“Jesse Jackson called on the Obama administration Monday to scrutinize the tech industry’s lack of diversity,” Wendy Koch reports for USA Today. “‘The government has a role to play’ in ensuring that women and minorities are fairly represented in the tech workforce, Jackson told a USA TODAY editorial board meeting. He said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission needs to examine Silicon Valley’s employment contracts.”
“‘There’s no talent shortage. There’s an opportunity shortage,’ he said, calling Silicon Valley’s record ‘far worse’ than many others such as car makers that have been pressured by unions,” Koch reports. “Jackson has lobbied nearly two dozen tech companies to disclose hiring data, and about a dozen have done so. The result is sobering: Men make up 62% to 70% of the staffs of Twitter, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn while whites and Asians comprise 88% to 91%, according to company data released in the last two months.”
“‘This is the next step in the civil rights movement,’ Jackson said, noting minorities represent a sizable share of consumers but not workers,” Koch reports. “He said it’s bad business not to include them. Of Twitter’s U.S. employees, only 3% are Hispanic and 5% black, but those groups along with Asian Americans account for 41% of its U.S. users. Pandora and eBay will soon release their hiring data, and Apple has said it will also do so but didn’t specify when, according to Butch Wing, a national political coordinator at the Rainbow Push Coalition, an advocacy group founded by Jackson.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s the logic for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics? We fail to see the correlation.
Let’s change the scenario to test the soundness of Jackson’s “logic” with the following: Roughly 60% of the NBA ticket buyers are caucasian. Using Jackson’s logic, he should demand that of the five players each NBA team puts on the court, three of them should be white guys. However, the NBA instead seems to be saying that the teams should simply put the best players they possibly can in the game. After all, that’s what results in the best possible product for consumers.
So, Jackson’s “logic” is illogical. There’s no sound basis for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics.
Diversity is good, but getting the absolute best would seem to be the better goal. Forced diversity carries its own set of problems. Would the group be comprised of the best-qualifed people possible or would it be designed to hit pre-defined quotas? Would some [employees], consciously or unconsciously, consider certain [employees], or even themselves, to be tokens meant to fill a quota?
This could also work in Apple’s and other company’s favor. Truly looking at qualified people from a larger pool could result in delivering different viewpoints and new ways of looking at things and tackling problems than a more homogenized [workforce] would be capable of delivering.
Regardless and of course, someday it would be nice for everyone to just be able to look at a group and only see people, not skin color and/or gender.
Related articles:
Tim Cook: Apple will release diversity data ‘at some point’ – July 9, 2014
Jesse Jackson targets tech’s lack of diversity; sends letter to Apple, Google, HP, others – March 19, 2014
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. blames Apple iPad for killing thousands of American jobs – April 16, 2011
And the ass-hat of the day award for the 1456th time goes to…..JESSE!
Dad succeeded in spawning a son cut filling his shoes admirably:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson,_Jr.
To Jesse Jackson, apparently, Asians aren’t a minority.
guess uncle jesse has never been to china if he thinks asians are a minority. apple’s market is global. that’s the rainbow coalition’s problem. vision through a soda straw. at least it as rainbow stripes.
diversity by the numbers is a game to keep the downtrodden riled up. if you have competency, you don’t need a “quota” boost.
Asians value education and productively advancing themselves. They don’t need Jesse.
I want to know who’s going to investigate why there’s no white guys playing basketball! Maybe because the best are out on the floor. Give this race-baiting shit up already.
I think there are other problems that need attention than that stupid crap….
Eternal perpetual babbler
I wish Jesse Jackson would read “Please Stop Helping Me” and realize that all these heavy handed, top down tactics have hurt the African American’s community to stand on its own.
Lol really? Did it say blacks were better under slavery too, under their compassionate masters who took care of their every need? Please.
g, spot on….
But did it say Jesse freed the slaves?
No (you just couldn’t find another way to represent the White Left).
Can’t wait to see the comments on this one…
Comments? Pavlov’s dogs. I’ve seen enough.
Nice take MDN.
Jesse is a racist.
Yup.
The Number One Most Racist Man in America.
