4 ms·

The spreadsheet seems pretty damning. I'm not a lawyer, but isn't it illegal to judge an employee on whether they are male/female or "non-white"?

• panarky 7y ago
  Not a lawyer either, but seems to me if you're hiring writers to pursue a particular perspective, then their backgrounds matter.
  • ANPEQ-1 7y ago
    I'm 100% positive that quality journalists can research quality stories irrespective of their background. It happens all the time.
  • tschwimmer 7y ago
    Hopefully you are hiring writers to report on the objective state of the world, not pursue a particular perspective.
    • throwawayjava 7y ago
      And who gets to decide what "the objective state of the world" is? There is real value in reading about the same topic from differing perspectives. Not all writing is or aspires to be purely fact-based journalism, and that's okay. It's reasonable that The Markup wants to hire group of people with diverse viewpoints on how "powerful institutions are using technology in ways that impact people and society". I would be surprised and underwhelmed if they had e.g. only software engineers or only consumer rights activists writing. The issue is their assumption that only non-white, non-males have interesting things to say about how "powerful institutions are using technology in ways that impact people and society".
      • ANPEQ-1 7y ago
        I mean, I'd argue that journalism as it should be is focused on truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability - all standards one would assume are important given The Markup's stated mission - but your point about not all writing aspiring to be fact-based is well taken.
      • jdietrich 7y ago
        Why has it become acceptable to assume so much about someone's view of the world based on their race, gender and sexual identity? Why has our definition of "diversity" become so narrow and stereotypical? If you want to hire people with diverse viewpoints, then look for people with diverse viewpoints. It's incredibly easy to fill a room with people who look like a Benetton poster but who all read the same books in the same colleges and all rigidly adhere to the same dogma. It's incredibly easy to use tokenism to justify your own prejudices. It's difficult to build a genuinely diverse collaboration based on profound and meaningful differences of perspective.
        • barry-cotter 7y ago
          > Why has it become acceptable to assume so much about someone's view of the world based on their race, gender and sexual identity? Why has our definition of "diversity" become so narrow and stereotypical? US Supreme Court jurisprudence more or less. No one actually cares about diversity as a goal. The political coalition that passed the Civil Rights Act looked around, saw they’d won and wanted more stuff for their constituents. Affirmative action was one of the ways to get more stuff. It’s also illegal under a plain reading of equal rights. For reasons I’m unqualified to opine on a quota system is too blatant legally (also explicit points based systems with group X getting Y extra points) so the Supreme Court went with diversity as an acceptable workaround to get to the desired goal of getting more stuff for the desired interest groups. This all happened in the context of university admissions and the buzzword spread from the case law. Same as free speech or state’s rights people who genuinely believe in them are rare compared to those who use them as talking points when convenient and drop them when not.
          • deleted 7y ago
            [deleted]
          • dwaltrip 7y ago
            Yeah, no one actually cares difficult, deeply rooted social and cultural problems that affect millions of people. It's clearly just about getting more stuff.
    • orpheline 7y ago
      Objectivity is a bias.
      • hak8or 7y ago
        Maybe I am misunderstanding the term objectivity or bias, or the intent of your comment. If it is a bias, then isn't it a good bias?
        • ANPEQ-1 7y ago
          God forbid we do our best to seek objectivity /s
        • orpheline 7y ago
          Whether a bias is good or bad depends on the observer. If you agree with it, it's good; otherwise it's not. The parent post expressed hope they were hiring writers who would 'report on the objective state of the world, not pursue a particular perspective'. I was pointing out that these are not opposites. We often think of 'objective' as the opposite of 'biased', but it isn't: it's substituting a personal bias with an impersonal one. This certainly has it's place - it's critical in the sciences - but objectivity has limits when you're dealing with people. A key strength for any good journalist is the ability to contextualize a story for their readers - not just provide objective facts, but answer the question "What does this mean to me?" A journalists' background and personal perspective - their bias - are relevant because they inform that context.
          • stareatgoats 7y ago
            yes, there is much confusion in this area. IMO values determine what is considered relevant for any description of reality - values that may be ubiquitous (in which case the description is 'objective'), or personal/limited to a few (in which case the description is 'biased'). Or so my amateurish thinking goes. I'd be much interested in a more learned perspective on this, but haven't really found anything yet.
• ANPEQ-1 7y ago
  Seems pretty clear cut that Sue Gardner was making hiring decisions based on practices prohibited by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The CJR article says she sent them the spreadsheet herself... https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index.cfm EDIT: I guess EEOC doesn't apply to businesses smaller than 15 people. The 'ol Discrimination Loophole for Small Businesses!
• orpheline 7y ago
  One thing wasn't clear to me from this article: did being non-white or non-male improve or hurt a prospective employees' score? I'm assuming in this case being 'non' raised the score, but the article doesn't state one way or another...
  • ANPEQ-1 7y ago
    The CJR skirts this issue by simply ignoring it. Color me surprised...