This is why statistics are important. Conservatives will say “that’s tokenism! They’re not getting jobs on merit!”
My guy, quotas for underserved minorities and women exist because we don’t live in a meritocracy. Talent and ambition is dispersed equally. If you are mostly hiring and promoting people like you, that’s exactly why quotas are needed.
I was recently at a launch party Q&A and a guy in the audience actually asked whether quotas kept deserving men from the job. I shit you not - the product being launched was an educational game about equal treatment of women in the workforce. I guess that showed they were reaching the right people at least.
Quotas are not the only way to combat discrimination, nor are they a good one. Name-blind hiring would resolve name discrimination without making additional presumptions about the applicant pool. A quota presumes that the applicant pool has a particular racial mix, and that a person’s qualifications and willingness to apply are independent of race. And even if those happen to be true, it can’t take into account the possibility that the random distribution of applicants just happens to sway one way or another in a particular instance.
I have a very “Caucasian” name. For years, I had some serious confused faces during interviews, people who thought I was a great applicant on paper but then cut the meeting short because I suddenly “dont fit the culture”.
I now include my photo in my application. Saves me time too, because I don’t want to work at a racist ass company.
I’ve had several bosses tell me that the moment they see a stereotypical African American name they throw out the application/resume.
This is why statistics are important. Conservatives will say “that’s tokenism! They’re not getting jobs on merit!”
My guy, quotas for underserved minorities and women exist because we don’t live in a meritocracy. Talent and ambition is dispersed equally. If you are mostly hiring and promoting people like you, that’s exactly why quotas are needed.
I was recently at a launch party Q&A and a guy in the audience actually asked whether quotas kept deserving men from the job. I shit you not - the product being launched was an educational game about equal treatment of women in the workforce. I guess that showed they were reaching the right people at least.
Quotas are not the only way to combat discrimination, nor are they a good one. Name-blind hiring would resolve name discrimination without making additional presumptions about the applicant pool. A quota presumes that the applicant pool has a particular racial mix, and that a person’s qualifications and willingness to apply are independent of race. And even if those happen to be true, it can’t take into account the possibility that the random distribution of applicants just happens to sway one way or another in a particular instance.
Honestly that works for human recruiters too.
I have a very “Caucasian” name. For years, I had some serious confused faces during interviews, people who thought I was a great applicant on paper but then cut the meeting short because I suddenly “dont fit the culture”.
I now include my photo in my application. Saves me time too, because I don’t want to work at a racist ass company.