Guess he is a little short of cash years later after shaking down Denny’s, et al.
Poverty pimp.
Jackson is a race hustler, looking to make a quick buck! He and sharpton maintain their lifestyles from this practice. The country is going to hell in a hand basket!
More accurately, he is a shakedown artist. This was well-documented in Kenneth Timmerman’s book “Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson”.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/shakedown/id593444684?mt=11
This man is one of the problems with Black America. However, he has been appointed spokesman for Black causes by the powers to be.
There us definitely more tech companies can do to increase minority employment. I worked in that industry for years and found it was a continual struggle to get more emphasis on minority outreach and hiring.
Lack of diversity? Now we need to have quotas on who designs and engineers our products? How about hiring the best of the best and forget about color! If 100 blacks are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 American Indians are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 Asians are the best of the best, hire them! If 100 whites are the best of the best, hire them! Jesse Jackson the Adulterer’s very reason for being depends on race-baiting. He needs to STHU!
You are exactly right, iMaki. Jessie Jackson merely noted that the world hasn’t paid him any attention for a month or so and wanted the limelight back himself. Everyone should just ignore him.
Clearly, young black kids tend to gravitate towards different interests than white and asian kids. Those interests prime them for their utility later in life. Ergo, today we have a disproportionate representation of blacks in the NBA. No one in their right mind complains that the NBA is biased against whites.
If the black community doesn’t like the fact that too few people of color are in software engineers in Silicon Valley, they can go out onto the streets and drag their kids off the basketball hoops and sit them down in front of books on technology.
Taking Jackson’s logic to its logical conclusion, the federal government should investigate the obvious racial profiling going on with criminal trials related to multi-million-dollar corporate embezzlement cases. Balding, middle-aged, overweight white males are overwhelmingly disproportionately represented amongst those convicted of that crime. This can only be the product of racism.
I was treated badly today.
MDN are you saying that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country that could impact these statistics. That take is probably worse than your “Man from Harlem” comment. People like you create people like Jackson.
Where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?” I just searched MDN for “Man from Harlem.” No results. People like you are fscking liars.
Search a little harder idiot. It’s there.
I read that “Harlem” comment. Nothing racist whatsoever. The story was about race that’s all. You can talk frankly about race and not be a “racist,” you know.
So, care to answer my first question or will you continue ducking it, Mr. Strawman?
Where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?”
Sorry, with *some* people, you can frankly discuss race and not be a “racist.”
They see racism where it doesn’t exist. I take it being Asian don’t fall under their definition of “minority”.
You’re wasting your time. You are correct, MDN said nothing of the kind about black engineers. People like Mr. Jackson and our friend Sceptical here know that fear is a much better weapon than skill. When companies hire the best talent, they get superior products. Artificial targets and quotas are feel good policies, but companies don’t brag about their hiring policies, they brag about products and services they sell. In my own little business, even I have a hard time finding qualified talent. One would think with so much reading and writing one must do on the web, the country would be getting smarter, but the opposite is happening. One kid came in to apply for an entry level opening and couldn’t even fill out the application form. The paper form confused him. He asked if I had an online form he could type, and not write in. The country has a terrible lack of skills problem, and that leads to a lack of talent problem.
LOL, MDN is that you?
Again, Mr Strawman, where, exactly, did MacDailyNews say “that there are not enough competent black engineers in this country?”
What’s the logic for the demographic breakdown of electronics consumers to be echoed in the electronics company’s employment demographics?
There is no logic.
Jesse jackson is an extortionist, the father of a convict currently serving time in prison, and, at the point of being married for 38 years, also fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman who works for him and paid her $400,000 out of his Rainbow Push Coalition.
There is a special sub-dungeon in hell for the likes of Jackson, a man who routinely sells out his own people in order to to line his own pockets.
More info via Apple’s iBooks Store: Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson by Kenneth R. Timmerman
As I recall, Jackson got the NHRA to pay annual *protection* money to the Rainbow Push Coalition because Jackson was accusing the NHRA of racism because—at the time—there were no black race car drivers in the Daytona 500 and similar races.
