What DEI is and what it is not

A few tweets by Mekka Okereke

https://twitter.com/mekkaokerekebye/status/1732796753316102300

Here's the thing:

If you make your interview process fair, you will hire more Black women. You will hire more white men from different parts of the country, and with different educational backgrounds.

People don't need a boost in an unfair system.

They need a more fair system.

If you're going to say DEI is bad, at least understand what DEI is.

DEI is not "preferential treatment" for any race, gender, or country of origin. It's relentlessly improving the process to ensure that it works for everyone.

This is what DEI is about.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=SYsI-6_csMY

Everyone notices that I hire/promote more Black folk.

No one notices that I hire/promote more Asian folk to senior leadership, more white men without Ivy league degrees, more white folk from "red" states, more Ukrainians, etc.

...

White people born rich in Silicon Valley are not smarter than white people born poor in Atlanta or Kyiv.

If only white people born rich in Silicon Valley get promoted, then there is something wrong in the system.

Identify that wrong. Remove it.

If you're going to argue against DEI, at least understand what DEI is.

Don't pretend that it's "stack ranking races." That's just silly. That's not how DEI works. And that framing ignores intersectionality completely.

P.S. To whose who were offended by Damore's firing - please note that James and Mekka talk about the same topics. Yet one is impossible to work with and another is someone who people listen to (and is somebody who delivers!) On top of that - they both are/were Googlers! (Isn't that ironic?)

However, understanding the difference in their respective discourse (from the actual points they make to the rethorical devices they use) was super-useful for me. I hope it will be useful for you too.