Apple opposes investor calls to end its DEI efforts | Hacker News Reader

Apple opposes investor calls to end its DEI efforts

9to5mac.com

45 pointspyb32 comments

Apple opposed all 4 shareholder proposals. They all seem political: DEI, AI ethics, child sex abuse, and charitable giving.

It's hard to imagine: one of the largest companies in the world, devices literally used actively by over a billion people, incorporating the most advanced hardware and software trends, with both value and growth investors -- and these are the only shareholder proposals?

They must be really, really well run.

They are from a conservative think tank. It is political activism, nothing more.

Good on them. I truly don’t understand how people can be against furthering diversity in a mostly homogeneous sector of society (corporate tech).

It's funny how virtually nobody you go up to to ask what they don't like about DEI has an actually coherent explanation. In my experience if you press for a tangible answer it ends in 90% of cases with them repeating soundbites and then awkwardly trying to change the subject (despite gladly and loudly bringing it up to begin with) and 10% with some openly racist/anti-gay/anti-trans mask off statement.

It’s bullshit. It means more interviews for people they know they won’t hire to meet a quota which wastes their time, and when someone from a minority is hired the perception might be that they weren’t actually qualified, even if they were.

Plus as a straight white guy - am I really so bad? The world seems pretty fair. I’ve never done anything sexist or racist in the workplace (quite the opposite) and haven’t even seen it happen. Why do I have to have it worse off every step of the way just because I was born this way. End the BS and let’s get some work done.

I’m a straight white guy, and I see unfairness all around me, primarily rigged in favor of straight white guys like me, and in favor of people who are wealthy.

You should blow the whistle, because that’s illegal. And leave the rest of us who are nowhere near that to live a regular life without having to enforce sexist/racist policies.

Homogeneous? You know who's overrepresented and nothing will be done there.

I have my qualms with how most DEI programs are implemented but a bigger question about Apple and Meta (and others) is why you'd want to mess with company operations when they've been doing incredibly well? Love it or hate it, these companies have had historic success while implementing DEI, CSR, and many other programs for social good.

Again, while I do have issues with what DEI means in today's workplace, can't argue with how successful these companies have been at hiring and making money.

Personally I welcome the removal of DEI, but I find the way it is done pretty disgusting. Companies do it only because they expect to gain some favors with the incoming government. They wouldn't even think of doing this if the other party won - and this two-facedness just makes me frown.

Of course Apple has their own agenda also. But this shows me at least some consistency and some spine in their internal government and corporate policies, even if I disagree with them.

I know it's technically unrelated, but…

> We strive to create a culture of belonging

and

> Tim Cook personally donates $1million to the Trump inaugural fund (not quoted from the article)

just don't sit together properly in my mind. The fish rots from the head.

I get what you're saying, but it's merely because Trump has shown that he's easy to manipulate and can basically be bought. If it were any other Republican coming into office this wouldn't be happening. Not to spout off too much, but as usual, the right shows that all of their nonsense posturing is just projection. "Drain the swamp, stop government corruption", and yet the powerful are literally buying Trump's support.

> because Trump has shown that he's easy to manipulate

If he is easy to manipulate then why didnt Democrats manipulate him and then win the election?

Harris certainly baited and manipulated Trump on the national debate stage

There were/are a lot of people manipulating him on the Republican side which outweighs anything the Democrats could have done

> Harris certainly baited and manipulated Trump on the national debate stage

and yet she lost, so who baited who?

Harris baited Trump on the debate stage, the later outcome does not change this fact, as that was determined by other factors and around 100k voters

This is probably the kind of thing that should be settled in court via a class action by shareholders.

Otherwise it’s mostly endless words on words.

Now that I think of it, DEI was a successor to CSR. With this chapter gone the next "CSR" primed to take over is Going Green.

What is CSR?

Corporate Social Responsibility

Stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. It was popular in the 90s/2000s. https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/history-of-corporate-soci...

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