Apparently the NHRA feared that Jackson could make a stink about how white men in cigar-smoke-filled rooms conspired to keep blacks from winning races… or something, something, something.
The NHRA, apparently fearing that Jackson could make sponsors take flight, made a generous, annual “donation” to Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition. Jackson thought that to be a pleasant outcome and let the NHRA be.
I wonder who else pays protection money to Jackson.
Jesse is a member of the Counsil of Foreign Relations CFR, a globalist-new world order-UN loving organization that has traitors
All over the government
Google for the membership, you’ll be surprised who’s there.
Not really Apple news. Too many political stories on here these days. I just see a wasted article that does little but stoke political and racial separatism on this site. I would rather you publish nothing than loosely related news. I use Apple products and often surf here to see tech news related to new products offered by Apple. Every article that mentions electronics or even Apple by name isn’t really “Mac” daily news, not is it news worthy. If you didn’t believe Jackson’s claims had merit then why bother giving them space on your site. Perhaps you just needed him to open his mouth so you could put your “spin” on it. Write your own articles then offer them for critic and review instead of this. Disappointed in MDN, grow up.
*nor
It is really Apple-related news. Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month promised to release diversity data. Just because it makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t make it “not really Apple news.” Stop confusing your personal feelings with what belongs here or doesn’t. Stop shooting the messenger. If you have something constructive to add, add it. Otherwise, STFU and Stop wasting everyone’s time with your poorly-written tripe.
“If you didn’t believe Jackson’s claims had merit then why bother giving them space on your site”
Because MDN is to page clicks what Jesse Jackson is to race baiting.
It’s here because it involves Apple. It doesn’t get much simpler.
So you are saying you have no interest in the race baiting shakedown artist going after Apple where the big bucks live?
Critical think, much?
Jackson is a joke. Look there’s no high tech company that wouldn’t hire the best and brightest regardless of skin color or race.
If there’s any proof at ALL that someone qualified was passed over solely due to race then that’s another story.
But that’s not what’s happening. Jackson somehow believes that there’s a magic percentage that must be reached.
That’s not how it works. That’s not how any if this works.
I think there should be more diversity in everything too. I always seem to get the short end of the stick in almost everything I deal with. I used to like Ol’ Jesse, but he sold out long ago. He should shut his trap, and let us figure it out oirselves. He is a fool.
Some of the players in this topic could be clearer on definitions and goals.
The various goals are best products, happy consumers, large employment, good profit and employment for the qualified labor pool, plus one not mentioned: making sure good people get good qualifications.
Jesse Jackson is about and for Jesse Jackson- always has been and probably always will be. Enough about him, the issue is more important.
Go to any College of Engineering at any reputable school in America. It is diverse ethnically- far from a majority of whites- but a sausage fest by a considerable margin. There is no shortage of women with the intellectual capability to study engineering, they just for the most part choose not to. That is not the fault of the Tech industry and is not an indication of bias, discrimination or other nefarious activity.
A legitimate query would be to say how can we encourage more women and people of certain groups not well represented in tech to major in engineering. That is not accusatory but rather seeks to encourage wider participation in the field. The plain and simple fact is that programs already exist to encourage students to pursue such studies, they just do not get much attention in the wider society.
Here is a good place for background:
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/cwsem/
There are larger issues that contribute to the correlation being made here. Education and immigration are just two topics this discussion covers. To give a title to the elitist attitude on display would not be thankful for being part of a society where discussions should be welcomed.
Ridiculous take MDN. To my knowledge there is no history or claim that there is or has been discriminatory practices in selecting NBA players. Great athletes get a shot regardless. There has been, however, a long history of discrimination in recruitment and hiring practices across just about every industry served by corporate entities (large and small). Do I think the President needs to weigh in? No. That’s the job of activists like Jesse and maybe administrators from Universities where minority engineers matriculate. Is it a valid concern? Yes, but the demographic make up of the engineers need not perfectly mirror the consumers that buy the products.
“The demographic make up of the engineers need not perfectly mirror the consumers that buy the products.”
In other words, you agree with MDN’s “ridiculous” take.
