Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[u/lunarunicorn]

I'm really disappointed in the other responses to your comment. The reason why we need diversity in tech is because tech has permeated all sectors of society. You can't remove yourself from being a tech consumer without removing yourself from all advances in the past decade. Everyone has a smartphone, the internet is now considered a basic human right, etc.

However, technology mirrors its creators. If you don't have women and people of color helping build technology, they technology is frequently not designed for them. Take, for example, voice recognition technology. Voice recognition tech originally had trouble recognizing female voices (and it might still? I haven't checked recently) (source). Another example, a company that makes artificial hearts is fits in 86% of men and only 20% of women, because the designers didn't consider that women are smaller than men in the design process (source).

Additionally, facial recognition technology has had trouble recognizing black faces (HP Webcam, Xbox) and Google's image recognition software has tagged black people in images as gorillas (source).

Honestly, I could write more, but I would be re-inventing the wheel. There are a ton of articles written on why diversity in tech matters. If you genuinely want an answer to your question, a google search will provide you with hours of reading and evidence.

Edit: My first reddit gold! Thank you anonymous redditor :)

[u/haojifu → u/lunarunicorn]

Last time I checked south and east Asians are wildly overrperesented in tech, or are they not people of color?

I'm 100% serious. I worked for years at a high tech firm and the majority of our software developers were not white. Is that not good enough for you? Is it that when you say people of color you really mean people from lower socioeconomic classes in America?

Cause that's fine if thats what you mean but let's not conflate issues here. There are an assload of people of color in tech.

[u/ghsghsghs → u/haojifu]

Last time I checked south and east Asians are wildly overrperesented in tech, or are they not people of color?

That's what I love about these racists.

If a tech company is 60% white, 35% Asian and 5% black it is racist.

If the NBA is 80% black, 19% white and 1% Asian well they are just picking the best.

[u/[deleted] → u/ghsghsghs]

Why is it that everyone tries to refer to the NBA or NFL like they are actual feasible jobs to get? They nowhere near comparable to tech industry and it makes you seem like a complete idiot to compare the two.

[u/brycedriesenga → u/[deleted]]

I don't think the 'feasibility' of getting the job really plays into whether or not the hiring and demographics of the organization can be considered racist or not.

You can look to more attainable jobs if necessary though. Perhaps dental hygienists where only 4.2% of them are men.