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Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

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Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#471

Post by williamaadams »

PKop wrote: post #131
FlashGit wrote: post #21

One less white male on the team, diversity needle is moving in the right direction.

Everyone reading this that doesn't buy into the forced mandated groupthink... look here and see what the future holds. This is the ultimate goal. The people claim to be for tolerance and diversity, but really, they are just angry bitter race-obsessed and gender-obsessed political activists. It's going to get worse before it gets better...

"worse before better"... It's all a matter of perspective. For anyone who's been the "minority", things have always been 'worse'. Things can only get better.

If you can truly embrace that perspective, you'll discover a profound truth.

The transition might cause some discomfort for those who've been on the privileged side of things for a while.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#472

Post by wildmusings »

kylestlb wrote: post #467
wildmusings wrote: post #35

The author's arguments have been completely misrepresented. He pointed out widely-believed and sometimes scientifically-established differences in the DISTRIBUTION OF traits in men and women. He said that those differences make attempts to achieve numerical parity misguided, discriminatory, and harmful. What is his conclusion about how we should behave? "Treat people as individuals, not as just another member of thei…

Can you really say 'the establishment' is somehow masterminding anything, when the President of the USA will likely go on twitter to shame Google for what they've done?

There probably has never been a President as much at odds with the establishment as Trump.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#473

Post by nv-vn »

brown9-2 wrote: post #137
wyclif wrote: post #31

Fun fact: the author of the memo earned a PhD in Biology from Harvard. Google can fire him and get away with it, but it's going to be tough, very tough, for him to be falsely characterized as someone who is misinformed or unscientific. And the court of public opinion may well be more important in this controversy than any court of law.

Well to judge him on his merits and not his credentials, the memo was neither rigorously argued or all that persuasive. It is ironic that defenders who claim to want a meritocracy are also defending the author because of where he went to school .

I see your point, but the fact that he has the degree means he studied biology for many years of his life and contributed his own interesting ideas to the field. I think Harvard is the less important part here, although it is "well-respected" for a reason.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#474

Post by kartickv »

We have tens of thousands of highly specialised jobs in our modern societies. Maybe men perform better at some, women at others, and gender makes no difference in still others? If you reject even this question as offensive, how would you know if it's true?

It's like dismissing people saying the earth is round as being sacrilegious. If you don't even entertain the question, how would you know whether the earth is flat or round?

(I'm not talking about whether he should expressed this opinion at the office or outside, and whether Google should've fired him, but about political correctness in US society. Which seems out of control to me as an Indian.)

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#476

Post by ebola1717 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #390
postnihilism wrote: post #275

This feels like the blue and black (white and gold) dress. It boggles my mind that people don't see the fundamental and toxic misogyny in this 'manifesto'. Please have a woman you care about in your life, preferably one in tech, read this and then ask their opinion of the piece. The "treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group" sentiment of the author is fine except that we have hundreds of…

> Diversity programs are not about lowering the bar, they are about outreach and working against institutionalized racism and sexism which has created the distribution of wealth and education and work culture that we have today. I guess the one challenge I would put to this is that I find it difficult to believe that East Asians or Indians have been on the receiving end of any less discrimination than, say, Hispanics…

Asians are overrepresented because of the way immigration laws shifted in 1965, combined with rapidly changing economic conditions in India and China. 50% of Asians in the US hold a college degree, compared to 1% in Asia, so this is not representative of Asians as a whole, but the well-off, high caste, etc. Not to mention if you look at subgroups (refugee populations like the Vietnamese or Cambodians) the numbers reflect those situations.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#477

Post by ksk »

dguaraglia wrote: post #453
ksk wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holding an opposing view doesn't mean that they lack moral integrity.

Holding a view that inherently biases them against a whole gender does make them a work liability. How can you trust this person to be fair when - god forbid - they manage people and have to decide who performed better in their mixed-gender group? If anything, by firing him Google might be saving money in future gender-based discrimination lawsuits. On that alone, the "laissez faire capitalists" should stop moaning a…

>Holding a view that inherently biases them against a whole gender does make them a work liability.

That is your own fabrication. Please stick to what was actually said. They simply showed a lack of faith in their companies hiring practices (making sure diversity candidates were not accidentally turned away) being in line with their stated goals (hiring on merit). On principle, its no worse than employees complaining a bunch of new employees "got in easy" through an aqui-hire. If additional evidence was to be unearthed that this person is actually a raging bigot, then sure, bring out the pitchforks.

>If anything, by firing him Google might be saving money in future gender-based discrimination lawsuits. On that alone, the "laissez faire capitalists" should stop moaning about this.

Indeed, if we're operating on feelings and perception alone, then firing this individual probably makes a lot of sense from a PR standpoint.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#478

Post by nyxtom »

Waterluvian wrote: post #101

I believe that equal opportunity among all persons is manifest. But I think the manner in which we encourage/enforce/promote it, especially in the workplace, demands debate. We must be able to disagree with the methods without any question of our belief of its purpose. The most disgusted I've ever felt at a workplace was when my boss, prior to me interviewing someone, said, "and she gets an extra point because she's…

Furthermore, what happens when your boss doesn't say that; you make some objective remarks that she wasn't the best candidate, but she is hired anyways. I suppose this is why you have randomized groups interviewing without knowledge of who is doing the interviewing. By abstracting this away, your bias against the candidate will only be your bias alone in review. Collectively, the majority of interviewers would have to conclude she is unqualified, and given the systemic bias men have in being more critical of women, you would have to make sure you had women mentors also interviewing.

In this scenario, if she ends up being hired, your feedback that she wasn't the best could lead you to the conclusion that maybe others saw something you didn't. Or perhaps, like anyone in an interview, they were off their game for a bit. It's not totally unsound of a conclusion to make.

Re: Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

#479

Post by ViktorV »

chiaro wrote: post #266

A relevant kid's story: The Racist Tree By Alexander Blechman Once upon a time, there was a racist tree. Seriously, you are going to hate this tree. High on a hill overlooking the town, the racist tree grew where the grass was half clover. Children would visit during the sunlit hours and ask for apples, and the racist tree would shake its branches and drop the delicious red fruit that gleamed without being polished.…

The sad part is that underworld nazi trees would make a subculture which will be much worse than it would be if you actually talk with them.

Another part: this is a fairly left leaning site ( which I love! It is hard to find well argued leftist talking points as a libertarian ), and I'm not leftist. I get positive points in sum, which means that the majority of people are agreeing with me ( or maybe just see that I'm not trolling...). And this is not 4chan or not even reddit.

Sadly Donald Trump won the election. This strategy doesn't work if a very big chunk of the society are 'nazis'. You have to talk to them.

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