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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.
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.
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!
So William Shatner was on stage at the Apple event?
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."
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?
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."
'nuff said.
"I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple." - James Watt.
They didn't just exclude people of color. They also excluded people of gender.
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
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.)
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!
It's OK, O'l Timmie makes up for the gender problem.
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.
I sure as hell hope all this political correctness and "diversity everything" bullshit goes away and the pendulum swings back, and becomes mere background noise.
I don't care who the fuck does something, as long as they do the job well!
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.
Life is a competition out there, and only the best at a job should win. Who cares if this or that is diverse? If you don't like how the spread of their crown/workforce is....move to another, support another, etc.
I mean, do you do this with your group of friends? Do you count exactly how many women/men/whatever vs black/white/green there are in your group and bitch and complain about you're missing X demographic?
Hell, in the latter, you have MUCH more choice in that and can directly do something about it. But in the job market, and in a stupid product presentation, do we really need someone to count category and demographic of the presenters?
Seriously, Who Give a Fuck...and why should they?
Frankly, aside from one of the presenters that I had a hard time understanding, I didn't really notice who was of what sexual/racial category.
If you watch something and THAT is all you see, then you really need to get a life and find more important things to ponder.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
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.
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,...
And by inference, automatically be ashamed of his white maleness. He is guilty of something just by being born a certain way. We know his history, his personal circumstances all because he's white and male. Much easier to put individuals into nice buckets that fit your prejudices, but nobody else can do the same.
He should know that only white males can inflict *-isms... everyone else gets a free pass.
He should stop working hard doing his best long enough to realize that other are offended by his very breathing and he should do more to make them happy. Which is more to the point, he needs to dedicate his life to servitude of others' ideals and beliefs.
Let's let him know it's not his best that's needed, just his compliance to what you think.
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.
Yep. Personally I don't give a fuck anymore. If somebody thinks I'm being sexist or racist, they can sue me. Really, they can. We have laws they can sue me under. We have government agencies they can contact to help them out. The fact that nobody is suing Apple indicates to me that Apple is not a sexist or racist employer.
Until then "you're racist!" and "you're sexist!" are just so much "waaawaaawaaawaaawawawa." Just train yourself to hear only the teacher's voice from Peanuts waawaawawaaawaaawaaa any time somebody wants to say you're sexist. Don't tell me about microaggressions. I don't care. Don't expect me to roll over and go homeless so you can replace me with a diversity hire without paying me unemployment. Waawaaawawaaawaaawa.
Does that sound mean? Does that sound cruel? Too fucking bad. Maybe people who don't understand computers themselves shouldn't have been lobbing "you're sexist!" and "this closed source 3rd party program wouldn't have bugs if a woman was promoted instead!" bullshit at me.
You want to think I'm a sexist? You imagine I'm "sexually frustrated" because I don't date women? Go right ahead. If that's what makes you happy. Knock yourself out. Yep, I'm being a big sexist by personally filtering your internet connection in your home so you can't learn programming yourself just because of the body part between your legs. Waawaaaawawawawaaaa. You want to be serious? Sue me. Present your evidence in court.
Oh, what's that? You don't have any evidence? You're just a washed-up never-was asshole who wants to hold me accountable because you never accomplished anything in your life? Waawaawawaaawaaawaa.
WOW....that's a little sexist/racist of you isn't it??
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Who knew? Do we get an Affirmative Action program now?
If it had been all white males, it would have been more acceptable than being all white males, with some paid color. When you can't even find any legitimate tokens, and have to outsource your token non-whites, coupled with the corporate guilt that makes you feel the need to, shows you hate yourself but don't want to fix it. That's the real issue. At least the Trump supporters are comfortable in their bigotry. Rather than Apple pretending they aren't, while demonstrating they are.
Learn to love Alaska
Or just not an idiot...
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.
Speaking of political correctness and "diversity everything"...
Maybe some of the American speakers would "self-identify" as Mexican.
Or maybe some of the white speakers *feel* like they are black.
Did the so-called journalist even investigate these possibilities? No? How bigoted of them.
We should change our grade school curriculum to brain-wash this type of discrimination out of our children. That way when they grow up to be reporters, they can be reminded that just because someone was born a white man, looks like a white man, and acts like a white man- they might *actually* be a transgender, Asian, female, lesbian on the inside.
I agree that diversity for it's own sake is a questionable goal. However one problem with not counting is becoming blind to any real discrimination problem.
horror vacui
For Apple thinking having Canadians was diversity.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
..., 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?
As you said, "working towards". We're not there yet. Counting this stuff matters until we are, and even afterward to make sure that no one is being discriminated against when it comes to getting a job, an assignment, a promotion, or a speaking gig.
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.
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.
There were managers on the stage, so salivating predators were represented.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The American dream used to be "work hard, climb the ladder, and one day you can be rich too"
Then we noticed the glass ceiling and that hard work isn't getting you anywhere, so we turned to the lottery.
Then we noticed the lottery isn't too reliable, so the new American dream is to find a minority you can belong to, then demand to get handouts for being part of said minority.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Screw you! I'll hire fags left and right given the chance, I just must not ask people whether they're queer.
