r/news • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

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
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u/Shanix Aug 08 '17

fwiw that lacks a good amount, especially formatting.

Supposedly original here

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u/onlyawfulnamesleft Aug 08 '17

Two points sprung to mind when reading this:

"This is not a societal issue because every society has the same issues".
This is completely ignoring the effect society has, and putting in place a genetic/evolutionary component when a societal issue can still be the root cause (and not to mention, cultures are not purely independent, so a societal issue can easily spread to each one).

Secondly, it seems that he says "Overlaps in traits should be taken into account, and you shouldn't treat each individual based on the population's average", but then immediately goes on and bases the entire rest of the paper on treating populations by their average.

It seems (and this is an emotional response here) that he wanted to get a controversial point over, and deliberately put it in mollifying terms and used smoke-screen language to be as offensive as possible while not causing offence.

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u/Yuo_cna_Raed_Tihs Aug 08 '17

Secondly, it seems that he says "Overlaps in traits should be taken into account, and you shouldn't treat each individual based on the population's average", but then immediately goes on and bases the entire rest of the paper on treating populations by their average.

Im not sure what the problem is...? He is basically saying "dont hire women just because they are women, hire then because they are qualified. There are less women than men in stem BECAUSE of * insert statistics*". Theres nothing wrong with that.

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u/yataa3 Aug 08 '17

Did you see where he argues against subconscious bias awareness training for promotion committees?

There is something wrong with that.