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by omar_a1 2266 days ago
> This kind of rejection of different worldviews is the antithesis of inclusion.

Ah yes, the old "You're intolerant of our intolerance" chestnut. Every post of yours is just doubling down on insistently denying the realities of racial biases in hiring, and portraying any attempt to hire diverse candidates as the real racism. Oh, and look: more strawmen.

1 comments

> Every post of yours is just doubling down on insistently glossing over the realities of racial biases in hiring by painting any attempt to hire diverse candidates as the real racism.

If this is your takeaway, then I don't think you've been getting the message that I've been trying to convey this whole time.

There are benefits and drawbacks of being diverse in tech. You correctly highlight that diverse workers are often subject to more bullying and harassment. On the other hand, many tech companies do discriminate in hiring and that results in greater opportunities being extended to diverse candidates as compared to non-diverse candidates. Both of these are "real racism" (and sexism). Which one is more impactful than the other? That's a subjective question, and people with different experience are going to have different responses.

Someone who is diverse and subject to bullying or harassment might think, if I weren't diverse I might have diminished career opportunities but it'd be worth it to avoid this harassment. By comparison, a non-diverse aspiring tech working might think, If I were diverse I might be subject to more harassment or bullying but the career opportunities would be worth it. Which one is right? They both are, because these are their opinions. Trying to say one is right is like trying to identify the correct flavor of ice cream.

And the "strawmen" are real diversity hiring polices I've encountered. If you're a boot camp grad and you applied to Dropbox between 2014 and 2019 you only got an interview if you were diverse. Dismissing the things I've personally witnessed as strawmen makes me think your opinion comes from a perspective that is not aware of the extent of diversity hiring. Perhaps you'd think differently if you worked at my current and past employers and witnesses our hiring policies.

> You correctly highlight that diverse workers are often subject to more bullying and harassment. On the other hand, many tech companies do discriminate in hiring and that results in greater opportunities being extended to diverse candidates as compared to non-diverse candidates. Both of these are "real racism" (and sexism). Which one is more impactful than the other? That's a subjective question, and people with different experience are going to have different responses.

It's actually pretty clear which of these has the greater impact. Hint: if it were the latter, women and minorities would be over-represented rather than underrepresented in tech. Which I've already stated above.

And, no, comparing racial slurs on the job to diverse hiring is not apples-to-apples, it's apples-to-clan-hooded-racist. There is no way you can be making that comparison in good faith. But do continue tell me how racist slurs and diverse hiring committees are basically the same thing...

> Hint: if it were the latter, women and minorities would be over-represented rather than underrepresented in tech.

They often are. At Dropbox women made up over 23% of tech roles in 2018 while recruiters estimated that the Bay Area average is 19.2%. That's an overrepresentation of ~20%. At my current employer, last year 50% of engineering hires were women - 2.5x the industry wide representation (though that was an anomaly - it usually averages ~30%).

> And, no, comparing racial slurs on the job to diverse hiring is not apples-to-apples, it's apples-to-clan-hooded-racist. There is no way you can be making that comparison in good faith. But do continue tell me how racist slurs and diverse hiring committees are basically the same thing...

At this point you seem to be offended by the notion that one can even try to compare the impact of racial or gendered slurs or harassment with denying White and Asian men employment opportunities on the basis of their race and gender. There's really nothing to say except that people will compare these two things regardless of your objections, and some of them reach the conclusion that the former outweighs the latter.

Overrepresentation of the population. Do I really need to explain how 23% compares to 50%?

And I'm offended because it's wildly offensive. You've repeatedly insisted racial slurs aren't so bad, and diverse hiring practices are somehow worse. And seem to think some amount of explanation on your part will make it seem like it's a reasonable stance instead of a deeply and reprehensibly racist one. Instead it just makes you look like a verbose clan leader.

> Overrepresentation of the population. Do I really need to explain how 23% compares to 50%?

So tech companies should strive to be 50% women even though the tech industry is only 20% female (or slightly less)? This would mean that women in tech have to be hired at 4x the rate as men in tech. Ultimately how you choose to frame equality is up to you, but I'm confident in saying that most would not consider a company that hires 50/50 men and women when the industry is made up 80/20 of men and women to be offering equal opportunity to men and women. It creates an outcome representative of the general population, but at the expense of creating massive inequality of opportunity within the tech industry itself.

> You've repeatedly insisted racial slurs aren't so bad, and diverse hiring practices are far worse.

Identify where I've said this? Because I've been very consistent in emphasizing that which is worse is a matter of perspective. In fact, I've specifically pointed out that it is not reasonable to say one is worse than the other because these are subjective judgements.

And lastly, trying to equate harboring different opinions on affirmative action in employment to being a leader in the KKK is really not called for. This is getting to the point where I'm convinced that this conversation is going nowhere.

> So tech companies should strive to be 50% women even though the tech industry is only 20% female (or slightly less)?

You seem to not understand what the term "representative" means. Or notice the circular logic implicit in your argument.

> Identify where I've said this?

You mean the last several posts of yours, where you've said it repeatedly, that you're now hilariously trying to backpeddle? You're welcome to re-read your posts. And the quotes I have of your posts, claiming racial slurs aren't so bad, and diverse hiring is worse.

> And lastly, trying to equate harboring different opinions on affirmative action in employment to being a leader in the KKK is really not called for.

It's not that the opinions you expressed are different, it's that they're repugnant. There's a difference.