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Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

reuters.com

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Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#61

Is attrition a "normal" English word in this context, or is it also GoogleSpeak like Black+?

It's relatively normal. I guess the dictionary doesn't agree exactly with how it's used here, but it's listed as meaning 2 in this dictionary here and then also further on. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/attriti...

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#62
post #51

[flagged]

I often hear people I dismiss directly mention cultural marxism. But I have never seen an explanation of what cultural marxism is. Could you enlighten me?

Critical theory is actually what people mean when they say cultural Marxism.

Critical theory itself came out of various Marxist and Marxist-influenced academics in the mid-20th century.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#63
post #37
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…

3% of Hispanics use the term, and an overwhelming majority believe it should never be used to describe them. [1] Honestly it's disgusting it's still in use. When does it be come a slur given it's used against a population against their wishes? [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in...

Hispanic != Latino/a/x

They're not describing the same population.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#64
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…

I have studied Spanish and am currently studying Portuguese (my partner is Brazilian) and I think about this a lot. I would take the other side of the bet here. I would bet that this deeply ingrained gendering of objects does show up elsewhere and influence attitudes. Surely there have been studies on this? Of course I respect your experience as a native speaker and the fact that you know more native speakers than I…

There are studies that show that polyglot speakers tend to think in slightly different ways when they switch languages. It is probably true that speaking a language where every noun is gendered might slightly change the way you think, but in my personal opinion not in the way you imagine.

What I mean is that when masculine or feminine are used to describe mundane everyday objects, it's very well possible that the idea of masculinity or femininity might be de-emphasised in the mind of the native speaker, rather than reinforced.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#65
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…

Imperialism has continued, but it’s just been rebranded as a pseudo-religious movement. There is only one Truth and any cultures that disagree are “behind” or “anti-progressive.”

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#66
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.

Maybe the reason for the attrition. I'm a white dude but work in a foreign country (also predominantly white). For the most part I'm just "one of the guys". I only really feel like an outsider when corporate policy dictates we have to talk about cultural sensitivity towards foreigners and I happen to be the only foreigner in the room. For people of different races, I assume this feeling is switched on practically all…

I don't understand it. I've never been in the minority where I live but this is how I imagine it feels being in a group that is being singled out for some reason or another. Every person is a completely unique individual and focusing on things like skin color just seem insane to me. Why not focus on the fact that we are 99.9% the same but have different experiences which make us valuable and interesting.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#67
post #37
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…

3% of Hispanics use the term, and an overwhelming majority believe it should never be used to describe them. [1] Honestly it's disgusting it's still in use. When does it be come a slur given it's used against a population against their wishes? [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in...

To play devil's advocate here (I don't personally care one way or another what hispanic people are typically called), I don't think polling sentiment is necessarily a good indicator of something's morality.

For reference, 75% of polled people in the US disapproved of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the year he was assassinated.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-martin-luther-kin...

If we go by your logic of purely going off of polling, MLK, Jr. was an all around terrible man going against the wishes of the population. I don't think any reasonable person these days would agree with that.

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#68

Curious that most of the comments here are attacking the choice of language instead of engaging with any of the actual reasons this is happening.

Language is our main tool for expressing ideas. IMO that means language choices can help include more people in the conversation, or (more often than not) act as a diferenciation factor between the "enlightened ones" (woke ones ?) and the rest.

Given people stay respectful, I think that's fair to criticize languages choices and the barrier they create.

"Freedom is Slavery"

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#69
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3% of Hispanics use the term, and an overwhelming majority believe it should never be used to describe them. [1] Honestly it's disgusting it's still in use. When does it be come a slur given it's used against a population against their wishes? [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in...

Hispanic != Latino/a/x They're not describing the same population.

Do you have any proof that would refute the core point?

Re: Google reports soaring attrition among Black women

#70
Let's look at the data, shall we? In 2019:

- 0.95% of CS degrees were awarded to black women

- 0.86% of degrees were awarded to women who identify as two or more races

- 1.63% were awarded to latina women

Looks like they're hiring a larger share of individuals in these demographics (1.8% hire rate in each group) than receive degrees. It's not by a lot, but it's definitely not stagnant or moving backwards.

(Note this obviously doesn't include other professions, but these other professions, at Google, aren't nearly as large a part of their labor pool. It is significant, though, considering 20% of blacks have BS degrees, and 19% of hispanics do.)

I've really soured on these efforts. It seemed to me the diversity group formed at the company I work for has a narrow focus on the specific identities that (surprise, surprise) the "leaders" on the team fit in. This is what identity politics in America is these days. It's not about inclusion, it's about using the politics of identity in a self-serving way--kinda like any other corporate maneuvering.

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