
Introducing Project Include - IamFermat
https://medium.com/projectinclude/introducing-project-include-d0c3b8358fd5#.zh3wp2xvu
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sveng1826
I've been out of the loop on this discussion -- when was it concluded that
diversity is a critical thing for tech companies to focus on? The article
makes some really strong recommendations are not backed up by anything in the
text:

"If you’re an early stage startup with little to no diversity, you are in
trouble and need to fix it fast."

"For everyone who has the vision and courage to push forward aggressively:
What if your whole team spent 25 percent of their time on diversity and
inclusion efforts?"

"Think about your biases — we all have them — and how they affect your actions
and perspective. Then ask people to teach you even more, and pay them for
their time to show that you believe diversity work is hard and valuable."

I agree completely there are issues with, say, gender makeup (10% in SV vs 50%
female overall), but this is a pipeline issue and I don't see tech companies
having a very big impact here. A better, more direct approach would be to
spend time explicitly promoting tech to girls in the K-12 system.

One final point: I decided to create a throwaway to post this because I am
confident that I would be pilloried by people in these organizations if I were
to bring up these points with my real name attached. There is not a healthy
climate of discussion around this topic right now.

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dwoopint
"If you are unable to understand why these recommendations make sense, you are
probably part of the problem."
([http://projectinclude.org/moving_forward/](http://projectinclude.org/moving_forward/))

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diek
That's nonsensical. You may as well say, "Everyone should spend 25% of their
startup's time on ensuring African children have access to food and clean
water."

When someone asks, "Why should we do that?" you respond with, "What, do you
hate African children?"

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cyphar
"Burn the heathen".

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woah
Interesting that they use the term "underrepresented people of color" rather
than just "underrepresented groups". This may be because whites (people of
European descent) are actually an underrepresented group in tech. Compare the
percentage of whites in tech company diversity reports with the percentage in
the US population.

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ASinclair
It at least holds for leadership positions in companies. I know at least Tracy
Chou has acknowledged the weird position Asians find themselves in here
considering they're massively over-represented when you compare U.S.
demographics to tech company demographics.

I'm not sure how we measure the end game here as it seems to be more about
getting to a point where anyone that wants to work in tech has that
opportunity. That likely won't lead to a perfect match between tech
demographics and the demographics of their communities but who knows.

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atom-morgan
> I know at least Tracy Chou has acknowledged the weird position Asians find
> themselves in here considering they're massively over-represented when you
> compare U.S. demographics to tech company demographics.

They seem to be purposefully ignoring the likelihood that parents drive this.

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ztratar
Great project and hope Ellen + team can help many people. :]

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dwoopint
Has YC considered mandatory diversity training for YC founders? What
percentage of time do founders spend on diversity and inclusion during YC?

“If you’re an early stage startup with little to no diversity, you are in
trouble and need to fix it fast.”
([http://projectinclude.org/moving_forward/](http://projectinclude.org/moving_forward/))

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mmanfrin
Post just submitted and already the comment section is a graveyard.

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zxcvcxz
Someone should create a startup to sell people based on their level of
privilege to other startups who want to "diversify".

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matt4077
I think most people are somewhat grateful that we have stopped selling
unprivileged people.

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studentrob
"Can these women save Silicon Valley?" [1]

Whoa. This group has some bold positions.

I think it's great for women to encourage each other and other
underrepresented groups to join tech. I also think it is true that some youth
get inspired to study tech when they see successful professional people with
whom they share something in common. And, I believe that some level of
diversity is a useful part of education and the advancement of society.

That said, I wonder what is reasonable to expect of companies that are
separate from government. Should the percentage of LGBT for a given job match
that of the local community who is skilled in that job? What if certain
companies are popular among LGBTs? Should their competitors be chastised for
not being able to hire enough LGBT from the local community? It all sounds too
complicated to monitor in bulk. Cases of discrimination are just that -- case
by case. US law already protects people from being discriminated against
during hiring and employment. And while it may not work out to everyone's
satisfaction 100% of the time, the US is miles ahead of China, for example, on
this front.

> Companies should improve opportunities for all employees, including all
> underrepresented groups (gender, race, class, age, religion, disability,
> education, sexual orientation, and others).

I'm confused by this statement. They want companies to give equal
opportunities to all people. Isn't this already covered by law? Companies
cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national
origin [2].

Also, what is the education group? Like, non-high school grads, high school
and college grads?

The more I read about it, the more it sounds like they are saying _" please
create more jobs for more people"_.

Maybe it will become more clear when they start to share data and reports.

Ultimately, we're all part of some group that is persecuted by others, even
wealthy white folks. We all get depressed and blame it on our environment from
time to time.

The most important thing is that these values of equality are ingrained in the
laws of society. And in the US, they are. Each year they get better. Gay
marriage was passed, and we're now attempting to make some simplifications to
the ginormous lawbook with things such as Basic Income. That's natural. It's a
result of us collectively realizing that piece by piece we put together a
puzzle that says "support everyone".

[1]
[https://twitter.com/bethanye/status/727627253715062784](https://twitter.com/bethanye/status/727627253715062784)

[2]
[https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html](https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html)

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galistoca
Like sveng1826 mentioned, a lot of statements have absolutely no logical
ground and they're just condescending remarks telling people what they should
do.

Of course it would be nice if companies focused on diversity, and I think
large companies should definitely think more about it, but telling small
startups to do it is wrong at best and exploitative at worst (personal
agenda).

I would like to know of any successful company that focused 25% of their time
thinking about diversity during their early startup stage. Thinking about
diversity 25% of the times means you're thinking less about your customers 25%
of the time. This type of company will probably not be around the next year--
Congrats, your diverse company is now gone! I'm sure your employees are all
happy!--So I wonder where she pulls "if you're an early stage startup with
little to no diversity, you're in trouble and need to fix it fast." out of.
There's no evidence, and logically it doesn't make sense. It's just her own
entitled sense of justice (which I don't even believe is genuine).

I'm not saying diversity is not needed, I don't think it's right to capitalize
on social trend by misleading the public. Basically the narrative nowadays is
"Let's shame and punish all these companies that are not thinking about
diversity", and I think that's as bad as those companies neglecting diversity,
in a witch-hunt sort of way.

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dang
> _everything she does feels far from genuine._

> _I just hate this type of opportunistic people_

Your comment crosses into personal attack. That is not allowed here. We ban
accounts that do this, so please don't do it.

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galistoca
I deleted the personal attack statements, sorry about that.

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drumhead
Sort of reminds me of Orwells 1984