Hiring hets? Are you high? Either they already have kids or they want some, and then the problems start. They get sick, they need to be hauled somewhere, they are croaking in some school play and can't do that alone but need their parents there to watch them... And you can't even send your worker to Abu Dhabi for three months because they wouldn't wanna leave their rugrats alone.
Screw this. Hire gays. No kids, no hassle, and they dress better, too!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is a blatant lie, anyway. What women ever managed to say anything in a mere 8 minutes?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Even more important, did anyone who matters give a fuck?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Add "come into a bar" and you got the start for a joke.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
SJWs Always Lie
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
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.
They also excluded people who weren't dorks, but that's another discussion...
Now, that takes courage.
Colour blindness is not a good thing, it denies the very real issues that people of colour have. What we want is a post racial society, where people are aware of colour but it has no effect on opportunity or fair treatment.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You should not be ashamed of privilege. I'm not.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'm going to guess you are a white male.
And while people still think like this, racism/sexim/***ism will keep running strong. We're all just people, stop paying such close attention to where someone keeps their genitals or what particular shade their skin is and judge them on their own merits and abilities and we'll all get on much better.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
These voices, the ones that want to make you unemployed, do they say anything else? Have you been prescribed medication for this condition?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
They also excluded people who weren't dorks, but that's another discussion...
Even if you don't want to count Shigeru Miyamoto, the guy loved by most dorks, as one - they had that Instagram guy with the flashy shirt.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Fuck mic.com
They went and nitpicked to the weakest part of Apple's response and blew it out of proportion.
And even then they had to cut of half of that part to make it look lame.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Canadian lives matter, damnit!!! Except to Major Harry Schmidt.
Why did you write genital's with an apostrophe, but not guidelines or policies ?
Probably because he is possessed by genitals.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
GP here. Surprised that was modded up.
Yeah, it's a bit of jerk move logging to reply, but the voices are quite real. In fact, I briefly lost access to medical services because of TERF and other radfem voices, and I now need to travel over 150 miles to see a doctor.
Once again you demonstrate that you have a very limited experience. You have never once been on the receiving end of a cisfemale with power using sexism* against you, have you?
Remember that without power, there is no sexism. Are you really so isolated and stuck in the 70s that you cannot imagine a cisfemale having power?
Both my doctor and psychologist were on board with medical cannabis, but treating the problems that having put up with TERFs and radfems for so long caused me is specifically against my state's medical law. SSRI drugs don't work. However, the waaaawawawaaawawawa replacement does do wonders to help.
Yep, I'm such a big damned sexist and such a total jerk that cisfemales cannot obtain a $100-$200 refurbished laptop and learn programming on their own. That's so totally all my fault. I must have just mind controlled the cisfemale who gave me this job.
So, seeing as how I actually do have somebody who is cisfemale ready to fill my position if I give up my job (certainly not a diversity hire--this person is more than capable but just won't have enough interest in programming until she has a job lined up), are you offering to take not just me in but also another person I'm supporting with my job?
Do you have some other credible way to get a cisfemale programmer to precipitate out the aether?
Otherwise it's so much waaawawaaawawa.
If Apple didn't recognize their own racism, why did they bother to hire more diverse contractors to speak? Holding up the mirror doesn't make one ugly, that's on the person that's looking at it. Getting mad at the mirror or messenger doesn't change the reality.
Learn to love Alaska
It's a racial slur and I'm offended by it. Therefore they should be shut down and pay me for my trauma.
Shut the hell up and get into this paddy wagon!
How about colleagues?
I once worked with a young, blonde, cute, small woman. I realized once, during a larger conversation, that I was automatically discounting her views on the technical issues because of that (and she was also competent). I compensated by deliberately paying a little more attention to what she was saying when she said something. In other words, I discriminated in her favor when she spoke.
Obviously, I'm not perfect, and and am not at a point where I automatically treat people like equals. Given that, I think it worked better to pay attention to her specially to even things out. I continue to do the same with other small and cute women, and I believe it has worked to everyone's advantage.
Unless and until we arrive at a society where everyone is judged on their character and abilities, treating people unequally based on other characteristics can be beneficial. In a case where a group of people is likely to be similar in characteristics that don't really matter (like white males), it can be useful to deliberately try to include people who look different. It gives the others a better chance than they would have, it accustoms people to more diverse groups, and it increases the chances of finding good people, if done right.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Ever been in a situation where you were sure you were being discriminated against for illegal reasons? I have. It's difficult to prove these things, even on the lesser "preponderance of the evidence" basis of civil law. It's expensive and stressful and time-consuming to file suit, the outcome is uncertain unless the discrimination is stupidly overt and in written form, and the likely rewards are often not worth it.
If someone goes through the government agencies, it's still an uphill battle, and you're probably not going to hear of the outcome. Lawsuits are public; out-of-court settlements aren't, and frequently come with agreements not to say anything about them.
By watching for lawsuits, you won't find the employers that are somewhat sexist and racist, only those who are really flagrant in their illegal discrimination.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
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?
Suicide is also a valid option for those people.
I would tell you to try to live in the real world, but honestly, we don't want you here.