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Apple's Response To Diversity Criticism: 'We Had a Canadian' Onstage at iPhone 7 Event (mic.com)
Mic published a report last week in which it criticized the gender divide at Apple's last two iPhone events. The reporter noted that at iPhone 7 event, women spoke for roughly eight minutes at stage compared to men, who spoke for 99. Furthermore, most of the women and people of color who appeared onstage weren't Apple representatives. An Apple spokesperson, who shared the information "off-the-record", had a weird response. The email read, "We may have different interpretations of diversity." The email continues, via Mic report, "he pointed to 'two African-Americans' who spoke at the keynote, neither of whom are actually employed by Apple. He also mentioned 'a Canadian, and a British woman.'"
The reporter has defended the use of "off-the-record" information, noting that Apple PR didn't warn her beforehand -- and as an important ethic in journalism -- they didn't reach an agreement before the Apple PR decided to share things.
Glenn Greenwald writes:They're 100% right. Nobody can unilaterally decree "off the record". Requires a mutual agreement or it doesn't exist.
The reporter has defended the use of "off-the-record" information, noting that Apple PR didn't warn her beforehand -- and as an important ethic in journalism -- they didn't reach an agreement before the Apple PR decided to share things.
Glenn Greenwald writes:They're 100% right. Nobody can unilaterally decree "off the record". Requires a mutual agreement or it doesn't exist.
Why complaining?
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
So, speaking time should be determined by genitals?
The real tragedy is that most of the talking time was taken up by brown eyed people. As someone with green eyes, I am offended.
"women spoke for roughly eight minutes at stage compared to men, who spoke for 99"
People who actually count stuff like that should be sent on a fast rocketship to land on the surface of the sun.
"a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple"
Is what exactly? Is peach not a color (I know, buy the 128-color box and get flesh)? Flesh is a color then.
Every Apple keynote from now on should just be presented by Laverne Cox and Drake's character from DeGrassi(post-shooting of course). That way you've got handicapped, minority, female, transgender, and even Canadian covered. Problem solved!
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
This nit-picking about 'equality' is just getting out of hand. It's time to quit this crap and get on with living.
Fuck you for stooping to the level of the typical clickbait peddled by the shitty news outlets. News for nerds? Stuff that matters? Is this either or the two or am I losing my mind? Give me something actually about tech. I'm taking a break from your website and turning on ads in the future.
There is no such thing as "off the record". Anyone working PR knows this.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
...in all the ads they showed during the event, they ALL were of ONLY black men and white women. Not an Asian or Indian to be seen anywhere in them. Really outrageous!
An Apple spokesperson, who shared the information "off-the-record", had a weird response.
Make a weird complaint, get a weird response. The article has a pie chart showing that women spoke only seven percent of the time at the Apple's 2016 keynote. It's underneath a chart showing that women spoke twelve percent of the time in 2015. Maybe Mic would get better responses if they stopped making pie charts about silly measurements.
So William Shatner was on stage at the Apple event?
Hey Fawk you buddy!
This is aboot dignity!
This is aboot diplomacy!
This is aboot... divarsetay!
That is the problem here. Apple should never have listened to them because they are never satisfied.
You put a diverse set of people on stage, they will then bitch about how many seconds each one got to speak.
You make sure they all have equal speaking time down to the second, they bitch about the 'placement' of them on stage and 'body language'.
You fix their placement and body language, they bitch about you not putting trigger warnings in certain parts of their speeches.
I can see the reporter's view if (and only if) the presenters were a sample of the market demographic giving their opinions about the product. Of course you would want your demographic to include different colors/genders.
But, if the speakers were knowledgeable individuals either working at Apple, or paid by Apple, then that goes all out the window. You don't stop racism by hiring someone just because of their skin color. You don't stop sexism by hiring someone based on their gender. I don't automatically get a job just because I'm a white male. I have to actually have the skills to do the job. Why should any other race/gender expect the same treatment?
It's a HUGE mistake to give any attention at all to SJWs. He shouldn't have taken the bait, but he probably thought that pointing out facts would satisfy the SJW.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Why all this overblown concern about girls in tech when those of us with hazel eyes are dramatically underrepresented!
