Apple's Response To Diversity Criticism: 'We Had a Canadian' Onstage at iPhone 7 Event (mic.com)

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Apple's Response To Diversity Criticism: 'We Had a Canadian' Onstage at iPhone 7 Event (mic.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday September 12, 2016 @05:21AM from the diversity dept.

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.

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Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 05:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
1. Re:Who cares? by NotInHere · 2016-09-12 05:28 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Also, the keynote was held in english. I demand that the keynote should be held in languages that match the language distribution in the population. Otherwise you will offend foreign speakers.
2. Re:Who cares? by 110010001000 · 2016-09-12 05:40 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  You forgot to mention that due to the enablement of microaggressive behavior the cisgender white males in IT are enabled to exclude others. This triggering behavior shouldn't be tolerated in 2016. By introducing the concepts of hug boxes and safe spaces in IT we can make it more inclusive and even more profitable for everyone!
3. Re:Who cares? by Cyberpunk+Reality · 2016-09-12 05:43 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  What do you mean "foreign speakers"? Apple doesn't make its money in the US, according to Apple. Maybe the whole thing should have been Irish. Or Mandarin, but I really doubt Apple cares whether its slaves can understand the ritual or not.
  
  --
  Rule 35 of the internet: "If it can be hacked, it will be". - Charles Stross
4. Re:Who cares? by jcr · 2016-09-12 05:43 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Power imbalance reinforced by exposure to stereotyped junior roles for women
  Oh, fuck off. Women at Apple work at all levels of responsibility, from interns to SVPs.
  -jcr
  
  --
  The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
5. Re:Who cares? by ShanghaiBill · 2016-09-12 05:48 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Maybe the whole thing should have been Irish.
  Do you know what language most Irish people speak? Hint: It is not Irish.
6. Re:Who cares? by sinij · 2016-09-12 05:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It was also not mentioned, that oppressive white cis patriarchy established society that unfairly exploited women and now to bring it back to historical equality the society must actively discriminate against all males. We should probably just put all men into re-education camps away from children, because why won't you think of the children?!
7. Re:Who cares? by Kohath · 2016-09-12 05:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The real point is to pressure Apple into giving money to some advocacy groups.
8. Re:Who cares? by bfpierce · 2016-09-12 05:54 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  "media events spotlighting"
  Pretty sure none of my role models in technology had any media spotlight what so ever. Most of that is at most a mention in a textbook.
  Maybe stop looking for role models on the tv or twitter. If you're idea of 'getting into IT' is 'standing up on a podium and talking about products and synergies' you're looking at the wrong degree. Get an MBA.
9. Re:Who cares? by x0ra · 2016-09-12 05:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Why should your brain eye color be determined by your physical eye color ? Don't you know that eye color is a social construct ? My blue eyes should not mislead you, I am truly brown eye colored !
10. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 06:07 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Maybe the whole thing should have been Irish.
  Do you know what language most Irish people speak? Hint: It is not Irish.
  It is not English either. badaboom.
11. Re:Who cares? by ClickOnThis · 2016-09-12 07:09 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  The real point is to pressure Apple into giving money to some advocacy groups.
  How about the IRS to start?
  Amen to that. Unfortunately, Apple lacks the, uh, ... courage.
  
  --
  If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
12. Re:Who cares? by nitehawk214 · 2016-09-12 07:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I sexually identify as an Irish person.
  Except during Oktoberfest, when I am German.
  
  --
  I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
13. Re:Who cares? by AK+Marc · 2016-09-12 07:57 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is if you let the Canadian speak, it takes twice as long, eh.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
Oh My by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 05:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

"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.
1. Re:Oh My by ganjadude · 2016-09-12 06:05 · Score: 2
  
  you got downvoted, not because you are wrong, but because everyone knows you dont land on the sun, you just....burn up when you reach it
  
  still a great idea however
  
  --
  have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
2. Re:Oh My by sexconker · 2016-09-12 06:18 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  you got downvoted, not because you are wrong, but because everyone knows you dont land on the sun, you just....burn up when you reach it
  still a great idea however
  Just time it so you arrive at night, idiot.
Easy solution by Nidi62 · 2016-09-12 05:29 · Score: 2

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
Fuck you, Slashdot. by ThatTreeOverThere · 2016-09-12 05:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

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.
No Such Things As Off The Record by Slider451 · 2016-09-12 05:31 · Score: 3, Informative

There is no such thing as "off the record". Anyone working PR knows this.

