> There is this weird notion floating around the "identity politics" crowd that says that relying on merit is racist and prejudicial.
No, that's not the idea.
The idea is that things some people characterize as “focussing on merit” actually focus on the outputs of processes influenced substantially by (direct and structural) racism and other non-merit biases as well as merit.
And yet it was over eight years ago that GitHub removed their meritocracy rug. It's not weird, or new, nor limited to a fringe crowd, but embedded for years within Silicon Valley tech companies and YC startups.
No, that's not the idea.
The idea is that things some people characterize as “focussing on merit” actually focus on the outputs of processes influenced substantially by (direct and structural) racism and other non-merit biases as well as merit.