And, yes, there was racism in basketball as there was/is everywhere else:
Harry “Bucky” Lew. Chuck Cooper. Earl Lloyd. Harold Hunter. Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton. Hank DeZonie. These six men are the African- American legacy of professional basketball. It was these gentlemen who fought the bitter racism that now allows the Kobe’s and LeBron’s to play in the NBA.
Jesse Jackson is nothing but a race peddling poverty pimp. He wants racial tension to exist because without it, he has no way of making money. This man is rich because he constantly stirs up hatred between blacks and whites. He is nothing but a menace to society, and he should be ignored.
While he’s at it why doesn’t that miserable publicity sucking SOB encourage more blacks to get college educations in engineering instead of hip-hop, sports, family abandonment and wife/girlfriend beatings? He needs a little talk with Dr. Bill Cosby and get set straight. Cosby is a real clued-in mensch as Jackson is a pulpit beating fool who never attempts to identify the real problems, doing more damage than good.
Jesse Jackson is an extortionist, along with Al Sharpton. If Obama pays any attention to this JERK, he is dumber than I thought he was.
guess what? He’s dumber than you thought.
Racism exists everywhere. It is not limited to tech or any other industry. Nor is it limited to what you would typically call race.
Jesse jackson has succeeded. He has made you all make a comment about an issue that exists. It’s okay, he can take it, it’s his job.
Your job is to quit hiding behind Internet snack and realize that the world we live in becomes more and more divisive all the time.
BTW- while not a big supporter of Rev. jackson, you are all his intellectual inferior.
Damn few people that self serving.
Sticking my hand into the inevitable hornet’s nest of someone’s creation:
Your job is to quit hiding behind Internet snack and realize that the world we live in becomes more and more divisive all the time.
The World is already the definition of diversity. Part of the problem is that in many locales, that isn’t clearly obvious. It’s also sadly standard operating procedure for kids to NOT escape the locale or thought realm/culture where they were raised, in order to see the world’s vast diversity first hand. As a result, most people live with limited perspective as well as distorted views about the world in their inner world, which sadly we all perceive to be our ‘reality’.
As for the self-destructive aspects of some parts of the African-American culture: It’s incredibly depressing to me and of course those living in it. It never helps to simply say: ‘Culture! Heal Thyself!’ Derailing self-destructive behavior and leading people to self-creative, positive behavior is what’s required. But without kidnapping kids out of destructive environments, I don’t know how to start except by doing my best to express respect to everyone I meet.
[Exception: Willfully hateful and ignorant people. I can’t stand them. I just want them out of the scenario. I’m not brahman enough yet. Sorry.] 😕
I would argue that nothing has harmed the so called “African-American” culture than the inherent racism found in progressive ideology. 50 years of liberal garbage, making people believe that something is owed to them, telling them that they cannot succeed unless there are quotas, set asides, and so on. This has only led to a state of arrested development in the black community, and zombie like devotion to the Democratic party.
From the overt racism of the antebellum South to the modern smiley face condescending racism of modern liberalism, blacks have suffered at the hands of the Democratic party.
You can follow the degeneration of the culture from Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqjZ0KZCa0
“I’ll have those naggers voting Democratic for the Next 200 years.” – Lyndon Johnson
I watched the video. Two nightmares in one. Incredible. I want to steal one of her kids and get them out of that mess. They look like great kids.
” … doing my best to express respect to everyone I meet.”
Yeah, right.
Your first response to my first post, “I hate you.”
Have little time for hypocritical practitioners such as yourself.
Oh wait, wave the magic wand and manufacture an exception … hardy har, har.
Speak for yourself.
So you know the IQ of everyone commenting on this forum and double checked before you posted that we are ALL inferior to the poverty pimp?
Sometime tonight I will stop laughing.
Clearly there are not a lot of Asian basketball players in the NBA. As far as I know, it’s just Jeremy Lin.
I hope Jackson steps up and fights for all minorities to have an equal shot at employment in all fields.
Oh yeah, I forgot. He only ‘fights’ for Blacks and Hispanics. Apparently, Asians aren’t a minority in the United States. I guess they have their sh*t together.