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> Is tech trying to push stuff like Women and Black Girls Can Code Too for the sake of being noble and kind to all, or are they just desperately trying to incre

> Is tech trying to push stuff like Women and Black Girls Can Code Too for the sake of being noble and kind to all, or are they just desperately trying to increase the size of the labor pool to reduce the leverage that their highly paid employees have? It's probably a bit of both, but I also firmly believe that DEI initiatives are largely supported from the top because this is the type of criticism that has historically led to unionization and labor organization efforts, and the software industry is trying very hard not push the workforce in that direction. Some of the early unions in the US were comprised of minorities that were excluded from the labor force by whites.[0] I understand that labor organizing is still a fairly taboo topic, but it gave us things like the 40 hour workweek and the minimum wage. Those were not just handed out by the ownership class. 0: https://racial-justice.aflcio.org/blog/est-aliquid-se-ipsum-flagitiosum-etiamsi-nulla https://racial-justice.aflcio.org/blog/est-aliquid-se-ipsum-...

zozbot234 5y ago
> Some of the early unions in the US were comprised of minorities that were excluded from the labor force by whites. And some unions were comprised of whites who went out of their way to exclude minorities. It takes two to tango.
- thr0wawayf00 5y ago
  Sure, just as police use unions today to escape accountability for bad behavior. I'm certainly not arguing that every single thing a union has done or stood for is universally moral or just. What institution in any period of history bats 1000 in terms of doing the right thing by every person in society? Feel free to name one. But we absolutely take a lot of what labor movements have given our society for granted. Child labor laws are another great example. The underlying point still stands: a labor force that works together is vastly more powerful and therefore much more of a threat to the ownership class than a workforce that acts individually. It's in the best interests of executives to facilitate the conversations around DEI to avoid that anger spilling over into collective action, especially as sympathy in the labor movement continues to rise in America.
yucky 5y ago
>Some of the early unions in the US were comprised of minorities that were excluded from the labor force by whites. Most early unions were created for the exact opposite reason, to keep minorities from diluting the labor pool.
logicalmonster 5y ago
I'm really curious about what somewhat politically mainstream people think about stories like this. https://archive.fo/1khJw https://archive.fo/1khJw > Whole Foods' heat map says lower rates of racial diversity increase unionization risks How did they arrive at such a correlation? What explains such a correlation? Why are they tracking these metrics? If companies are tracking these metrics and found an actionable correlation, what does it say knowing that these corporations are very gung-ho about promoting DEI?

zozbot234 5y ago

> Some of the early unions in the US were comprised of minorities that were excluded from the labor force by whites. And some unions were comprised of whites who went out of their way to exclude minorities. It takes two to tango.

thr0wawayf00 5y ago
Sure, just as police use unions today to escape accountability for bad behavior. I'm certainly not arguing that every single thing a union has done or stood for is universally moral or just. What institution in any period of history bats 1000 in terms of doing the right thing by every person in society? Feel free to name one. But we absolutely take a lot of what labor movements have given our society for granted. Child labor laws are another great example. The underlying point still stands: a labor force that works together is vastly more powerful and therefore much more of a threat to the ownership class than a workforce that acts individually. It's in the best interests of executives to facilitate the conversations around DEI to avoid that anger spilling over into collective action, especially as sympathy in the labor movement continues to rise in America.

yucky 5y ago

>Some of the early unions in the US were comprised of minorities that were excluded from the labor force by whites. Most early unions were created for the exact opposite reason, to keep minorities from diluting the labor pool.

logicalmonster 5y ago

I'm really curious about what somewhat politically mainstream people think about stories like this. https://archive.fo/1khJw https://archive.fo/1khJw > Whole Foods' heat map says lower rates of racial diversity increase unionization risks How did they arrive at such a correlation? What explains such a correlation? Why are they tracking these metrics? If companies are tracking these metrics and found an actionable correlation, what does it say knowing that these corporations are very gung-ho about promoting DEI?