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Yes. The American interpretation of “diversity” considers a Ukranian immigrant and an upper-class WASP part of the same “privileged” cohort.

eesmith 9y ago
What you regard as an "American interpretation" is simply not true. I think you have over-simplified the issue such that the result doesn't give a useful understanding of what's going on in the US. There are far more than two cohorts, and there are multiple levels of privilege, not all of which are hierarchically arranged. No long-time Bostonian is going to place Boston a blue blood (an example of an upper-class WASP) in the same cohort as a Ukrainian immigrant. In a test for "is there hiring discrimination on the basis of skin color?" then certainly a Ukrainian immigrant and upper-class WASP would be categorized together ... in the current US context. (I say "current US context" because Finns were once considered non-white because of a presumed Mongolian heritage; Italians and Greeks of course were also considered not-white, even though most now consider them "white".) But the US also makes it illegal to discriminate based on religion (a majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox) and national origin. For that they would be in different cohorts. Certainly some Americans might only use a single, simple ranking system where all white men are put together. This lawsuit alleges just such an example. But it is not the general American interpretation of diversity. Note also that the alleged focus on "Women, Blacks, and LatinX" does not even consider that Native Americans might apply, so it sounds like this is a rather naive policy to start with. Also, this lawsuit says nothing about the Google hiring practices involving non-Americans. It may be that a Ukrainian immigrant might have faced different obstacles than an American-born applicant with Ukrainian-born parents. What I think you're seeing is that race and gender (however constructed) have been the most significant forms of discrimination in the US -- and of course in other countries as well. So those are the ones which are talked about the most.

eesmith 9y ago

What you regard as an "American interpretation" is simply not true. I think you have over-simplified the issue such that the result doesn't give a useful understanding of what's going on in the US. There are far more than two cohorts, and there are multiple levels of privilege, not all of which are hierarchically arranged. No long-time Bostonian is going to place Boston a blue blood (an example of an upper-class WASP) in the same cohort as a Ukrainian immigrant. In a test for "is there hiring discrimination on the basis of skin color?" then certainly a Ukrainian immigrant and upper-class WASP would be categorized together ... in the current US context. (I say "current US context" because Finns were once considered non-white because of a presumed Mongolian heritage; Italians and Greeks of course were also considered not-white, even though most now consider them "white".) But the US also makes it illegal to discriminate based on religion (a majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox) and national origin. For that they would be in different cohorts. Certainly some Americans might only use a single, simple ranking system where all white men are put together. This lawsuit alleges just such an example. But it is not the general American interpretation of diversity. Note also that the alleged focus on "Women, Blacks, and LatinX" does not even consider that Native Americans might apply, so it sounds like this is a rather naive policy to start with. Also, this lawsuit says nothing about the Google hiring practices involving non-Americans. It may be that a Ukrainian immigrant might have faced different obstacles than an American-born applicant with Ukrainian-born parents. What I think you're seeing is that race and gender (however constructed) have been the most significant forms of discrimination in the US -- and of course in other countries as well. So those are the ones which are talked about the most.