[handoflixue]

You're asking the wrong person there. "Both" concedes that it was "DEI"

But to actually answer the question: while it can absolutely be both, you need to provide proof of the additional claim. "People cheated for DEI reasons" and "People cheated for cronyism reasons" are two separate claims. The article provides plenty of evidence for the former and not much for the latter.

[lazide]

What do you consider cronyism except ‘members of this organization share cheats and get each other in’?

[handoflixue]

"Cronyism (noun, derogatory): the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications."

Cronyism is advancing the interests of your personal connections. Friends and family. If you want an explicit cutoff, the Dunbar Number suggests this group should have 100, maybe 150 people in it.

Conversely, there's 40 million black people in the US, and I really doubt anyone is even associated with all of them, much less calling them one of their friends.

You can change who you're friends with a lot easier than you can change your skin color, so the two result in different problems. They're both bad, of course. Similar to how "wage theft" and "shoplifting" are different crimes, even though both of them involve taking money from someone else.

[lazide]

Associates. You know like people who literally belong (aka associate) to the same organization?

Only hiring people who belong to the same fraternity is also cronyism, and is the same problem.

In this case, a criteria for joining this ‘fraternity’ is the color of their skin.

Hence double applicable with DEI.

Why do you keep insisting on ignoring half of what you are pasting?

[handoflixue]

> Associates. You know like people who literally belong (aka associate) to the same organization?

First, the FAA and the NBCFAE are different organizations.

Second, "Associate" does not mean "employed at the same massive organization". It means someone you actually know, on a personal level. You and I are not "associates" just because we both post on Hacker News.

Third, the question is whether you're associated with the individual, not the organization that they're a part of.

> Only hiring people who belong to the same fraternity is also cronyism

If you only hire from Harvard or some other prestigious university is that also cronyism?

Are all internal promotions cronyism?

If you only hire people who live in your city, is that also cronyism? Keep in mind that there's plenty of rural towns that have fewer people than a big fraternity does. Does this change if all th qualified workers in the town are black, so you're only hiring black workers?

You presumably have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise "only hiring US citizens" is also cronyism. Where, exactly, are you suggesting that line should be?

[lazide]

I’m saying going out of your way to get people from a specific organization that you are also a member of hired where you work, is cronyism.

Also, going out of your way to hire people of specific skin color where you work, is racism.

Seems like a bunch of folks at the FAA were doing both here, yes?

[handoflixue]

Totally agreed on this being racist, illegal, and just absurdly unethical. I just think the way you're understanding the word "cronyism" is going to lead to a lot of confusion, because it's not the way most people use it.

I'll offer up the Wikipedia definition, since it is perhaps slightly clearer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism defines it as "friends or trusted colleagues".