You're so eye-ist, you can't even see it!!!
(Hah!)
Maybe it's true that Apple's top echelons don't represent its consumer base proportionally in sex and color. All the same, as the most profitable business in the world, that doesn't seem to be a real problem for them. And, clearly, with Apple shipping the #1 smartphone and #1 tablet, and the currently popular Macbooks, consumers aren't actually all that concerned with the dearth of women on stage at Apple events. So it seems like this problem is being manufactured for our consumption by people whose job it is to do so, people like Jamia Wilson, executive director of Women, Action & Media.
What I really want to hear is not that this is a problem, but why it is a problem. What are the consequences of lack of diversity at the top of the corporate structure? Why does this matter? How would it help, say, black women if there were more black women in positions of authority at Apple?
What unique products do you use? What unique market needs to you communicate? None, you fucking idiot.
I mean, 80% of the Apple speakers were gay men and the remaining 20% were bi-curious, so what's the problem? Or isn't that diverse enough for you?
Aren't we in America? I thought this was America!
You are welcome on my lawn.
"The reporter has defended the use of "off-the-record" information," ...because she wanted clickbait, and is too fucking stupid to know that having the trust of her sources is far more valuable.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
How would you know, you eyeist, when no one even bothers to study us or provide products for us. Jerk! Eyeist! Hater!
Hazel lives matter!
It said so right there in the class notes from Trump University!
Use a Canadian! (1)
(1) Time limited offer. Until we put up the wall.
Fuck mic.com
They went and nitpicked to the weakest part of Apple's response and blew it out of proportion.
'nuff said.
"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple." - James Watt.
At least racists keep the goal posts in one place.
I don't think diversity means.. what you think it means..
Always a bad way to start.. Quoting the 'Princess Bride'
There's more men living in the streets too, should we make more women homeless for diversity? Oh no, men are still the expendable gender, we're good enough to be garbagemen, soldiers, miners, and janitors, right?
Did the iPhone event pass the Bechdel Test?
Have only white women speak. Works for most other liberal groups!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
that she got any answer.. apples usually all about the "No comment"
Except sjw of course
(And it looks there Âs no sjw who care about canadian)
But, if the speakers were knowledgeable individuals either working at Apple, or paid by Apple, then that goes all out the window. You don't stop racism by hiring someone just because of their skin color. You don't stop sexism by hiring someone based on their gender. I don't automatically get a job just because I'm a white male. I have to actually have the skills to do the job. Why should any other race/gender expect the same treatment?
That's not the point of programs that encourage diversity in the workplace. Nobody wants to hire somebody who is unskilled. What they want to do is encourage people to apply and make sure the workplace is welcoming to everyone. If the skilled people are minorities, that helps the public image because it *shows* that minorities are welcome in the workplace. And it is NOT a given that minorities are welcome in a workplace. While most employers want anybody really good who can work with their teams (because good people can be hard to find), that doesn't mean that the team will understand how to relate to the new person or that the new person won't face a hostile work environment. Sure, people can make mountains out of molehills, but there are also things that are mountains if you're on one side of them and molehills if you're on the other and if you're standing on the molehill side you don't realize that the other side goes down for miles.
Real lawyers write in C++
And by "people like me" she means "political activists" and "liberal arts majors"?
Apple's entire business model is for smart, technically oriented people to make stuff that's easy to use for "creative" people like Jamia Wilson. Obviously, Apple wouldn't be "investing" in people like her: that's the whole point of Apple.
This keynote was a complete sapiens-fest!
If I don't see at least at least one freddled gruntbuggly come the iPhone 8, ground-break for the intergalactic highway will begin in Cupertino! (and the rest of the world a few milliseconds later.)
It is obvious that Apple does not take diversity seriously; which has concerns for their products produced in an aging white male echo chamber.
I can get a blond or brunette emoji but not one with red hair - thus discrediting the existence of 2% of the global population's genetic expression (and up to 18% are heterozygous.)
Give peace a chance. No to war with Canada. I fully support us restoring normal foreign relations with Canada. As soon as they withdraw their troops from our lands (notably the platoons headed by Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, and Alex Trebek) we can move forward. I for one support Apple's forward looking actions.
