If there's no actual problem to be solved here, isn't this just the same sort of virtue-signalling OP is accusing the entirety of DEI of? Which is ironic, because my understanding of the matter is that diversity has been studied and found to correlate with increased profitability. Even if you zoned out through DEI training, inclusion should be a no brainer— you'll retain employees who feel like they are part of your organization. Equity is probably a little harder (and the part people get hung up on), but frankly, I haven't seen any numbers to convince me that we're approaching anything near equity so again I ask: what is the problem to be solved here?
Is it really such an important goal for the IT industry in the U.S. that instead of having the 3% or 4% of our employees be black (by that I mean historically disadvantaged African Americans, descendants of enslaved people, a qualification which would _further_ reduce that percentage), that we bring that number down to 1-2%, or even lower? I'm sorry, but this is such an absurd problem to want to solve, and it just reeks of insecurity to supposed "high performers" bring it up.
I don't want to dismiss this issue entirely because I know it's a sensitive topic for a lot of people, but it's pretty frustrating to see the constant anti-DEI posts in tech spaces when nearly every team I've been on in my 10+ year career has been almost exclusively white and male. Why are we clamoring to return to the days of total unmitigated unconscious bias and homogeneity?
> However, when I have to join a cheesy townhall once a month to discuss diversity hires, it makes me feel like I have no right to feel proud of any accomplishments I've made within the company.
Why in the world would you feel this way, after admitting that you have the chops? What does these "diversity hires" being simply _hired_ have to do with your actual material accomplishments within your company? It strikes me that perhaps the real problem here is that our most insecure colleagues are being threatened by unqualified employees stealing their jobs, in which case I would suggest that the real solution here is therapy, not returning to some idealized version of the past.
I can only speak for myself, but my self esteem is not undermined by the fact that DEI could mean that there will be two black men on my team instead of just me, or that my small organization of a few hundred could have maybe four black men instead of three. If anything, my self esteem is undermined by the fact that those numbers are so low to begin with.
Is it really such an important goal for the IT industry in the U.S. that instead of having the 3% or 4% of our employees be black (by that I mean historically disadvantaged African Americans, descendants of enslaved people, a qualification which would _further_ reduce that percentage), that we bring that number down to 1-2%, or even lower? I'm sorry, but this is such an absurd problem to want to solve, and it just reeks of insecurity to supposed "high performers" bring it up.
I don't want to dismiss this issue entirely because I know it's a sensitive topic for a lot of people, but it's pretty frustrating to see the constant anti-DEI posts in tech spaces when nearly every team I've been on in my 10+ year career has been almost exclusively white and male. Why are we clamoring to return to the days of total unmitigated unconscious bias and homogeneity?
> However, when I have to join a cheesy townhall once a month to discuss diversity hires, it makes me feel like I have no right to feel proud of any accomplishments I've made within the company.
Why in the world would you feel this way, after admitting that you have the chops? What does these "diversity hires" being simply _hired_ have to do with your actual material accomplishments within your company? It strikes me that perhaps the real problem here is that our most insecure colleagues are being threatened by unqualified employees stealing their jobs, in which case I would suggest that the real solution here is therapy, not returning to some idealized version of the past.
I can only speak for myself, but my self esteem is not undermined by the fact that DEI could mean that there will be two black men on my team instead of just me, or that my small organization of a few hundred could have maybe four black men instead of three. If anything, my self esteem is undermined by the fact that those numbers are so low to begin with.
- Another Black Man