--
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
1. Re:No Such Things As Off The Record by schnell · 2016-09-12 06:45 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  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. These concepts "work" because of mutual self-interest: the journalist doesn't want to burn the source/PR rep/whatever and vice versa because they (or at least their respective organizations) will continue to have to work together in the future.
  Dealing with bloggers from sites nobody has heard of and hence have no reputation to uphold by adhering to agreements? Not so much. The PR rep should have known better than to treat a random blogger whining about speaking time/genitals/skin color ratios like a grownup, but that doesn't mean those concepts don't exist and aren't employed frequently.
  
  --
  "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
One thing I noticed... by 110010001000 · 2016-09-12 05:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

...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!
1. Re:One thing I noticed... by sexconker · 2016-09-12 06:20 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Hispanics are white*.
  *Except in politics and marketing, because fuck logic.
What? Why? by freeze128 · 2016-09-12 05:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

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?
1. Re:What? Why? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 05:58 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  but you do automatically get jobs because you're a white male. you'll never be cognizant of it, as you've spent a lifetime building up defense mechanisms against acknowledging systemic racism. that is why any kind of favoritism towards minorities is threatening to you on a lizard-brain level.
  there are some white people who are disabused of these notions, through sociological education or real-world experience. unless a white person is specifically educated on these things, they will fall into the favorable cushion of racism just like water follows the path of least resistance.
  the natural state of the uneducated person tends towards egocentric behaviors and conservative governance - it is far easier to split the world into us-vs-them than to do the gritty political work of diplomacy and alliance-building. that is why the world is filled with us-vs-them thirdworlders, and a functioning alliance of 50 (more like 45) productive states is a rarity.
That PR guy really screwed up. by jcr · 2016-09-12 05:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

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."
1. Re:That PR guy really screwed up. by serviscope_minor · 2016-09-12 05:49 · Score: 2
  
  It's a HUGE mistake to give any attention at all to SJWs.
  Surely all your bitter whining is doing just that?
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
Disconnect by imidan · 2016-09-12 05:43 · Score: 2

FTFA:

When Jamia Wilson read this report, she noticed she was surrounded by Apple products. She thought about "how much money I've invested in an organization [that] doesn't believe in investing in people like me."
Simply put, Apple's gender divide, both within the company and onstage in San Francisco, does not represent the company's consumer base. And incremental progress still yields pathetic results — the numbers don't lie.

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?
1. Re:Disconnect by bluefoxlucid · 2016-09-12 06:13 · Score: 2
  
  There's a perception that black people have no chance to reach the elite because nobody wants to hire an unevolved ape to handle important, respectable business decisions.
  The long and short of it is opportunity. You have the opportunity for promotion, and it instead goes to someone else based on your manager's emotional responses to the person. Those of us with developed technical sense about business understand this is mediated by things like rapport: it pays to be social with people who are promoting you, because they get that feeling of comfort and confidence looking at your name, contrasted to a feeling of uncertainty looking at someone else's (better!) performance record.
  Nobody likes hoodrats and idiot women. These people can't be trusted with power. You cringe when you think about putting them in charge of anything, despite their historical high performance. You *quickly* skip over their name and promote the next guy, because he's a man, and white, and thus has his shit together and is more-trustworthy.
  People perceive this problem, and they don't understand it. They think it's solved by forcing people to put these people into power. In part, a more normalized impression of powerful people--a society in which you can readily identify blacks and women and whatever else who have become well-known for their success--reduces the automatic discriminatory reaction. In another part, *forcing* the issue trains people to be comfortable around white men, and fearful and distrusting of anyone who might claim discrimination--blacks, women, gays, the lot.
  Without understanding this, people who perceive themselves as grouped for discrimination will cry about fairness and look for someone to protect them. They do this because they don't understand that others perceive them as bringing attack dogs and a short temperament everywhere they go. The technical concept of social rapport and subconscious emotional influence is not intuitive, and people don't realize the damage they do with this behavior, nor the power they gain by being both sociable and unintrusive. It's an incredible engineering exercise most people aren't knowledgeable about.
  Currently, the topic has become so popular it seeps into everything. People perceive a new concept in everything--especially a feared concept, or any highly-emotional concept. This is what witch hunts are.
  I subscribe to the ideal that fairness isn't a thing. Anything you define as fair is patently discriminatory against someone else through no fault of their own, and is thus unfair. There are problems, and solutions to problems; and we can address that while understanding that fairness isn't a thing. The concept of fairness is what drives things like people trying to drag more women into programming, imagining that women are brilliant and driven programmers cowering at the edge of the software development world in fear of being made fun of for being programmers. Nobody imagines that maybe more men like that particular task than women, hence why you get 10% female programmers showing up instead of 50%. Then they start compensating for everything by putting the few women in charge of things to balance it all out.
  If your thought process starts with, "Hey, we should get a {woman,black,gay} to do this, because they've been underrepresented lately," something is wrong. First off, you don't seem to have a sense that some group is being harassed or otherwise discriminated against; you've just decided X event hasn't happened frequently, so there must be a social problem here. Second, if you *do* see day-to-day harassment creating an unfair disadvantage for a group, YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING ABOUT IT, and don't seem to care. You're either causing a problem or ignoring it, and making a token gesture at the same time to cover your ego.
  That's how fairness-driven social activism works. Ignore problems, complain about things.
  
