To CNN, "Asian diversity" isn't real diversity

In a stupid recent article CNN frets that there may not be enough "diversity" in the workforces of high tech companies of Silicon Valley and subtly insinuates that this state is due to racism and sexism. CNN places great emphasis on one metric, namely, that blacks, Hispanics, and women are underrepresented among Silicon Valley workers, while ignoring the plain implication of a second metric, namely, that Asians are vastly overrepresented among these same workers. Apparently, "Asian" diversity does not count as real diversity. In order to have "real" diversity, in CNN's view, workers must be black or Hispanic or female.

Anyone who claims that there is not enough diversity in Silicon Valley has never worked here, has never walked up University Avenue in Palo Alto on a weekend night, has never walked into a bank in Fremont or down the aisles of the Great Mall Shopping Center in Milpitas. Anyone who has actually done these things knows from first hand experience that Silicon Valley is one of the most diverse places in the entire United States, if, by diversity, you mean a mix of individuals from all corners of the world, and not just from the select "victim" categories of blacks, Hispanics, and women.

It is true that blacks, Hispanics, and women are underrepresented in the Silicon Valley workforce. But, the insinuation that this situation is due to racism and sexism is, in my personal observation, just wrong. The Silicon Valley engineering community is meritocratic to a fault. All non-essential aspects of the indivdual, such as race or color or sex, count for little. People judge you in Silicon Valley, for example, not by the clothes you wear, but by what you have actually accomplished. Take a look at Steve Jobs strolling out onto the stage of an Apple product introduction in Levis and a turtle neck. The most talented engineers at the software company I work for come to work every day in ripped Levis and t-shirts. No one respects Silicon Valley engineers for the clothes they wear or for the sharpness of the crease in their pants, but because they are fucking good engineers. Also, the number of hours one works is insignificant. Jeff, one of the best engineers I have ever worked with, always arrived at work at Informatica just in time to go to lunch, but he made up for it by working late into the night and over the weekend. Besides, even if Jeff had worked many fewer hours than other engineers, his productivity and the quality of his work were such that he was still more valuable than most other employees. What mattered was not the hours he put in, but what he produced.

In a meritocratic community like this, it hardly matters if you are Indian or Chinese or Eastern European or young or old or gay or black, Hispanic, or female. These attributes are not essential. What is essential is that you are a good, productive engineer. And, when it comes to judging good engineers, Silicon Valley engineers are quick to judge and keen and unforgiving in their judgment. If, on the one hand, you are a good engineer, it simply won't matter what the color of your skin is, what your ethnic background is, what set of genitalia is connected to your body, what you wear, or whether, even, you have taken a bath in the last couple of days; engineering teams are too starved for good talent to allow themselves to be distracted by such non-essential characteristics as race and gender and sexual orientation. On the other hand, if you are a crappy engineer, it won't matter how lily white and male you are: you will be received with nothing but contempt.

Yes, it is true that blacks, Hispanics, and women are underrepresented in the Silicon Valley workforce. But, this is not because of racism or sexism, but because blacks, Hispanics, and women simply are underrepresented in all the engineering occupations in the United States, just as they are underrepresented in math, science, and engineering classes in high schools and colleges all over America. Why this is so I do not know. But, it is certainly not because high tech firms in Silicon Valley are racist or sexist. Why is there a disproportionate number of blacks on high school and college basketball teams in the United States? Is it because coaches practice racism against whites?

One thing is for certain. If high tech companies are ever strongarmed into instituting "diversity programs" to increase the number of Hispanics, blacks, and women in the ranks of the Silicon Valley workforce, it will be the death knell of the area's vibrant economy (the only thing that might be more damaging would be the unionization of the high-tech workforce). Instead of being allocated strictly on merit, jobs will be allocated based on the color of one's skin or gender (or seniority in unions). As I noted above, these are non-essential characteristics that have nothing to do with engineering talent. Any industry that bases its selection of workers on such non-essential characteristics is doomed to failure. You might as well pick me to play center for the Golden State Warriors on the assumption that enhancing the "diversity" of the team will lead them to an NBA title.

The CNN article claims that many Silicon Valley companies refuse to release information about the ethnic and sexual makeup of their workforce. If this is true, it is not because their workers are not diverse, but because of the perverse way that diversity has come to be "measured." As noted above, by any objective standard, Silicon Valley is one of the most diverse areas in the entire United States. But, maybe the companies are afraid to release demographic information because they know that, if the poisonous and divisive element of racial and sexual patronage (for patronage is all diversity programs are) is introduced into Silicon Valley hiring practices, the quality of the workers will decline precipitously.

There could be no surer way of killing the goose-that-laid-the-golden-egg that is Silicon Valley than by introducing racial and sexual quotas into hiring practices there.