I'm torn on this issue, especially as an engineering student myself.
On one hand, this extreme focus on "diversity" for diversity sake is not something I care to participate in. Yes I'm black and I understand there are barriers in place for black folks. However, on the other hand, I do not want to be a hire who was hired to simply "diversify" a workforce. Its insulting to my intelligence and my skills. I still value my skills and abilities and if I'm not hired for that and my ability to project my competence in the interview, then don't hire me. I've been on interviews for internships for example where some of them I know I bombed and if they had called me back and offered me a job I would be shocked lol. I want to know when I get a job it was because we saw what you can do and want you to contribute to our success otherwise I won't feel too good about it.
So when I see articles that say "there is only x% amount of blacks working in a field so hire more blacks" it annoys me to be honest. I don't care strictly numerically speaking how many blacks are in a company. This is shytty stats reporting. A much more descriptive stat of possible discrimination would be "How many blacks interviewees vs hires are there" and the percent discrepancy between that set of data and other groups using the same measurement. Spatial_Paradox posted much more substantive and interesting stats related to graduates and hiring. However, again, the issue is the reporting is still sketchy when relating this to specific companies (i.e. facebook, twitters,etc) hiring of blacks as it doesn't say how many of these people who are graduating are applying to places like Facebook, twitter, etc. I know a lot of big silicon valley folks for example usually hired from the much more "respected schools". The implication here isn't that blacks are less likely to go to "respected schools" as I'm just criticizing the reporting in that just comparing NATIONAL graduation rates to hiring stats at a company is too broad. I think breaking the data down further by graduates at specifics schools and how many are interviewing at these companies and then doing a race comparison would be a better way to report. Just a small anecdote, I go to a local state school in the south and while I'm not counting myself out as being able to work at Twitter, Facebook, etc, I've also self-selected myself out applying to those places for internships and co-ops...which isn't a good thing but there are probably people like me out there.
take this rep. I didn't even know about this. I can't find a picture of the owner anywhere though, still wanna see something besides words saying they are a young Black person. Don't wanna get fooled.
