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YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

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Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#101
I remember back in college when I applied for a job in a multi-national company, I didn't get a math screening quiz that applicants from outside of United States had to take. The quiz was pretty easy middle school math that would take 15 minutes to complete.

It turns out that the reason is that screening for basic math competency could be discrimination, because it reduces the chance of hiring for minorities who do less well at math testing. If the quiz were carried out in US, the company would need to prepare some report stating that math is essential to the job, which would be very cumbersome and costly to do scientifically.

I found it ridiculous as the position clearly needed math and I believe basic arithmatic is a valuable skill to ask for majority of the jobs, even for low-skill positions like cashier at Walmart. While eliminating discrimination is a great cause, all the band-aids to make the issue look less bad is shameful. Instead of improving basic education for minority communities (which costs some money now with high return from enhanced labor productivity and less welfare), our governments/society artificially discriminate in the opposite direction and suppress valid criteria that are statistically unfavorable to minorities.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#102
post #88

Anyone who has worked for a large tech company in SF in the last 3/4 years knows that this has happened everywhere. In fairness, Google was one of the very last ones among large tech companies to play the quota game. But the problem is that that's a game that once the first company starts playing it, everyone else is forced to play it too. Company X publishes a report with amazing diversity numbers and brands itself…

Or, instead of giving in, these companies could actually use their impressive power and reach to halt such practices and not let their brand be so affected. (Hello marketing budgets.) Big_Co is not a victim here, and portraying them as such is vastly unfair to the actual people being adversely affecting by discriminatory hiring practices. These companies can and should do better than "well everyone else is doing it!"

I hope my comment didn't come across as I am portraying them as a victim. I saw first hand hiring based on quotas and I hated it (and I am an immigrant with dark skin).

I was just stating a fact about Google, that they were among the last to implement quotas in Silicon Valley, and why I think they started doing it.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#103
This begs the question, what is Latino and what is white? I was born in a Latin American country to a Latin American mother and a Canadian father, have lived here my entire life but if you saw me you wouldn't even think I spoke Spanish.

Likewise, I've made friends in the US who are of Mexican descent and look very much like it but don't speak a lick of Spanish.

This has led me to feel not at home in either my country of origin or Canada. Since I'm too white to be from here and don't know enough about Canadian lifestyle to relate to anyone there.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#104
People outside of tech think there's this silent discrimination and hostility against women and minorities, but it's the complete opposite. If you could choose your race and gender going into these interviews, you would be a complete idiot to choose male or white or asian.

It's not just in hiring either. Another thing I've noticed is if you fail as a male engineer, you get fired. If you fail as a female engineer, you get reassigned to product management. These positions seem to be reserved for non-males. Women get reassigned, men get shown the door.

It's getting to the point where all of this is so overt and so undeniable. It's all to avoid lawsuits, but what if they're just exposing themselves to more lawsuits on the other end of that pendulum?

I have to think at some point the race- and gender-based meddling these companies do in people's careers will have to stop.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

White != "upper class" Turns out you can be a poor white (like myself)...just an FYI.

So you being poor is justification enough to spread divisive comments and fuel further hatred (on either side)?

> "So you being poor is justification enough to spread divisive comments and fuel further hatred (on either side)"

This is over-dramatic...

I'm just saying in today's world you can identify as whatever the hell you want, and nobody can question it apparently...so It might be a good strategy for white males to "identify" as the race/gender that seem to get additional points on their applications based on their race/gender.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#106

The thing I hate about actions like this is what it does to talented people who fit some diversity quota checklist, both in the perception they have of themselves and those of other people. If you are a talented melanin-rich woman you are going to face both heightened impostor syndrome and dismissal by others that you only got the job because of some quota. Not good for anyone. There are no easy solutions, but it wou…

This isn’t a new problem. Women and POC that were hired following affirmative action reported being called “affirmative action hires” and faced workplace discrimination based on the idea that they didn’t deserve the jobs. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t, but how was the issue of them being denied jobs based on sex or race to be solved otherwise?

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#107

This begs the question, what is Latino and what is white? I was born in a Latin American country to a Latin American mother and a Canadian father, have lived here my entire life but if you saw me you wouldn't even think I spoke Spanish. Likewise, I've made friends in the US who are of Mexican descent and look very much like it but don't speak a lick of Spanish. This has led me to feel not at home in either my country…

There are many people is that position. For example, the conflict between Hispanic and Latino identity.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#108

Anyone who has worked for a large tech company in SF in the last 3/4 years knows that this has happened everywhere. In fairness, Google was one of the very last ones among large tech companies to play the quota game. But the problem is that that's a game that once the first company starts playing it, everyone else is forced to play it too. Company X publishes a report with amazing diversity numbers and brands itself…

This starts with the [diversity pledge](http://thehill.com/policy/technology/284517-white-house-pres...) pushed by Obama administration, including companies like Airbnb, Box, GitHub, GoDaddy, Intel, Lyft, Medium.

No wonder many Asians sigh relief when Clinton failed her presidency, or she surely would have pushed for more.

Re: YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Males, Lawsuit Says

#110
post #15

Last spring, YouTube recruiters were allegedly instructed to cancel interviews with applicants who weren’t female, black or Hispanic, and to “purge entirely” the applications of people who didn’t fit those categories, the lawsuit claims. Anyone from Google or YouTube--or people who applied to work at either org in this time frame--have perspectives to add regarding this claim?

Towards the end of last year I actually did apply to Google in Mountain View for Software Engineering. I believe my on-site went excellent technically overall, but I had a hard time meshing with a couple of my interviewers and wasn't surprised about my rejection. Nothing strange about that personally. However, another Google recruiter reached out to me for two other potential positions, said I would be an excellent f…

This happens all the time in recruiting. Companies leave candidates hanging indefinitely. Hell, I've had it happen to me even for an internal position at a company I've worked for.
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