fwadfka

That number is misleading, because that data uses a "Computer sciences" category which likely lumps in "Information" degrees. The number I see in 2015 is ~2.5% (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868)

> Blacks are about 7% - 8% of college graduates with CS degrees each year

Your data lumps together "Computer sciences," which probably includes Information degrees. If you look at CS degrees only it's about 2.5% in 2015 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868).

People with CS degrees tend to be the ones building new software. Information degrees vary a lot, but tend to have decreased math requirements and be more focused on the application of technology. As a software engineer working in the bay area, I have seen hundreds of engineers with CS degrees and zero engineers with information degrees - in my experience there is a stark difference, and I would be surprised and interested if the data showed otherwise.

> * Percent of CS college graduates that are black: 11.5%

The number I got for 2015 was 2.5% (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12101868)

One of the key sources of this difference is whether you count "Information" degrees as CS. My number doesn't include information degrees and yours does.

> Assuming everyone who graduated with a CS degree from the US was hired at an equivalent then one would expect something closer to 7%-8%.

When I look at the data, I see that 2.5% of graduates are black. I'm looking at PhD, Master's or Bachelor's in CS in 2015.[1]

The totals exclude those with unknown ethnicity:

15 black CS PhDs out of 1442

110 black CS Master’s out of 8,923

425 black CS Bachelor’s out of 11,974

(15+110+425) / (1442+8923+11974) = ~0.0246

[1] 2015 Taulbee Survey, Computing Research Association

http://cra.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2015-Taulbee-Surve...

EDIT: I believe one big source of the difference between our numbers is whether you count "Information" degrees as a CS degree. My number only looks at "Computer science" degrees, whereas your data looks at "Computer sciences" degrees.

In Apple's 2014 EEO-1 they distinguish between professionals and technicians. Professionals are 1.7% black and technicians are 11.3% black. I assume both of these are lumped into a single "tech workforce" number.

https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2014-EEO-1-Consolidated-...