is $85k. This disparity was $355k vs $67k thirty years ago, so the gap is widening in both real dollars and ratio. (source)
And it makes sense the gap would widen without significant societal assistance. If you believe it often takes money to make money, or that school districts with better funding often provide better education, it is painfully obvious this inequality cannot be reduced without outside assistance.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
No, no, no, it is YOU that I see whinging about EVERYTHING. See how that works? I wasn't "triggered" by anything, although I realize that "triggers" is part of your religious nomenclature. I constantly think people like you are silly. You aren't out for "social justice", you don't even know what that means in reality. And no, "diversity" in this case means women, black, or Hispanic. This mirrors exactly what "diversity" being produced by the various relevant schools. It isn't a mystery.
If the real problem is that poor people need a hand ... No need for policies to directly address race at all.
This is simply not backed up by facts. Four in five black children who started in the top three quintiles experienced downward mobility, compared with just two in five white children. Three in five white children who started in the bottom two quintiles experienced upward mobility, versus just one in four black children.
Minorities really do have more trouble with income mobility than whites in similar economic situations. Twice as many relatively well off black children experience downward mobility than similar white children, and well under half as many poor black children see upward mobility when compared to similar white children.
We should certainly have programs which help all poor individuals, but that does not exclude racially targeted programs from being necessary as well.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke