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U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#2
In one example cited by the Labor Department, Palantir reviewed a pool of more than 130 qualified applicants for an engineering intern position, about 73 percent of whom were Asian. The lawsuit, which covers Palantir's conduct between January 2010 and the present, said the company hired 17 non-Asian applicants and four Asians.

"The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a billion," said the lawsuit, which was filed with the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges.

You'd kind of expect them to,† given the near certainty that they're being actively snooped upon by various foreign governments. Still one wonders what Labor's definition of "qualified" was in this case, and whether the need for visa sponsorship played a role in the selection process.

† Which should please not be construed to mean that I condone such discrimination (if it's happening to the degree alleged), or that I think it's inevitable. Only, one would suspect, not unexpected behavior for companies working in the so-called "intelligence community", or overlapping it to a significant degree.

Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#4
Is this just like the complaints about elite universities discriminating against Asians/Indians to maintain the diversity? Perhaps people who know about Palantir's diversity ratio can comment.

I have seen some companies preferring certain race of applicants to maintain diversity in teams even though there are plenty of qualified applicants.

Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#5
post #2

In one example cited by the Labor Department, Palantir reviewed a pool of more than 130 qualified applicants for an engineering intern position, about 73 percent of whom were Asian. The lawsuit, which covers Palantir's conduct between January 2010 and the present, said the company hired 17 non-Asian applicants and four Asians. "The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a bil…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#7
post #2

In one example cited by the Labor Department, Palantir reviewed a pool of more than 130 qualified applicants for an engineering intern position, about 73 percent of whom were Asian. The lawsuit, which covers Palantir's conduct between January 2010 and the present, said the company hired 17 non-Asian applicants and four Asians. "The likelihood that this result occurred according to chance is approximately one in a bil…

This is 100% a political move. The number of people hired matches the national average, which is what is usually used to determine "diversity".

Honestly, there is no reason this lawsuit should be pressed. As you pointed out I'm sure there were visa's required for some applicants, and 20% Asian is still good by percentage.

Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#8
post #3

Hang on... so ~20% of the hires ended up being asian. Doesn't the same thing happen at other firms aiming for ~diversity~ where the % accepted deviates from the % applied?

I'm reading it and I'm also surprised.

As far as I understood the whole discrimination and quotas fiasco for minorities always talk about the general population to be compared with.

Re: U.S. regulators accuse Palantir of bias against Asians

#10
It would be really nice if some of these reporters at least clarified if among those rejected were US Citizens. In the kind of work Palantir is involved in it is quite possible that they are trying to staff a US Citizen only shop to meet government requirements. Just look at the ITAR regs for example and the 'nonpermanent resident' gets waved about quite a lot.
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