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Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

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Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#641

Post by antics »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #412
antics wrote: post #311

I am Wasq'u (a tribe in the PNW), I am connected to my tribe, and I am one of a handful of remaining speakers of the language. I am really tired of being caught in the maw of people fighting about my identity, what I am owed, and to some extent what place my identity has in society. To the pro-DEI crowd: I have some hard truths for you. Actual change requires commitment and focus over an extremely long period of time…

>to have an impact you must have courage to say no to the vast majority of social issues you could care about, and then commit deeply to the ones you decide to work on. I strongly agree, but sadly I think what you're saying here is probably almost incomprehensible to a broad swathe of middle-class white Americans, to whom being seen to be outwardly supportive of every DEI-ish cause has essentially become something li…

In our area, it is mostly resorts and casinos. Economic development gives everyone in the area jobs and opportunities. This has changed the picture from "Indians begging the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and local government for resources" to "we have a robust economic engine which is a critical part of the greater surrounding community, and which we'd mostly all like to succeed, but need to work through details on." It's not perfect and there's still conflict but it's much easier to work together in the latter situation.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#642

Post by golly_ned »

gorgoiler wrote: post #124

Diversity in tech hiring never felt like the right end of the funnel. It’s why I went into teaching and I’m proud to say after what seems like a ridiculously short amount of time (“they grow up so fast” etc.) the girls from my classes are now entering the work force as SWE and ML interns. Not many, but more than none. When we focus diversity efforts on high school kids then we get a turnaround at the funnel entrypoin…

Just noting for those interested to check out Microsoft TEALS.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#645

Post by golly_ned »

65 wrote: post #335
OnionBlender wrote: post #248

Does this mean we can go back to using "master" as our git repo's default branch?

My controversial opinion is that I think "main" is more descriptive and intuitive than "master."

"master" makes sense if taken to mean a "master" as in a recording from which other records are made.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#646

Post by golly_ned »

runako wrote: post #369
annzabelle wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the most egregious hiring practice I've actually seen. The white/black/hispanic/asian american managers all hire teams with multiple ethnicities based on the most qualified candidates for the job, while Indian born managers frequently seem to end up with teams that are 80+% Indian. I don't think I've ever seen a team that's 80% white, even in roles that require US Citizenship, but 80% Indian happens frequently…

> I don't think I've ever seen a team that's 80% white I assure you this is very common in the industry, at least in the US. I can even go further: that 80% white team will usually also not have any women. 80% white men on a team describes most of the teams I've worked on over the decades.

Depends highly on the scale of the company from what I've seen. Megacorp can sponsor visas and end up with entire organizations of Indian or Chinese.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#647

Post by NotYourLawyer »

fourside wrote: post #492
gusfoo wrote: post #227

> Read the memo from Meta in full: That did not seem at all controversial to me. It seems quite sensible, but it alludes to some silly practices that are now being retired. For example "This effort focused on sourcing from diverse-owned businesses" is, in my opinion at least, a very very silly thing to do. I am much, much, more interested in high quality, affordable, stable products when I buy things. Not the skin co…

> may disadvantage my business by making my own products (build from their components) worse One of the biggest wins for the anti-DEI crowd was convincing people that embracing DEI implicitly meant getting something of lesser quality or value. Here, you assume that focusing on businesses owned by people of color necessitates lowering your standards of your suppliers below acceptable levels.

This is disingenuous.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#648

Post by hyperadvanced »

jorblumesea wrote: post #556
erulabs wrote: post #11

I think it's somewhat important to understand meta and its products are _not_ tech products. Outside of React and llama and the like, Meta is not building for or speaking to the tech community. If what they do or say sounds like populism, it's because it is. It can be ham fisted, because the majority of people are only barely paying attention, and the majority of people is who facebook wants to please. Like politics,…

I don't think Meta was in any danger of anything, either implementing pro or anti DEI policies. Zuck is still owner founder. He does whatever he wants, see: metaverse fiasco. The average person could not care less about meta's DEI policy, unlike Meta's content moderation policy. Meta was not in danger of being regulated by congress, who can't seem to even fund the government properly, less agree on any kind of regula…

On the contrary, if DEI really is meaningless performative bloat which is resulting in labor problems, this is just an easy way out. It may not be popular or even possible to effectively legislate against the supposed legalized discrimination inherent in DEI, but it is pretty easy to take the L and save a few million in not having an army of lecturers on staff.

The whole charade is telling for those who believe that businesses have any real mission other than to make money: with the carrot pulled out from in front of them and the sticks put away (and possibly other sticks being brandished as we speak) it’s not hard to see why something like this would happen every 4 or 6 years.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#649

Post by 77pt77 »

arghandugh wrote: post #532

Zuckerberg single-handedly pulling the control rods out of a platform with three billion users may go down as the most consequential, catastrophic decision in human events. The only good billionaire is a former billionaire.

Plenty of popes have made far more consequential decisions.

Re: Meta's memo to employees rolling back DEI programs

#650

Post by 77pt77 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #26

There are two things that are important to separate here: 1. In one hand, the rolling back of how DEI has/was implemented I think can be a good thing. I think lots of people, myself included, believe that it "went off the rails", but most importantly, I think it ended up being counterproductive to its end goals. Nearly everyone I know who wasn't part of the DEI cottage industry came to view many/most of these program…

It's incredibly honest that they went out of their way to say explicitly the groups that can be bullied.

Scary, but also honest.

Bad times in the short future for everyone...

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