I was traveling last Friday, but wanted to note two newspaper items that day on the topic of politically correct hiring in the private sector.

At the Washington Post, Catherine Rampell had a column titled (in the hard copy), “Yes, Corporate America: Diversity Pays.” It explains how it can be very useful to have employees who bring different life experiences to the table. That’s certainly true, but the problem is why we should use skin color or what country someone’s ancestors came from as a proxy for having had a particular life experience. That’s usually called stereotyping.

Meanwhile, USA Today had an article about how Pinterest “is setting ambitious goals to hire more women and minorities — and it’s making those goals public to hold itself accountable.” But on closer inspection it turns out the problem is not that it isn’t hiring enough minorities — the company is only half white — but that it’s the wrong kind of minorities: too many of those darn Asians. As for women, the article concedes the company “has more women overall than most tech firms: 42%.”

But, comrades, we must work harder, diversity-wise. And Jesse Jackson has “commended Pinterest.” Says Reverend Jackson, “Pinterest is putting a huge stake in the ground by setting specific, measurable goals, targets and a 2016 timetable to achieve its diversity and inclusion goals.” He adds, “We have said it: ‘If you don’t measure it, you don’t mean it.” Can you say, “Quotas”?

By the way, no justification — none — is given in the Pinterest article for this (illegal and immoral) focus on race, ethnicity, and sex.