{"id":40821,"date":"2020-08-22T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=40821"},"modified":"2020-08-21T18:35:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T01:35:25","slug":"everyday-erinyes-229","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/08\/22\/everyday-erinyes-229\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #229"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/span><\/strong>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\r\n

Like TC, and others, this time of action for racial justice is not my first rodeo. And I know, because I remember, that we made mistakes last time around. Most, maybe all, under the umbrella that we assumed that winning was winning (at least we “wypipo” assumed that. I don’t think black or brown people were ever really fooled.)<\/p>\r\n

Now is a time when we are seeing a light at the end of a tunnel (and we hope it won’t be a train). We won’t know for a while what kind of light it is, but in the hope that it will be the blessed light of day, I welcome advice on how to avoid previous mistakes (which are still being made, actually) and find ways to truly advance.
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Diversity pledges alone won’t change corporate workplaces \u2013 here’s what will<\/h1>\r\n
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Words alone won\u2019t make corporate America more diverse. Robyn Beck\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n

Kimberly A. Houser<\/a>, University of North Texas<\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n

Dozen of companies, from Apple<\/a> to Zappos<\/a>, have reacted to George Floyd\u2019s killing and the protests that followed by pledging to make their workforces more diverse<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

While commendable, to me it feels a bit like deja vu. Back in 2014, a host of tech companies made similar commitments<\/a> to diversify their ranks. Their latest reports \u2013 which they release annually \u2013 show they\u2019ve made little progress<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n

Why have their efforts largely failed? Were they just empty promises?<\/p>\r\n

As a gender diversity scholar, I explored these questions in my recent paper published<\/a> in the Stanford Technology Law Review. The problem is not a lack of commitment but what social scientists call \u201cunconscious bias.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Big tech, little progress<\/h2>\r\n

Today\u2019s efforts to promote diversity are certainly more specific than the tech industry\u2019s vague promises in 2014.<\/p>\r\n

In 2020, sports apparel maker Adidas pledged<\/a> to fill at least 30% of all open positions with Black or Latino candidates. Cosmetics company Est\u00e9e Lauder promised<\/a> to make sure the share of Black people it employs mirrors their percentage of the U.S. population within five years. And Facebook vowed to double<\/a> its number of Black and Latino employees within three years.<\/p>\r\n

Companies have also committed at least US$1 billion<\/a> in money and resources to fight the broader societal scourge of racism and support Black Americans and people of color more broadly.<\/p>\r\n

Unfortunately, if past experience is any indication, good intentions and public pledges will not be enough to tackle the problem of the underrepresentation of women and people of color in most companies.<\/p>\r\n

In 2014, Google<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Apple<\/a> and other tech companies began publishing diversity reports after software engineer Tracy Chao<\/a>, investor Ellen Pao<\/a> and others called attention<\/a> to Silicon Valley\u2019s white male-dominated, misogynistic culture<\/a>. The numbers weren\u2019t pretty, and so one by one, they all made public commitments to diversity<\/a> with promises of money, partnerships, training and mentorship programs.<\/p>\r\n

Yet, half a decade later, their latest reports reveal, in embarrassing detail, how little things have changed<\/a>, especially for underrepresented minorities. For example, at Apple, the share of women in tech jobs rose<\/a> from 20% in 2014 to 23% in 2018, while the percentage of Black workers in those roles remained flat at 6%. Google managed to increase the share<\/a> of women in such jobs to 24% in 2020 from 17% in 2014, yet only 2.4% of these tech roles are filled by Black workers, up from 1.5% in 2014. Even companies that have made more progress<\/a>, such as Twitter, still have far to go to achieve meaningful representation.<\/p>\r\n