Discussion: Twitter under fire; hires white man to lead diversity effort

cloudinthesky

Twitter, like many tech giants, has come under fire recently for its lack of women and minorities in its employee rankings. In an effort to rectify this, they removed Janet Van Huysse as their president of diversity and inclusion.

Now Twitter is once again under fire for "sending the wrong message" by hiring Jeffrey Siminoff, yet another white man, as their new head of diversity and inclusion.

Quote:

Apple's diversity chief Jeffrey Siminoff will replace Janet Van Huysse as Twitter’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, the San Francisco company said Monday on Twitter.

Siminoff, who co-founded Out Leadership, a lesbian, gay and transgender advocacy group, has promoted the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the business community.

Apple, like most major tech companies, has made little progress in increasing the the portion of women and under-represented minorities in its workforce.

The civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said in an interview that he is disappointed by Twitter's choice for a new diversity chief.

"Blacks and Latinos over-index on using Twitter, but their board of directors and C-suite leadership remain all white," Jackson said. "Jeff has a big mountain to climb, a tough task ahead. We hope he and Twitter’s leadership is up to the challenge."

Jackson has pressed Twitter and other tech companies to build work forces and leadership that better represent the U.S. population. In November, Jackson expressed "grave concerns" that recent Twitter layoffs disproportionately affected African-Americans and Hispanics.

Twitter is especially popular among African-Americans. More than a quarter of black Internet users in the U.S. are on Twitter, a rate higher than other ethnic groups, according to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center. And "Black Twitter" — the flow of conversation about issues that matter to this online community — has become a cultural force capable of influencing the national dialogue and the course of events.

Yet Twitter's workforce is not diverse: 2% African American and 4% Latino in the U.S. and 34% women globally. Last month, the company's highest-ranking African-American employee left Twitter and publicly criticized Twitter for its failure to hire more underrepresented minorities.

"The choice that they made represents a potentially very challenging path ahead," said Tumbuan, a principal with Vaya Consulting. "Had they chosen a woman of color, of which there are so many — there is an abundant pool of qualified leadership on this issue who already reflect Twitter's largest user base — not only would that have sent a much more positive message but we know the work of that person might be more effective in achieving the goals of a chief diversity officer."

Source | Source 2

Thoughts?

Mezter

B'Day

Black Twitter is so iconic.
And this is sad... it's 2016. Diversity is important.

RatedG²

What's the problem? You don't need to be a certain skin type to lead diversity efforts

elliotis19

Talk about being tone deaf.

Let's hire someone that fits absolutely none of the demographics we're trying to improve upon.

Cringe.

satellites.™

Quote:

Originally posted by RatedG²

What's the problem? You don't need to be a certain skin type to lead diversity efforts

Quote:

Originally posted by elliotis19

Talk about being tone deaf.

Let's hire someone that fits absolutely none of the demographics we're trying to improve upon.

Cringe.

Asked and answered.

elliotis19

Quote:

Originally posted by RatedG²

What's the problem? You don't need to be a certain skin type to lead diversity efforts

Quote:

"The choice that they made represents a potentially very challenging path ahead," said Tumbuan, a principal with Vaya Consulting. "Had they chosen a woman of color, of which there are so many — there is an abundant pool of qualified leadership on this issue who already reflect Twitter's largest user base — not only would that have sent a much more positive message but we know the work of that person might be more effective in achieving the goals of a chief diversity officer."

There's your answer.

Nialler

If he's the best man for the job then his skin colour doesn't matter. Let's assess qualifications shall we?

meril

Here we go again.

Twitter probably hire useful and productive people. If it happens they're mostly white, it might be weird, but it's just the way it is.

And using an argument that when people of specific type use something, they should acutally participate in developing it, it's kind of funny to me.

Hurem

RatedG²

Quote:

Originally posted by elliotis19

There's your answer.

Eh. I still don't see a problem, the actual diversity effort challenge can still be solved even if the person is white

I do agree they need more representation of minorities in leadership but this white man can still do the job as well, hence why they hired him

Deuces

Quote:

Originally posted by Nialler

If he's the best man for the job then his skin colour doesn't matter. Let's assess qualifications shall we?

There's a 100% chance he's not. Especially when his background is in inclusivity of the LGBT community, which is important but not the only group that is meant to be included.

Nialler

Quote:

Originally posted by Deuces

There's a 100% chance he's not. Especially when his background is in inclusivity of the LGBT community, which is important but not the only group that is meant to be included.

I'm sorry but HR of a company like Twitter probably knows better how to assess someone's skills than a bunch of clueless SJWs.

Dessy Fenix

I also don't see the big issue here but I can understand a need to increase minority presence.

Ascension

Black Twitter better flex.

I don't have a fully masticated opinion on this as I don't know enough about the details of the situation; however, at surface level, it seems just more than a bit counterintuitive to begin a diversity initiative with a person that's least likely to have had any direct, real world experiences with many of the diversity hurdles he would be tasked with correcting.

B'Day

Quote:

Originally posted by Nialler

I'm sorry but HR of a company like Twitter probably knows better how to assess someone's skills than a bunch of clueless SJWs.

OH MY GOSH

the obsession

Deuces

Quote:

Originally posted by Nialler

I'm sorry but HR of a company like Twitter probably knows better how to assess someone's skills than a bunch of clueless SJWs.

You're right. A bunch of white people in HR know how to assess candidates for diversity and inclusion of marginalized identities better than those people who are those marginalized identities.

Ya'll are so naive.

Navyofbadgals

well if he can deal and lead with this the best, I don't see the problem

SpinThatShhh

If he was the best for the job, he deserves it. We should give jobs to people just because they are a part of a minority group. What kind of madness?

Dessy Fenix

Quote:

Originally posted by Deuces

There's a 100% chance he's not. Especially when his background is in inclusivity of the LGBT community, which is important but not the only group that is meant to be included.

So wait, you want them to find a qualified mixed (Asian, white, black, latino), gay trans woman? Because there's no way you'd be able to cover most grounds with anyone.