I don't see any of this as being a problem at all! You do NOT need to automatically give up the stage to a black person or an Indian person or a female, etc. You have a certain schedule of all the key people giving presentations based on their pertinence as an employee of Apple or a vendor. The people who speak are doing it to present the new Apple products. If it turned out to be dominated by females, I would have thought nothing of it. That kind of shit doesn't even occur to me. WTF people??
I have green eyes, which is an even smaller minority than hazel eyes, you insensitive clod.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
If the PR guy was talking "off the record," then his response is not "Apple's response..." you fuckwit click-bait headline writer.
I hope Apple is more meritocratic than Google. My Google contacts are telling me G is being torn apart internally by SJWs right now. I'm talking full on mandatory "unconscious bias" and "microaggressions" trainings, shutting down internal discussions on anything even vaguely non-PC (and as you can imagine, for an SJW that includes just about anything they disagree with), "reconsidering" female interview candidates that don't quite cut it, etc. You can either have all that, or you can have straight up meritocracy, which Google was famous for in the years past. You can't have both.
"The reporter noted that at iPhone 7 event, women spoke for roughly eight minutes at stage compared to men, who spoke for 99"
Is this what this world has become? It's only going to get worst in the next 20yrs... Kill me now, please.
is to extract guilt geld out of corporate budgets and empower Social Justice Warriors to target companies so you can sell indulgences to get them off the white guilt hook.
"Hostile work environment" spells KA-CHING for greedy trial lawyers.
It's a con job for extortion money and to empower the radical left at the expense of the right and the center.
It's discrimination on the basis of race and sex to benefit the grievance-mongering cadres of the Democratic Party. All it does is poison race relations and make it harder for minorities to get jobs because employers can't trust that they didn't "earn" their qualifications through blatant favoritism rather than merit.
Nothing else.
Hiring based on genital's or sexual preference is discrimination
Forcible hiring to meet diversity guidelines despite qualification is discrimination.
Should an equally qualified white male executive be overlooked in favor of an equally qualified minority application or female applicant.
Of course people defend these policies by stating that the white male applicant already has an advantage so this is just leveling the playing field. I call BULLSHIT on that argument.
It is about not blocking people because of race, gender, nationality. (Blocking anybody because of religion is always fine and in fact recommended, because they have proven they are stupid...). If the statistics do not follow that move, maybe it is people's choice?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Good job Apple, blame Canada. They're not even a real country anyway.
When did real life become a elementary school playground? The "everybody wins" generation is always looking for a new source of outrage and learned helplessness.
Slashdot admins deleting comments? Really? Please, drink bleach and go KYS.
Apple got where they were by being a meritocracy. They shouldn't respond to diversity criticism. They should be a proud meritocracy, which is the only reason they are successful today. Racism is bad for business, no matter what race you are discriminating against.
MIC itself is a tribe of disproportionately intolerant young people who explicitly view attention whoring as a legitimate pathway to success.
Lets pack the supreme court with hate filled leftists so we can make every aspect of life just like this!
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
you tell the journalist, right before or right after you tell him/her the "off the record" thing, that it's off the record, and if he/she still publishes that information then he/she becomes a persona non grata to you, your organization and all of your friends in marketing. if he/she works for an "important" medium (say, the nyt) then he/she'll still get the press releases but no more exclusives/invitation to press events/"off the record" information,...
I don't care who the fuck does something, as long as they do the job well!
I'm going to guess you are a white male.
Yep. He doesn't care, because I'll wager that he is not a member of a group that's been historically discriminated against. It's easy to ignore, or not even notice, a pattern of discrimination if it's not aimed at you.
In a color blind, sex blind society like many profess to be working towards, then the FIRST thing we need to do, is STOP counting who is this, that or the other.
Um, yes, and if you stop counting, you'll never know if you have discrimination or not, will you?
Nice plan. Instead of stopping discrimination, stop looking.
Each Canadian is worth ten speakers
Are you suggesting that they should make different phones for females or minorities?
There is no such thing as "off the record". Anyone working PR knows this.
Then you pretty clearly don't work in PR. "Off the record," "on background," "not for attribution" and other deals between sources and reporters are real and specific things and are used frequently every day in "grownup" journalism.
