[thaumasiotes]

This is done in the name of diversity because it's officially legal that way. Nobody's doing it because they believe in diversity.

Compare what happened to my roommate's dad: a sensitivity training guy came to give a lecture at his company, and was easily prodded into saying that workplace diversity increased along with the share of women. 40% women is more diverse than 30% women (sure). 70% women is more diverse than 60% women (hmmm). In the college context, "diverse" is more likely to be a code word for "black" than for "female", but the semantic drift is just as real; it's quite possible to describe a class as, oh, "40% diverse".

[notsony]

Take a step back and put this identity politics madness into context. Basically you get penalized for working hard and following the rules. Imagine you're a working-class White or Asian family, not eligible for state aid, and your child is trying their best to get into college. How would you feel if you also found out:

> "Apply only for California state aid through the California Dream Act of 2011. Several state financial aid programs and many private scholarships are open to AB 540 students. Other undocumented students are encouraged to apply as there are often campus based aid and private scholarships available to them.

There are two types of grants available as Cal Grants: the entitlement grants and the competitive grants... Under entitlement grants, eligible student are guaranteed a Cal Grant A if they have at least a 3.0 grade point average... Cal Grant A and B Competitive Awards are available for students who do not qualify for the entitlement grants. The competitive grants are not guaranteed. Each year 22,500 competitive grants are awarded. "

[1] LATimes comment via http://web.csulb.edu/president/government-community/ab540/pd...

[MollyR]

Yes, I'm hearing a lot of this kind of chatter in the asian american community. In the Korean and Chinese communities(where I live anyways), a lot of people are paying very very close attention to this. A lot of anger is rising, and it crosses age groups in their community. At my old college(ivy league, so big school), there was a large undercurrent of racial tension. A lot of students, even 2nd generations asian americans, mostly hung out with groups drawn along racial lines. I honestly fear these attempts to curb racism/discrimination are increasing it significantly.

[kaitai]

I don't understand this comment: why would a working-class white or Asian-American family not be eligible for state aid? I assume it would be because their income is too high or the kid's GPA is too low. Wouldn't those same regulations apply to the Dream Act kids too? If you're rich and undocumented you still don't get aid, and if you're undocumented with a crappy GPA you don't get anything either.

So do you feel that poor US citizens are actually getting a worse deal? How?

(I can see the argument that people who go back to, say, Mexico, and wait for a legal family visa to come to the US, are getting a raw deal. That's certainly true: as of January 2015 the US govt has finally gotten around to dealing with people who submitted their paperwork in 1994. http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy... )

[skywhopper]

Did the person (being quoted from three steps away, I'll note) actually say that "70% women is more diverse than 60% women" or are you just assuming that's what was meant because the person agreed with the general statement that more women would improve diversity? In most workplaces that is true.

[thaumasiotes]

As the story was told to me, the question was specifically probed of passing 50% women, which is obviously the tipping point at which additional women make you less "diverse" in the dictionary sense. I provided the particular numbers 70% and 60% so my comment would read better, since I can't recall the exact wording as it was told to me. Very true that I can't personally attest to this. You'll have to judge for yourself whether it's more likely that my roommate's dad (an engineer at Raytheon, if it helps you one way or the other) made it up to have something to complain about to his family, or whether he noticed something ridiculous, tested it, and complained to his family.

[jjoonathan]

> the question was specifically probed of passing 50% women

Over what organizational unit? It makes a crucial difference: diversity within a team (more generally: a gerrymeandered division of the company) can fall at the same time as the total diversity across the encompassing company rises.

> You'll have to judge for yourself whether it's more likely that my roommate's dad made it up... or whether he noticed something ridiculous

3rd possibility: something seemed ridiculous because he didn't understand it.

[rhino369]

Some colleges are now actually giving men a diversity boost so that their schools aren't 65% female.

[scarmig]

Reminds me of a kerfluffle that happened a couple months back, mentioned on Volokh:

All the newspaper headlines were proclaiming that the startup world was getting less diverse, and people were very upset at the racism of the tech community. But as it turned out, white representation in the tech sector had actually decreased. The only reason that the numbers said it was becoming less diverse was that Asian people weren't being classed as a non-white minority.

[rhino369]

This is actually going to be a big change going forward. Asian, Indian, South American, middle eastern, etc will be totally assimilated into white culture. Just like Italians and Irish were, despite initial discrimination.

[jjoonathan]

An acquaintance of your roommate's dad didn't understand the meaning of diversity so therefore Harvard doesn't either?

I don't follow.

[thaumasiotes]

No, the guy your company brings in to give diversity pep talks doesn't rise to the level of "acquaintance".

[jjoonathan]

Fine, now how about answering my question?

In particular,

> Nobody's doing it because they believe in diversity.

strikes me as incorrect. They made a much more convincing case than you did.