Silicon Valley fights to keep its diversity data secret

[Vehl]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- How diverse are Silicon Valley's offices and executive suites? Activists have been trying for years to answer that question, but some of the industry's largest and most influential employers -- including Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook -- closely guard that information.

Every U.S. company with more than 100 employees is required to file a one-page form each year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an independent federal agency. Called the EEO-1, the form categorizes U.S. workers by their race and gender.
It's a blunt and imperfect measurement tool, but it's also the only hard data available for tracking the diversity of corporate America.CNNMoney filed a Freedom of Information request in August seeking EEO-1 data from 20 companies: The tech industry's 10 biggest firms by annual sales and 10 smaller but influential firms, including Facebook and Twitter. The EEOC denied the request in full, saying it is legally prohibited from releasing that information. CNNMoney later filed the same request with the Department of Labor, and is awaiting a response.

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Working with the data he was able to obtain, Swift found a growing problem: Hispanics and blacks made up a smaller share of the area's tech workers in 2008 than they did in 2000. And Swift said he was "shocked" at the relative scarcity of women, who in 2008 made up just 33% of the workforce at those 10 companies -- down from 37% a few years earlier.

Inspired by Swift's investigation, other groups took up the campaign. The Black Economic Council, a non-profit advocacy group, teamed with the Latino Business Chamber of Greater LA and the National Asian American Coalition to file information requests on 34 leading technology firms. Twenty-two of those requests were rejected last year."The companies try to make so many excuses," says Yolanda Lewis, chief deputy of the Black Economic Council. "The 'trade secrets' defense is completely ridiculous, and in any case, how long can that be valid? Give us data from several years ago, then."

more here
http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/09/technology/diversity_silicon_valley/index.htm

^^ I'm at a loss to understand what CNN money and these so called minority groups are trying to prove by requesting for the diversity data, and getting shocked at how under-represented/overrepresented certain groups are in the SV.

Are they implying that the SV discriminates based on race ? :o
Or are they saying that companies should not hire based on merit?

Will the same groups and CNN also apply the same metrics to sports professionals? for example?
I find this whole hue and cry over this issue rather sickening....given that the SV is probably more diverse than NYC!

[EFerrari]

1. SV has a long history of racial segregation. My mom was a realtor here

beginning in the mid 60s and she was told explicitly what the redlining rules were.

[Vehl]

5. I dont know about the 60s,

The article talks about the representation in SV technology companies.

[Book Lover]

2. Snort

All you have to do is take a look at the bike car on Caltrain to see how un-diverse SV is.

[Vehl]

6. Well, ive been on the Caltrain and the vta light rail/busses

And the people who frequent it represent all the ethnic groups in the valley. But then again I'm not that much familiar with the Caltrain system, even though i use/used Vta system rather extensively


However, this article deals only with the diversity of SV Tech companies.

[Number23]

3. "these so called minority groups"

What is with the hostile tone to your post?

Many companies, schools and organizations provide data on race for a number of reasons. Why the hell should Silicon Valley be exempt?

Props to CNN and the minority (no "so called" needed) groups for trying to get this data. I'd be interested to read it myself.

[Vehl]

4. I dislike grouping based on racial/ethnic identities when it comes to employment or education

As a minority myself, I would rather that people take a merit based look rather than racial/ethnic look.


In the event people really do need some incentives/preferences due to under-representation; it ought to be based on economic background and not on ethnic/racial one. A lot of those who "represent" the SV also come from rather disadvantaged economic backgrounds. Say..for example shouldn't a Vietnamese kid from East San Jose, with an economically disadvantaged family deserve the same advantages other (but not as highly represented minorities) are asking for? if any benefits ought to be given, they ought to be given based on economic ability of the family and not based on racial/ethnic profile.

Furthermore a lot of Asians have to face the innate disadvantage of not being native English speakers. Even though most of them have an excellent command of the language, it is yet another disadvantage they had to/did overcome. Should they be given some benefits as well to make up for this disadvantage? I hope such considerations underscore how asking for(or indirectly asking companies for better "diversity") special preference for underrepresented (ethnic/racial)minorities is not a fair practice.

The article mentions

"
Microsoft, for example, devotes an entire section of its website to spotlighting its efforts, which include scholarships, internships and recruiting initiatives. (for ensuring diversity)"


^^ Some minority advocacy groups have already made/coerced companies to carry out such activities based on diversity data. My core question is, is this not the responsibility of the person choosing/studying his major?