They are... but the point is that it's not off the record unless both people involved agree it's off the record.
You saying "by the way, what I just told you is off the record" in no way puts any obligation on me unless I have agreed to it-- and I have no obligation to agree.
From the summary:
Since the Apple PR told the reporter something without getting agreement first that it would be off the record: no, sorry, it's not off the record. An agreement requires two people.
There's no room for a "token any color but white" person in all 57 sexual orientations, it's just too many people. :D :)
There's always someone who's offended by something, it will never end. The latest thing is "global warming is racist!", and I am not even joking.
...and build a computer in her basement and then go on to create products changing the world. Maybe she can gather 10 of of female friends and get started right away.
In this era of an election between businessmen and politicians....
When politicians spin, it's an acceptable lie and really you can't be called out. It's like a debating match.
When businessmen spin, they make it obvious it's a lie and you can easily call them out.
Who knew? Do we get an Affirmative Action program now?
You are right. We don't care anymore. Congratulations. I hope that whats you wanted!
"Gender divide".... Fuck them....in reality, damn them. I saw all the Jobs events religiously, now that Apple events focus only in minority/black/gay/feminism/large people event pride, there is no interest. For the people crying out loud about the gender divide, how about complaining that in a fashion show the majority are women, or in a Channel perfume presentation we want more men. For crying out loud, this world is becoming too stupid for my taste.
... where the iPhone touched You.
Funny, I though that these sort of highest profile events usually had speakers who fit one of the following criteria: top leader of company, top project manager for product being introduced, extra-ordinarily closely tied to the brand (e.g. the "mac" guy from the mac vs pc commercials making an appearance), high level executive from partner company providing crucial technology in product being introduced, person best able to explain the technology being introduced to a mixed tech savvy & non-tech savvy crowd of journalists.
I am outraged that wolf-kin were unrepresented on the stage at the iPhone 7 introduction!
Have you actually heard the speak? It was definitely not the language of the keynote...
For Apple thinking having Canadians was diversity.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Hazel is way less com,on than green. I am far more oppressed by eyeists than you are. Green is even considered lucky in some cultures. Hazel? It isn't even an option at most online dating sites. We are being excluded by Apple and online dating services who are attempting to exterminate us by eliminating our options to breed!
Eyeists are everywhere and you're one of them!
..., anti-christian, for discrimination, against merits before sex, race, religion, against a fair price, free market, viewing people as simply human beings. .. but hey, at-least they are "right" and have "superior morals" and are much more "good" than anyone else. Surely no other political groups have ever claimed that and been wrong or want to push their stupid agenda before right?
What a surprise, yet another fake anti Apple story promoted on the Intertubes. The real story is that she would publish a private email without permission and solely with the intention of embarrassing an apple representative. And in actual of fact she's going to do for 'diversity' what Effie Brown did when she embarrassed Matt Damon on 'Project Greenlight'. I guess Brown and Ehrenkranz, both making a career out of being professional victims.
Racist SJWs calling people "people of colour", why are they so sexist/racist, why do they care so much about the race and gender of people speaking, they need to get a better hobby.
Diversity means including a mathematician and a physicist on your engineering team. Only racist make the term about race.
You ask a stupid question, be prepared to get a stupid answer.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Diversity, as applied to only skin color of genitalia is completely superficial and dumb. It presumes by it's vary nature that skin color and genitalia are the most important aspects of any human being, and for somebody like me who sees no importance in skin color and who figured out the whole genitalia thing while still a child, is just plain mortifyingly stupid.
The actual most important things to know about any person are what he/she BELIEVES and THINKS. These are what drive people and are what is most interesting about people - and diversity of THOUGHT and BELIEF is the one form of "diversity" that the politically correct and social justice warriors cannot TOLERATE.
If you think that big liberal companies like Apple and Facebook, and Google have a diversity problem with skin color or sex, just look at how completely fossilized and homogenous they are on BELIEFS, politics (which descend from beliefs), etc.
Ever wonder if there's a good reason those groups have been historically discriminated against?
Nah. Couldn't be. We're all equal. Eeeeekwal!
