The Washington Post ran an article yesterday on Google and its demographics. Most of it is devoted to discussing the company’s “diversity” efforts and its painfully slow progress in achieving the politically correct racial, ethnic, and gender balance it wants. Too many white and Asian men, not enough of everyone else. But fear not: The suits — does Google have “suits”? — acknowledge “we need to do more to achieve our desired diversity and inclusion outcomes,” so department heads will be “tasked with meeting intermediate milestones,” and the company has set as one of its “major goals” to “reach or exceed the representation of available talent pools for black and Hispanic employees.” And “to achieve our desired outcomes, we need to do more” — oh, wait, the Post had quoted that already. No matter: Boxer promised more than once to work harder — his farm had its quotas too, no doubt — and so will Google.
Not a lot new here, really, but two points. First, it’s illegal to hire with an eye on race, ethnicity, and sex and toward achieving predetermined numerical outcomes — i.e., quotas. Where is the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission these days? Apparently it’s following Harvard’s example: Whites and Asian Americans are viewed as having fewer civil-rights protections than other groups. As for men — well, forget it.
Second, buried in the Post story is one piece of actual news, namely that “attrition rates were highest for black and Latino employees.” Now, the Left’s narrative will be that this is more proof of the toxic and racist environment throughout all America and especially at hellholes of reaction like Google. But might it just be possible that, instead, in its zeal to get its numbers right, Google has hired individuals who are not as well qualified as others at the company, and so those folks just haven’t worked out? This mismatch is omnipresent at our selective universities, of course, and it’s logical that for the same reasons it will happen in the workplace, too.
So the use of preferences hurts not only the white and Asian-American applicants who don’t get hired, but the Latino and African-American applicants who are, and who are being set up to fail. No matter: Google will work harder!