
Silicon Valley, Seeking Diversity, Focuses on Blacks - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/technology/silicon-valley-seeking-diversity-focuses-on-blacks.html
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davidf18
I know of an Asian man who graduated from an Ivy League law school. Neither of
his parents had gone to college (they were immigrants from Asia) and yet he
was penalized because his ethnic group is successful. He was upset about that.

You will find that there are many blacks in undergrad, MBA, law, medical
schools but not so many in engineering/science schools. I believe it is simply
that blacks are not interested in engineering/computer science and choose
these other fields instead.

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draw_down
> "If you look at the scale and speed with which the Valley moves, if they
> wanted to solve this problem, they could," Dr. Womack said.

That's basically an argument for "the Valley" not having any problems at all.
It's said in the context of a wider talent shortage, so does it mean that
there is a huge glut of engineers (black or otherwise) currently being
ignored/underemployed?

Or it could mean that throwing money at the problem would fix it in short
order, which I generally doubt, though I have no issue with the notion that
companies complaining about a talent shortage should consider paying to get
what they want.

Or it could mean that companies should throw money at the problem in the form
of training up engineers, but that is not a speedy-scaley proposition,
unfortunately. Hard problems still exist in the time of Uber.

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seiji
Yeah, it's a huge culture issue, but not a technical problem companies can
engineer solutions towards. Tech companies don't exist as government
regulators of natural philosophy. On the other hand, tech companies do suffer
from monoculture and it hurts them when they only play to their own ivory
towers instead of understanding the world as it exists.

When it's expedient to engage different groups it does happen though. Apple
didn't buy Beats because their headphones are the best designed things in the
world. Apple saw a company that managed to manipulate an entire (racially
motivated) youth subculture and wanted to steal some of that power for
themselves. Apple also wanted that elderly executive guy who dresses as if
he's a teenager from the south and rambles incessantly, unprepared and
unrehearsed, at keynotes.

The future of America is clearly not-white (over 50% of children born in the
US are now "non-majority") so the problem will self correct within the next 15
years. Be prepared for 15 years of news reports about how everything isn't
diverse enough until, one day, things just end up being diverse by the force
of history.

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adventured
Shifting demographics won't inherently change diversity issues in places like
Silicon Valley. The problem is far wider than numerical distribution; it's
education, home stability, environment, poverty, etc etc, and 15 years isn't
going to correct all of that just because national demographics are gradually
shifting.

The proof for that is all around: black people are 15% of the population, but
a fraction of that in major tech companies. The same holds true for latinos.
There's a reverse example that makes the point as well: asians as a percentage
of the national population, versus representation in tech companies in Silicon
Valley. That more than makes it clear it's about skills and education, not
demographic percentages.

Baltimore is ~65% black. Do you think 65% of the programmers in Baltimore are
black?

If your theory were correct, we'd have seen a lot more black people working
for Twitter, Apple, Google, etc. a long time ago.

It doesn't matter if the future is 80% non-white, if people that are non-white
don't develop the education and skills required for the jobs in Silicon
Valley. That's the issue, and it won't change just because the percentages on
demographics do - ie it is not self-correcting. If it were self-correcting,
you'd see proof of that in US cities that have had very large black
populations for a long time.

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brianbreslin
In Miami, the population is 60% hispanic, and i would guess at least 40% of
the programmers here are hispanic.

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trhway
there are disproportionally more blacks in prisons and disproportionally less
in Silicon Valley. Doesn't it hint that the root issues lie earlier, that
bifurcation point happens well before that in time and causal chain, like in
school and the environment where the childhood is spent.

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dajohnson89
Yes, so let's ignore the issues facing adult blacks. It's not like the success
of black children depends on that of their parents or anything.

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trhway
I don't understand. Are there black programmers who can't get a job?

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dajohnson89
What is unclear about the article? There are so few black programmers, that
it's a moot point to determine whether or not black programmers can get a job.

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Luke101
I'm a black programmer and I have seen other highly educated minorities where
I'm from.

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MattGrommes
I've thought for a long time that by excluding black people from so many tech
companies they were, among obvious other problems, missing a lot of business
opportunities. Most white tech workers/founders are simply not going to know
about a lot of products or services that are common in black society, such as
specialized hair care that's already producing a number of startups.

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andyl
Majority of the programmers I work with in the valley are Indians and Asians.
It's been that way for years.

I'd venture a bet that my silicon valley co-workers are much more diverse than
the NY Times writers who love to preach about diversity.

Quick check:

    
    
        - NYT Executive Leadership: 90% white
        - NYT Board of Directors: 92% white
        - NYT Opinion Writers: 91% white
    

Media has a diversity problem!!

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cgy1
Asian-Americans simply don't count when it comes to racial diversity. If tech
companies are not diverse because the vast majority of workers are white and
Asian, isn't the NBA similarly non-diverse because the vast majority of
players are black and white? Would there be a similar uproar about the lack of
racial diversity in tech if the representation of Asian-Americans and blacks
working in tech were reversed? I very much doubt it.

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nolite
I don't think anyone would qualify the NBA as "diverse". Its had a high
majority of black players for a while now. You don't see a ton of asians or
hispanics however.