  --
  Support my political activism on Patreon.
Unfair to Apple by PopeRatzo · 2016-09-12 05:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.
1. Re:Unfair to Apple by Zocalo · 2016-09-12 06:53 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Oh, sure, the make up of the speakers was absolutely diverse enough by any reasonable standards. Just not diverse in the particular way necessary to satisfy this particular pro-diversity protester's personal biases.
  
  When you get right down to it most pro-diversity protesters are just as biased and bigotted as those they are supposedly protesting against, they're just too tied up in their own one-horse personal agendas (disability, gender, race, religion, whatever) to see it. Either you promote equality for ALL, or you can GTFO because you are no better than the rest of the bigots.
  
  --
  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Gawker-level douchebag. by jcr · 2016-09-12 05:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

"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."
SJWs Suck by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 05:48 · Score: 2, Insightful

'nuff said.
Not the point by SeattleLawGuy · 2016-09-12 06:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

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++
Re:People of color? by flyingfsck · 2016-09-12 06:24 · Score: 2

It's OK, O'l Timmie makes up for the gender problem.

--
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Stupid fucking headline by coinreturn · 2016-09-12 06:28 · Score: 2

If the PR guy was talking "off the record," then his response is not "Apple's response..." you fuckwit click-bait headline writer.
Re:people like me by JustNiz · 2016-09-12 06:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

>> And by "people like me" she means "political activists" and "liberal arts majors"?
It seems to me that its exactly all those type of people, especially women, that buy Apple phones, whereas anybody with an actual clue goes with Android.
Re:So it's OK, right? by cayenne8 · 2016-09-12 06:30 · Score: 4, Insightful

You know, usually on things like this political/societal bent, usually it goes to an extreme, like we see today, and then usually the pendulum swings back.
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.........
Media has devolved into professional trolling by WaffleMonster · 2016-09-12 07:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

MIC itself is a tribe of disproportionately intolerant young people who explicitly view attention whoring as a legitimate pathway to success.
Re:So it's OK, right? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 07:11 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
Re:Apple should be a meritocracy by JustNiz · 2016-09-12 07:24 · Score: 2

> which is the only reason they are successful today.
Wow what are you smoking? The entire reason Apple are successful today is a triumph of marketing a targetted "lifestyle" to wannabe hipsters rather than anything to do with actual content/value/quality.
Re:So it's OK, right? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 07:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.
Re:So it's OK, right? by cayenne8 · 2016-09-12 07:52 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm going to guess you are a white male.
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.........
Re:So it's OK, right? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-09-12 08:13 · Score: 2, Interesting

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.
Re:So it's OK, right? by GonzoPhysicist · 2016-09-12 08:18 · Score: 2

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
Re:So it's OK, right? by AmiMoJo · 2016-09-12 16:46 · Score: 2

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