[Number23]

7. You appear to have absorbed the opinion from the majority

that somehow any type of race-based action isn't based on "merit." Thankfully, that type of thinking is dwindling in this country. Or, at least I like to think so.

And I have no idea why simply finding out the race of the folks working in Silicon Valley elicits such a panicked response from you.

Say..for example shouldn't a Vietnamese kid from East San Jose, with an economically disadvantaged family deserve the same advantages other (but not as highly represented minorities) are asking for?

No one is "asking" for anything except data. Which for reasons known only to you, you seem to have a serious problem with.

[Vehl]

8. my post was not intended to be combative

My apologies if it came across as one.

The view I hold on this issue is not one adsorbed from the majority, in fact its the opposite. My family recently immigrated to this country and we are not part of some majority bandwagon, far from it.

As a member of a minority ethnic group(albeit one which had lived in that country for millenia), we face/d heavy discrimination(in SriLanka). It all started when a survey/s like this in the 50s revealed that my ethnic group; even though a minority, was heavily overrepresented in the Academia and the professional careers. The result? majority politicians used the time tested method of "they took yer jibs!" excuse to cover up their inability to create new jobs or other avenues of employment for the majority populace.

Heavily discriminative laws were enacted to "redress" the balance.For example, my parents had to score significantly higher than a student from the majority ethnic group in order to get entrance into government run universities. The exam question were identical to both groups.In other words, even a person from a very poor, minority ethnic background had to score considerably higher than a person from an affluent majority ethnic background.Such "data" also fermented multiple pogroms and anti-minority riots which saw the deaths of thousands.

One could make the perfectly rational statement that "These groups are just asking for data". However history had shown that at times of economic/social crisis such data can be twisted to serve the nefarious proposes of certain individuals with ulterior motives.As seen in the case of 1920/30s Germany, a country embroiled in economic hardship which scapegoated the Jewish people. Am i saying that these groups would use data in such a manner? most probably not; but as the old adage goes.."once bitten, twice shy".

The mere fact that companies like Microsoft are carrying out "pro diversity" activities hints that such data does make the companies seem as if they are discriminating even if they are not. However, even a cursory glance of most CS/CE classrooms in colleges will probably reflect the ethnic breakup(in %) found in the SV tech companies and put rest to such aspersions..however not everyone looks at the facts.


It is unfair to give diversity based preferences on ethnicity. I am all for preferences based on economic background though. Someone from a very poor family(regardless of their ethnic background) could be disadvantaged against one from an affluent family. Why split people up based on ethnicity? is not economic background a better and much fairer metric to decide benefits on? I consider myself left liberal and those very notions of liberalism and the equality of all humans prevents me from supporting ethnicity based identities when it comes to issues such as education and employment.Imho considering all as humans and using a metric that cuts across ethnic/religious/ideological differences is much more amenable to liberal values than one that differentiates people based on their ethnicity.

In conclusion, am I panicked? nope, but am I very worried? yes.

[Number23]

12. "Why split people based on ethnicity?"

Why split people up based on ethnicity? is not economic background a better and much fairer metric to decide benefits on?

You are deliberately choosing to ignore, again for reasons known only to you, the very simple fact that in this society as in many others, economic discrimination and racial discrimination were very much one and the same. Minority groups have been excluded from many economic programs and advancements based on nothing more than the color of their skin since this country's inception. And this is still very much going on today.

Anyone who willfully denies this is doing themselves no favors. I'd love to play the "it's not race, it's class game" but I know better.

[FarCenter]

9. Tech companies are generally highly diverse

Typically they have a high percentage of East Asian and South Asian employees, reflecting the pool of graduate computer scientists, electrical engineers and other professional degrees that they hire from.

The team that designed at least one iteration of the Intel microprocessor was led by a Chinese, so they are in higher levels of management.

[Vehl]

10. yep

The CNN article seems to imply that the companies are not doing enough to be diverse enough because certain groups, like African americans and Hispanics are underrepresented compared to their population %.

ps: Interestingly enough, there are a lot of African migrants(as in migrants from Africa) in the SV companies.I would hazard a guess that if one were to look at the migrant African population as a % of the nation's population and their representation in the SV as a %, they will find the African migrants are over-represented. But then again CNN might not want to publish such data lest it detract from their "angle". :)

[FarCenter]

11. West Indian blacks also do well

Although possibly they are more represented in the New York tech community than in Silicon Valley.