Stop Pretending Diversity Programs Help Racial Inequality: Admit It's for PR and Move-On

Everyone needs to stop pretending these diversity programs are actually focused on fixing inequality in any way. Pretending they are is honestly more harmful to black communities. 

If these programs did care, they'd look to target the actual drivers of systematic racism which are socioeconomic inequality and parental education and target students who are disadvantaged in these aspects. 

Most diversity candidates are 1st/2nd gen African immigrants or hispanics who don't deal with systematic racism and deal with the same injustices Asian Americans face. 

Diversity programs know this. They just don't care because it's a PR stunt. It's honestly more harmful to support diversity programs like this because they don't do anything to actually target black/indigenous communities that face systematic injustices day-in and day-out. People can just point to these diversity programs that have mainly been used by 1st/2nd gen African immigrants or hispanics (and not those dealing with actual systematic racism) and falsely say black/indigenous people who underperform aren't using resources given to them. 

I think it's dumb to blame diversity programs for you not getting a job, so I'm not upset about diversity programs in that respect. I just don't think they actually do anything to target the core of racial inequality.

All I'm saying is call a spade a spade. Stop pretending diversity programs are part of a grandiose mission to fight racial injustice. It's just a PR stunt, plain and simple. 

 

You guys can post this shit 500 times a day with a different title every time, the only people who seem to be bashing diversity candidates are RACIST folks, I have yet to see a diversity candidate complain about these programs. Mind your own damn business and worry about yourself.

 

This is the exact issue. No one can criticize diversity programs and say that they can do a better job of directly targeting those affected by systematic racism without being called racist.

I completely agree that black folk face systematic inequality, so diversity programs should directly target these people. Not 1st/2nd gen African immigrants or hispanics who face the same injustices as Asian Americans. If they actually did, maybe we'd see some change in the grotesque racial inequality in this country.

Providing blanket policies for self-identified races won't solve the issue. Creating policies to help black/indigenous people affected by the specific drivers of systematic racism like low socioeconomic status or lack of parental education would. 

 

All I have to say is that as a white person, YOU do not get to decide what's best for minority communities. The diversity chief of the company is usually a minority in some way or another (as it should be) and as a minority they have a 1398083x better idea of how to help their own communities. I'll say it again, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. You do not get a say in what black communities or asian communities or women need. You are a white straight male who does not understand the problems they face, there is no argument you can make that changes that. The best people to lead diversity efforts within a firm are those who know the problem first-hand, inside and out. Get that through your thick skull, your opinion is absolutely meaningless to the people who these initiatives are for.

 

Actually as someone who tends to be very vocal on this subject— you’re 100% right. These programs, no matter how grandiose, are not eating away at the core issue of system inequality (even if they claim to do so!). But at the same time, it’s not up to a giant billion dollar bank to single handedly dismantle systemic racial inequality — that is a Big government job to be completely honest, because the private sector is motivated by capitalist profit. That’s it, and that’s fine considering that we live in a capitalist, dog eat dog, competitive society (we can debate all day whether that is “right” or not, but that isn’t the point here).

Nobody is asking banks to dismantle racial capitalism and nobody actually thinks admitting some Black and Brown (and gender diverse) faces is chipping away at it either. BUT you can’t deny that these programs spread the wealth at least a little bit— to racial minorities that for the most part, don’t have access to generational wealth and robust nepotism working in their favor. I’d argue that most who go into banking probably come from the middle class, so they are aware of the financial services industry, but I don’t think it’s as many Black trust fund babies or children of professional athletes as you might think in banking. Is it fair? Nope, not at all. But it’s unfair to rich, white, straight men for the first time in an industry that historically they have dominated and entered with relative ease — and people get angry when their power is threatened, even if it’s not that big of a threat at all.

 

Totally agree. Except I think asian americans also don't have access to those networks and face the same injustices as hispanics or 1st/2nd gen african immigrants.

I just get irritated when people have debates about these diversity programs and try to tie it into the systemic injustices black americans face. While certain black americans are affected day-in and day-out by systematic racism, these programs aren't really doing much to help them since they're pretty blanketed to include hispanics, women, LGBTQ, and African 1st/2nd gen immigrants. 

So, all I'm saying is call a spade a spade. These programs are PR and nothing more or less. Don't try to tie this into some larger debate about systemic racial inequality cause these programs do little to nothing in that regard. 

 

Asian Americans out-earn White Americans in the U.S. FYI - I am not saying white people are oppressed (no, they are not), but Asian Americans actually have a BIGGER talent pool than White Americans, as the Asian American culture often times praises hard work much more than White American culture. Asian American families do an exceptional job at teaching hard work from a young age, and everyone should look up to that (although yes - sometimes this culture can create toxic pressure on children).

FWIW; I am your average (white) immigrant friend's 2c.

 
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First of all, everything you just wrote is stereotypical and not backed by any information. The stereotype that Asians have a hardworking culture doesn't apply to all families. Even if it did, your argument still doesn't make sense because you're advocating for penalizing harder working people.

And "asians" may have higher salaries on average but that's because Asian is such a blanket term representing more than half the population. Many asian immigrants came as refugees escaping Gujarat, vietnam, burma etc. And if you actually look at these numbers, the standard deviation is much smaller for asian american salaries. So you might have a bunch of asian software engineers making 140k, but asians are much less likely to be promoted for the same qualifications than whites, so you have a lot more white people making 250k+ in proportion to their percentage of the population than any other race. Don't just believe a number without context. 

 

So you're one of those people that just accepts the world as it is and works obediently within the system without asking any questions.

These systems were made by people just as smart/dumb as us, so you can either blindly accept it or call it out. 

 

Please tell me how that's dumb. Systematic racism comes from the injustices caused by slavery, Jim Crow, redlining etc. If you immigrated into this country or are Hispanic you don't have to deal with systematic racism. Biases? yes. But so do Asians. Systematic racism? No. 

 

I’m genuinely curious, do you have any data or sources for claiming that diversity programs benefit mostly wealthy / privileged minorities? I’ve been involved in recruiting for the last 2 years and would say that the majority of diversity candidates I’ve seen came from disadvantaged backgrounds or were just middle class. I actually don’t think I’ve met anyone who was from an overly wealthy background.

And isn’t the quality of diversity recruiting in finance also dependent on the quality of diversity recruiting at universities? There’s room for improvement but I think it’s fair to say that universities are at least somewhat taking family income and such circumstances into account. First gen college applicants often get an advantage as well. I personally think that banks are just working with what they have by taking their diversity candidates from schools that they already recruit from. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. If the pipeline starts with education, which is expensive, then getting more minorities into lucrative finance jobs can get the cycle going and positively impact future generations. I don’t really see anything wrong with that.

 

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