Isn't there enough tech stuff to talk about?
Now I can justify buying Apple products!
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
incapable of understanding anything outside of their self-claimed niche, and understanding even that chosen field so poorly they barely know it is just a silo.
Meh. Those that do care far outnumber you. I'm a white male and I'm proud of who I am and my heritage. I'm even proud of my cock and balls. Being a dude is pretty awesome.
All that said, I'm aware that I started the race ahead of many other folks. I've used that and I'm not ashamed of that. How could I not? We all use the advantages we have, be they wealth, race, sex, gender, looks or intelligence. That does NOT mean I'm better than anyone, and I'm totally fine with providing opportunity to those that didn't get a head start. Success is awesome; I'm happy to assist anybody that wants to succeed, especially folks that start at a disadvantage, or more aptly, the wot the advantages I had.
What kind of miserable person must you be to not recognize that? The easy path is to call you racist. I won't do that. Instead I'll say you haven't analyzed the reality of you really think equal opportunity is about holding whites back.
GEO A twisted fuck, gay Republican.
IQ Tests!
Social Justice Warrior
You can't take a microcosm of Apple employees and expect some fantasy where every age/race/gender/ethic/religion/handicap/whatever is represented.
This is nothing but click bait at best.
How far back in time is he allowed to go?
If he is a white male as you think is the fact that men have a demonstrably shorter lifespan than women count? If he was black of either gender would that matter to you?
If he was a Serb, Croation, Suni, a Russian from the Ukraine or vice-versa matter (or his parents were)? If not, why not?
If counting matters are you counting the proper things? Whose "count" matters?Who decides?
If counting something is proof of discrimation which must be stopped is your circle of friends and aquaintances properly diverse? Are you counting them? How about what you watch, listen to or read? If not why not?
If discrimation didn't exist but everyone was equally bad off would that be a societal "good", what if everyone was well off but discrimation existed?
The problem with people like you is that you're triggered by 1 potential "moral bad" and miss the forest for the trees.
You're like BLM,rather than focusing on police brutality and unaccountability as the "moral bad" you assume it's only bad if it happens to you, and only than if it's done "disproptionately"...in other words if police brutality and unaccountability was "equal"without regard to race than that's not racism/discrimation so apparently "ok". When in fact it's NOT "ok" regardless of the race of the victim.
Now, that takes courage.
Apple was just really lucky that they had a gay person on stage for some minutes. Otherwise, criticism might have turned out even worse.
But it truly was lacking in female representation and the Asian community should get more screen time.
The topic is generally a fair discussion. I would be happy to no longer see Donald or Hillary for the full length of their respective events. Would be great to switch it up for at least 50% with speakers of opposite gender, color or other diversity backgrounds. Guaranteed to make these speeches sound more intelligent.
But enough sarcasm. As previous commenters said, we should focus on the work and not about background/diversity to truly make things equal.
and its politically correct cousin " Affirmative Action ".
Unless you're the Klan or some other group promoting color / race simply for the sake of color / race, NO ONE BASES A HIRING DECISION ON YOUR GD SKIN COLOR. THEY DON'T FUCKING CARE.
What the DO care about is your ability to do the job they're looking to fill. Preferably at the cheapest rate they can possibly get away with.
I tire of all the whining about how unfair life is because not everyone has the same GD skin color. Get over it. It's not going to change until the individual quits using the " I'm a victim " excuse and decides to do something about it.
Getting the education and skills necessary to get the jobs vs relying on a government mandate to hand you the job on a silver platter to fulfill some silly ass quota about how " diverse " a company should be.
If you can't do the work, then fuck you. You shouldn't get the job.
That is all.
You need to really look and you will see the truth of it.
Jesus H. Christ, these idiots are really looking hard for ways to demonize Apple! What did Google or Oracle or Microsoft do in product launches? Nobody knows, but Apple, Christ, some moron is there with a stopwatch timing how many minutes a person is on stage for, speaking for, etc.
What a load of Bollocks.
It's a racial slur and I'm offended by it. Therefore they should be shut down and pay me for my trauma.
What group would that be that hasn't historically been discriminated against? I haven't heard of any of these mythical groups that escaped discrimination.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?