[brighteyes]

That's a reasonable argument, but some of the facts don't fit it. 7% of tech roles in Apple are black [1], while at Google that figure is just 1%.

A 7 times difference is very large. But let's be generous and say that the 1% is 1.5% that was rounded down. The percentage of black tech workers is still almost 5 times higher at Apple than at Google.

These are massive companies, not small startups where a single hire skews the figures. So it's fair to say something is going on here - one of those companies might have a biased hiring process.

And it looks like it is Google that is biased against black people, since 9% of CS graduates are black [3], far closer to Apple's 7% than Google's 1%.

[1] http://www.apple.com/diversity/

[2] https://www.google.com/diversity/

[3] http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/12/silicon-valley...

[DominikR]

I don't buy it that Google is biased against black people, it's just that Google has more jobs that require a higher education in STEM fields whereas Apple has many people employed in stores and factories.

I believe that there are just fewer black graduates in STEM fields from top universities and that's why Google can't hire more of them.

[brighteyes]

I agree most Google employees are probably not racist against black people.

But they do have a bias similar to the one you just mentioned - they tend to only hire from "top schools". It's true that the top schools tend to produce good people, but it's elitist to think that only they do. Perhaps Apple recruiters look at a broader range of universities, including historically black ones, for example.

Regarding what you said about stores and factories at Apple, those figures were for tech roles, not retail, so that isn't why Apple has 7x more. Although, what "tech" precisely is is not defined by either company, so it's possible there is a significant difference there that we can't see.

[omonra]

Those figures are not for tech roles but company-wide. Apple does not provide figures for % of engineers who are black.

If you want to prove that companies discriminate, look up percent of engineering PhDs (like CS) who are black that graduate per year. If that number is above what companies hire - you will have a reasonable claim.

Otherwise it's nothing.

[pjscott]

It looks like the "tech" category reported on those graphs is including technicians, which make up very different percentages of the workforce at the two companies -- about 1% of Google's employees and 22% of Apple's, according to their EEO-1 forms:

https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en...

https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2015-EEO-1-Consolidated-...

Within the "professionals" category, which is the one with engineers in it, both have pretty similar percentages of black employees: about 1.7% at Google, compared to... about 1.7% at Apple.