> Reminds me of the controversy at Pinterest a year or two ago when an Asian engineering manager asked how we could reduce the % of Asians in the engineering org (which was 68%).
I remember this. Even on Blind today he's referred to as "Mr. 68".
It was an interesting exchange because it revealed to many of the company's Asian engineers that they were overrepresented (which could be visually confirmed at any meeting) and that their overrepresentation was something being thought about behind the scenes by the DEI folks at the company.
The axiom "when the future arrives it's not the future we want" or "when change happens it's not the change we asked for" seems to hold true here. I think most Asians supported these diversity initiatives at first, but now they're getting "Harvard-ed" or "Ive Leagued" and are losing out due to their ? over-performance ? in the tech space.
There was also discussion of over-representation relative to the population around them. In the case of Pinterest they are in the SF Bay Area, which has a lot of Asians but is not made up of 68% Asians leading to the status as over-represented at PINS.
> I think most Asians supported these diversity initiatives at first, but now they're getting "Harvard-ed" or "Ive Leagued" and are losing out due to their ? over-performance ? in the tech space.
Most people who support "diversity" unsurprisingly withhold support when the numbers are against their particular demographic.
For out-groups looking at the movement, the movement makes you think it's one large movement consisting of women, oppressed, and other minorities - i.e. everyone not including heterosexual white males.
From the inside of that large movement it looks a lot different.
Homosexual males will resent being sidelined in favour of a white heterosexual women while homosexual females will label being passed over in favour of a homosexual man as "sexism".
Almost all heterosexual, and many homosexual, women don't want to share the public bathrooms with any males, even if those males identify as women.
A heterosexual male supports the movement, until he finds out he just slept with a woman who is male.
All the women (homo and hetero) support the movement, until it becomes clear that they need not bother attempting to win any prizes or break any records in sports anymore, because those are all held by women who were boys throughout puberty (and got irreversible physical advantages due to male puberty).
It is quite a fractured movement, and any time dissent is raised it is attributed to the out-group - like the fracas over transgender people in public bathrooms.
"Prevent males going into females bathrooms" is something almost every women agrees with, but the opposition was "those old white men over there!".
"Let female athletes compete amongst themselves because they have less physical strength than men" is an argument from females. Men aren't throwing their toys over women competing with them on the field; women are, and men support them.
In short, you see this large movement as one large movement, but all the participants clearly have goals that are contradictory to other participants' goals.
The largest subgroup within that movement is also the one that is most likely to have members who distance themselves from the movement - as far as who gets best treated by society, it's white heterosexual women, so they have the most to lose if the movement succeeds for any of the other subgroups.
I remember this. Even on Blind today he's referred to as "Mr. 68".
It was an interesting exchange because it revealed to many of the company's Asian engineers that they were overrepresented (which could be visually confirmed at any meeting) and that their overrepresentation was something being thought about behind the scenes by the DEI folks at the company.
The axiom "when the future arrives it's not the future we want" or "when change happens it's not the change we asked for" seems to hold true here. I think most Asians supported these diversity initiatives at first, but now they're getting "Harvard-ed" or "Ive Leagued" and are losing out due to their ? over-performance ? in the tech space.
There was also discussion of over-representation relative to the population around them. In the case of Pinterest they are in the SF Bay Area, which has a lot of Asians but is not made up of 68% Asians leading to the status as over-represented at PINS.