“Tech’s Troubling New Trend: Diversity Is in Your Head” (nytimes) complains about the lack of dark-skinned employees in “leadership roles” at technology companies. It becomes interesting when viewed alongside this page showing portraits of the executives who manage the New York Times.
Comments on this article can be interesting, e.g.,
After 20 years in one field I decided change careers and go into tech. I enrolled at my local university and learned multiple programming languages. I’ve taught entry level classes and volunteered at conferences, including a diversity conference. This is what I have to say about diversity in tech: diversity ends at 40. I can’t get an interview, let alone a job. But those in theirs 20s that I taught? Yeah, they have jobs. Tech is not interested in diversity except to tick off boxes.
White Privilege and Institutional Racism is a MYTH. The New York Times, like all the other Liberal FAKE NEWS propaganda organizations are just latching on to such bullshit to ferment strife and advance their left wing political agenda.
I am a first generation American. I have yellow skin. And, throughout the 22 years of my American Experience, I can definitively say that White Privilege and Institutional racism is utter rubbish. As Director of Product Development, I have worked for big corporations and small companies. I have been to over 20 states from the leftist coasts through the red mid-west to the Confederate South. I have mingled with the most conservative Tea Partiers and the insanely Liberal San Franciscans. I have never felt any significant racism in my encounters or in my career. I have never felt impeded because of race. My wife is also a (legal) immigrant. Her parents came to the USA with three daughters from the Canton province of communist China in 1998. Her dad cut fish at the market. Her mom worked at the food counter. They had to learn English, they haven’t gone to college, they had $1500 in the bank and they lived in one rented room. All three daughters ended up graduating UC Berkeley – two of them Cum Laude. Today, one is an eye doctor, one is a bio-statistician and one is a Certified Public Accountant. So much for not being able to make it in America if you start broke at the bottom of the ladder with colored skin.
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But forget about my opinion or their experiences. Let’s just look at the FACTS. Asians started off at the bottom in the USA with many having an initial language barrier. Today, Asian families make $66,000 in median household income to $54,000 for White families. In spite of wide spread adoption of affirmative action quotas against Asians in college admissions 49% of Asians have college degrees to 31% of Whites. Asians have the lowest imprisonment rate and the highest home ownership rate. Are we the Gook Supermen and a Superior Race? No, it’s simply that Asians do not spend much time being offended, engaging in self-pity or blaming everyone else for their plight. Through education, hard work, discipline, thriftiness and putting off gratification they strive to change it. Asians simply spent more time becoming successful. So if Asians can do it, why can’t Latinos and Blacks? Simple, because Asians as a group have not succumbed to nonsense like the White Privilege myth or the other garbage neo-liberals preach at the Democratic Plantation.
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Still not convinced? When was the last time you heard of a college or a company having a policy to not hire minorities? On the other hand, brown and black racism is as clear as day in modern America with racist acts like Affirmative Action and “Diversity Hiring”. Why did “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren have to claim to be Native American to land a teaching job at a college? How many people voted for Obama in 2008 specifically because of the color of his skin? When was the last time you heard of the media crying wolf when a White person was shot by the Police? After all, 494 Whites were killed by cops in 2015 to 258 blacks – nearly twice the number. Why are cops more likely to view Blacks as a threat and approach with guns drawn? Is it because of racism? Or, Is it because while blacks are just 12.6% of the population, they commit 62% of the robberies (11x higher than whites), 57% of the murders (9x higher than whites) and 45% of the assaults (6x higher than whites). Can it be because so many Blacks adopted a culture which not only justifies a life of crime but worship criminality – as is so evident within deplorable Gangsta Rap lyrics?
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Here’s my advice to the minorities, the disadvantaged and the poor. America is full of opportunities. The deck is not stacked against you. If anything, it is stacked in your favor. But, nobody owes you success or wealth. Stop listening to Fake News and get off that “Progressive” Plantation.
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STOP BEING OFFENDED, START BEING SUCCESSFUL!
If you go an look at that NY Times article, you’ll see that the words “Opinion | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR” are right at the top. That means that the article is not an editorial written by the editorial board, but rather something written by an outside contributor. So your headline “New York Times complains… ” is incorrect. Talk about Fake News!
Dwight: your rant is full of nonsense. Let’s just take a few your statements and questions.
When was the last time you heard of a college or a company having a policy to not hire minorities?
There was evidence produced during the campaign that a certain business leader named Donald Trump didn’t like the idea of black people working as accountants at his casino.
Why did “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren have to claim to be Native American to land a teaching job at a college?
There’s no evidence that that was her motivation.
How many people voted for Obama in 2008 specifically because of the color of his skin?
There were probably very few. The vast majority of the people who voted for Obama in 2008 voted for John Kerry in 2004. Even if his race helped him, that’s just one guy out 40 million African-American who got a good job due to his race.
After all, 494 Whites were killed by cops in 2015 to 258 blacks – nearly twice the number.
Yet there are five times as many white Americans as black Americans.
Why are cops more likely to view Blacks as a threat and approach with guns drawn? Is it because of racism?
If a cop treats an individual a certain way because of his color, that is racism. In fact, it’s pretty much the definition of racism.
Here’s my advice to the minorities, the disadvantaged and the poor. America is full of opportunities. The deck is not stacked against you
To say that the deck is not stacked against poor Americans shows an ignorance of America. Children born to rich parents have a huge array of benefits that kids born to poor parents don’t have.
> If a cop treats an individual a certain way because of his color,
> that is racism. In fact, it’s pretty much the definition of racism.
No it is not. From Google:
racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
I doubt cops drawing guns think about which race is more or less superior. I am pretty sure they are more likely to think about possibility of a threat, based on their experience.
But I may be wrong.
@Vince, whether Op-Ed or not, doesn’t the Editor-In-Chief/Executive Editor decide in the end what get’s published and what doesn’t? Is the assumption here that the Editor-In-Chief is completely unbiased and will publish anyone’s Op-Ed?
GermanL: You can test this theory. Write an Op-Ed titled “Awesome performance by companies staffed mostly with young white guys” that describes the early-years growth of Apple, Facebook, and Google and compares that to the mediocre financials put up by companies whose workforce is diverse. See if the NYT executives are enthusiastic about publishing it!
Well, the NYT has one black (though not exactly “dark-skinned”) guy, so I guess they figure tech should saddle up and grab one themselves as well. Which could admittedly be a cheaper path to keeping the diversity crew off your backs than paying the DiversityGeld over and over again.
It’s a bit unfair, the executive editor of the NYT (i.e. the boss of the newsroom) is African-American.
Clear underpresentation
mishka:
There are a number of definitions. Sometimes people just harbor feelings of animosity towards members of other races without thinking much about superiority. Regardless, if a police officer is “more likely to view Blacks as a threat and approach with guns drawn”, it would be reasonable to assume that that officer considers African-Americans to be inferior to his own race. Your statement is ridiculous.
GermanL:
The fact that the editors don’t allow any random person to publish and op-ed doesn’t mean that every op-ed reflects the view of the newspaper. In fact, there are times when an op-ed writer will express a certain opinion on a given day and then another writer will express the opposite opinion the following day. So it’s absurd to say that op-eds announce a corporate position on an issue.