Live data from Hacker News

Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

reuters.com

21–30 of 443 posts

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#21
post #3

What is Black+ and Latinx+? This is the first time I'm hearing this term and can't find anything about it in the report or online.

Invented terms. Latinx is extremely unpopular among Hispanics according to Pew Research, with just 3% using it. [1] A significant majority of Hispanics say it should never be used to describe them in any circumstance.

It's forced cultural desecration, and it's totally unwanted by the targets of the term.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in...

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#22
post #12
post #3

What is Black+ and Latinx+? This is the first time I'm hearing this term and can't find anything about it in the report or online.

"The data in this section allows people of two or more races to more accurately state their racial background. For example, Black+ includes all Googlers who identify as Black, plus those who identify as Black and any other race." https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/diversity.google/...

Thanks. Is there a hierarchy? Like if I identify as both Black and White, am I counted in Black+ or White+ or is it double counted? Does the employee provide a ranking?

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's for being Black + Gay or whatever other minority. Latino is for males, Latina is for females so Latinx is for both and other genders and I guess the + indicates belonging to another minority group. As a non-American this all seems silly but I see the point of it.

Google doesn't track sexual orientation. Black+ means black or black plus some other ethnic minority (Native American, Latino, etc.).

I dont suppose the term was coined by Google so.. Following the same logic, LGBTQ+ doesn't refer to sexual orientation?

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#25
The elephant in the room is the ouster of Timnit Gebru. Regardless of who you think was in the wrong there, a lot of people who left did so because they thought Google was in the wrong, and left in solidarity or maybe even because they thought they might be next for being similarly outspoken.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#26
post #22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The data in this section allows people of two or more races to more accurately state their racial background. For example, Black+ includes all Googlers who identify as Black, plus those who identify as Black and any other race." https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/diversity.google/...

Thanks. Is there a hierarchy? Like if I identify as both Black and White, am I counted in Black+ or White+ or is it double counted? Does the employee provide a ranking?

My interpretation is that you'd be in both "Black+" and "White+"

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#27
post #4

Latinx(+) is a term I’ve never heard a latino person use in real life. It seems like needless kid gloves and bastardization of language.

I also don't use the term "White British" to describe myself even though it is the demographic I select on surveys.

These terms are useful for demographic measurement, not for personal description. Another commenter gives a good explanation – that the + is there to include those who identify as mixed race. Latinx is used to aggregate Latino/Latina identities.

These terms are useful with even the smallest amount of interest given to why they might be. I'd encourage you to be more curious rather than jumping to the conclusion that this stems from some cultural over-sensitivity.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#28
post #4

Latinx(+) is a term I’ve never heard a latino person use in real life. It seems like needless kid gloves and bastardization of language.

Ruby, Ruby on Rails, React, jQuery, Vue, Svelte, Vagrant are terms I’ve never heard a regular person use in real life. The former in particular seems like needless kid gloves and bastardization of language.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's for being Black + Gay or whatever other minority. Latino is for males, Latina is for females so Latinx is for both and other genders and I guess the + indicates belonging to another minority group. As a non-American this all seems silly but I see the point of it.

Google doesn't track sexual orientation. Black+ means black or black plus some other ethnic minority (Native American, Latino, etc.).

Google does track orientation of employees. They have a breakdown of intersectional hiring in their 2019 report. It may be voluntarily reported.

But the + doesn't stand for orientation. I don't see how being gay makes you any more or less of a racial identity

https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/93d9a4094693cb78...

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#30
post #17

I'm Italian and I speak Spanish and Portuguese relatively fluently. Using the term "Latinx" in my opinion is a form of cultural appropriation, because it imposes a way of using grammatical gender that is typical of the English language (think e.g. about the "singular they") upon neo-latin languages where the perception of grammatical gender is very different. In neo-latin languages such as Italian or Spanish, grammat…

Not even speaking about languages without gendered nouns. :) Sometimes I use she instead of he or the other way around, and the listeners likely don't realize that I have to pay extra attention using he/she when talking about people because my mother tongue doesn't even have a similar concept whatsoever.

Anyway, we know that most of the time it's not about actually respecting the other person.

Post reply on HN