U.S. Accuses Tech Firm of Bias Against Asian Software Engineers
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No secret, I'm a 51 year old black man living in America. I've been in "high tech" all my life (Commodore Pet). I've run my own company, and worked in and around others, and now reside at Microsoft. My current non-tech mission is the promotion of diversity in hiring in core tech jobs http://www.industryexplorers.com
These are complex issues in complex times. I can say one thing though, much of the current set of biases will slowly dissipate as our children get into positions of power. Ethnicity itself is starting to get very blended. My college aged daughter (who is mixed herself) has friends of all stripes. As they form companies, and hire people, they'll hire like themselves, which is to say an eclectic bunch of people.
The next frontier in bias might be economic stratus, or hair color, or which side of the egg you break open.
I think the best we can do is be as aware as possible, and simply strive to find and work with good people, while holding everyone in high esteem and with respect.
What I am for is equal opportunities. In some instances, giving that "equal" to one set of people requires work because they have been put on an unequal footing for some time. This was true in America for blacks because the origin of blacks was slavery (blacks were considered chattle, nothing more than cows, pigs, and goats). That kind of disadvantage requires some amount of work to overcome. The voting rights act wasn't enacted until 1965, the year after I was born, so that's something to consider.
With respect to tech, it's really easy for me. The back of my employment badge has our company's mission statement: Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
I believe we greatly enhance our ability to do that by creating a more inclusive and diverse workforce. It's not simply about DNA diversity (women and 'minorities'), but it's also a diversity of experiences, from around the world. I'm willing to take the math major from Tunisia and teach them to be a great coder so they can contribute their experience to our mission, and help create software that's appropriate for their origin.
So, long answer I guess.
To me, everything is about learning and growth (probably due to my current age). So, I see your experience in Oakland, and say "great, you've gained another perspective on life". Let's see what you can do with it.
I always wanted to hear Jesse Jackson say, "You say Mi-cro-soft; I hear Jim-Crow-soft"
The article implies they preferred white candidates, but the preferred races are not mentioned in the government's press release, simply "non-Asian." I would not jump to conclusions about the non-Asian candidates as there are other possible scenarios.
They could have been trying to prefer black, Hispanic, or Native American to boost up their diversity numbers.
You could just have the candidate go into a room with a computer with no internet access and type out answers to algorithmic questions. The instructions could be delivered via typed text. It would be incredibly impersonal, but it would be hard to discern personality given the industry's propensity to have trivia/algorithm questions.
This goes against the entire reason you interview.
This is not about hiring a mechanical labourer (Musician, Factor worker, Computer Repairer) it's about professionals which is team work.
My wife (who is Asian) graduated from Australia's top high school, where 90% of students are Asian. She and her friends now go to the most prestigious universities in Australia where they study medicine, law and engineering.
She explained to me that as a child of Asian parents if you can't get into medicine, you get into law. If you can't do law, you do engineering or commerce. It really doesn't matter if you want to be a musician or a photographer or do something else with your life. The end product is that we have a huge number of Asian kids graduating from top universities in professions that they don't personally care about, and I bet that comes out in the interview.
I don't believe that people should be discriminated on for their race, but I wonder how much racial diversity gets swept under the rug in the debate. Sometimes racial values stand in direct or indirect opposition to the values of other cultures. Perhaps Asian culture has opposing values to the culture of the software industry, and when that emerges in hiring statistics law suits get filed.
Which is obviously BS.
They are heavily correlated, not independent events.
At a guess most studied at universities in country X known for it's sub quality education.
Alternatively, this could be the natural result of defensive measures against a concerted effort on the part of e.g. the Chinese government to place people inside of an organization that deals with a lot of secure data.
It's probably reasonable to assume the worst (naked racism), but you never know.
I don't have numbers to back up the original post, but I'm interested in seeing what he comes back with.
I resent that comment. There are white people that border each other that hate and kill each other. Russia and Ukraine comes to mind. The United States and Russia comes to mind as another example of two predominantly white countries.
Racism happens because people are ignorant. Has very little to do with "Rich white people" and very much with ignorance that exists in this world.
I will agree that racism seems to be especially prevelant against immigrants in this country. That's something I also attribute to ignorance.
Anyway, I don't want to get into preaching. However, I really wish you would see that your comments are just as inflammatory as the racism you are condemning. You won't solve racism with more ignorant racism.