51–60 of 110 posts
Oh wow, that chart titled ‘Little Has Changed’ with the X axis pushed out to 100%. Looks like, if you squint hard enough, Facebook has at least tripled their number of black coders.
For all of those who claim it might be a pipeline problem, I looked it up and it looks like 4% of engineering degrees are granted (earned? Awarded?) to African Americans https://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/aamajors.c... Ill leave the interpretation up to you
I am sure those pointing out a pipeline problem are claiming it begins before college and those engineering degrees would be granted.
Or were you supporting the pipeline theory by showing how few candidates there actually are?
The truth is that black workers aren't applying to tech companies. In the last decade I have never once had a black person interview with me, not a single time. Yet, the black person who is on my team (hired before I joined this team) is one of the most skilled and knowledgeable people I know. He is rewarded for his knowledge and work.
Articles like this are poisonous.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tech companies are being actively leaned on to lower their standards to hire more black workers. Saying there aren’t jobs for them is nonsense.
"lower their standards to hire more black workers." do you hear yourself? You have linked color with standard. Companies hire based on skill, experience and culture fit.
For all of those who claim it might be a pipeline problem, I looked it up and it looks like 4% of engineering degrees are granted (earned? Awarded?) to African Americans https://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/aamajors.c... Ill leave the interpretation up to you
I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. I am sure those pointing out a pipeline problem are claiming it begins before college and those engineering degrees would be granted. Or were you supporting the pipeline theory by showing how few candidates there actually are?
If a company hires x%, and there are y% graduates, then we have a pipeline problem if x=y, or is close to y.
If x is much smaller than y, then the pipeline doesn't explain the whole problem.
I am not taking a stance on the pipeline issue in the general case. It may or may not be a problem for particular companies on a case by case basis.
For too long we have used the band-aid of lowering standards and affirmative action at every stage after, in college and hiring, to kick the can down the road and the result has been quite the opposite, leading to more bias and resentment.
If you are a highly skilled engineer and black, you have to constantly deal with the stigma that maybe you got to where you are not based on your outstanding abilities but only to fill some arbitrary racial quota.
There is nothing worse than that for ruining someone's self-esteem.
For all of those who claim it might be a pipeline problem, I looked it up and it looks like 4% of engineering degrees are granted (earned? Awarded?) to African Americans https://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/aamajors.c... Ill leave the interpretation up to you
> Blacks made up 7 percent of U.S. high-tech workforce, and just 3 percent of the total Silicon Valley workforce.
4% of the degrees are granted to members of the AA community, 3% of the jobs in SV are given to them.
i guess SV companies recruit from the top graduates. it would be interesting to know the percentage of AA of say the top 10% graduates in the STEM fields.
as others have pointed out, this doesn't mean that things are OK. it just shifts the focus from the hiring companies to the education system
I hired about 10 junior dev/qa/pm positions over 3 years as a manager in a SaaS tech company of 50-100. We posted on every job site and received 1,000+ resumes which I reviewed, in a city with ~30% african american population. Maybe 3 out of 1,000+ resumes were submitted by african americans, and none met most basic requirements for the position (either a relevant degree, or at least 1 year of related experience, or…
That is better than what I have seen. Where it was possible to tell I have never seen a black applicant to a programming job. That is as a founder and in previous roles where I helped review resumes and do interviews. We also saw something like (estimating) 50 men to every 1 woman last time we advertised a job. If there is a problem it is "upstream." I'd be happy to interview black candidates if they existed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tech companies are being actively leaned on to lower their standards to hire more black workers. Saying there aren’t jobs for them is nonsense.
"lower their standards to hire more black workers." do you hear yourself? You have linked color with standard. Companies hire based on skill, experience and culture fit.
Companies are being leaned on to over represent certain groups relative to their market distribution. That’s not possible industry wide unless you lower your technical standards for that subgroup.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because addressing the pipeline problem means admitting that racism is still alive and embedded in the foundations of our education and work force system. You can't expect there to be more workers if there's no applicants. There are no applicants because there is a severe lack of Black people (among other groups) represented in Engineering/STEM degree programs. That stems from a lack of good public school education.…
> when really we as a national don't honestly want to see marginalized groups succeed This sounds like a very big statement and probably something that can be a long post in itself. Would you be able to expound on that?
The American right, on the other hand, contends that providing social support to the poor and disenfranchised creates a "victim mentality" and a dependency on the system for advancement. They often accuse the American left of trying to make the United States into a communist nation akin to the Soviet Union and tend to favor the maximization of non-government power as much as possible. In practice, this manifests itself as a sort of "hyper-capitalism" where the American right grants tax breaks to the rich and large corporations in the name of both economic freedom and as a reward for their success in the free market.
It is very hard to reconcile the two perspectives.
EDIT: And just to add my own view here for clarity - I think both the left and right make salient points. The left is correct that there is no equality of opportunity without adjusting for the complexities of other aspects of life and financial constraints of a poor individual's starting position. I think the right is correct that a victim mentality is extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. I think there is a centrist position to be held that works for everyone, but both sides despise centrists, so I am hated every time I talk about politics.