All this talk about gender and race diversity but no talk about economic diversity. How many of you in the tech industry grew up poor? When I say poor I mean that your family received some sort of welfare and/or food stamps. Economic diversity brings with it all sorts of challenges that are hard to overcome, and much diversity of thought. Why aren't we talking about this? It seems to me anyone that could overcome this sort of thing, regardless of race or gender, would be the type of worker companies would want most due to their resilience.
My sister was the first person to go to college on both sides of my family that we know of. I was the third. Our family dates back to arrival in 1695, so I’m sure others have at some point, but none in recent history probably due to the world wars and Great Depression, recessions etc. So we didn’t have a leg up. We didn’t grow up poor, but we didn’t have a network as we didn’t know anyone who had gone to college.
If you look at what would really improve companies, diversity based on skin color is one of the last things that would help. The diversity pushes are all about PR and lawsuit avoidance.
We could have received foodstamp. My parents didn’t go for it from pride. I am the first in the family to graduate college (double deg ee and math) and only to have a phd in my extended family. At msft, people still sometimes say i am “snowflake”, “millennial”.... yes i work with some old grumpy old libertarians I don’t care. These things don’t belong at work. People should leave their personal feelings and politics at home. They don’t.
Economic diversity would also provide diversity of thought. +1
If we are to encourage diversity of thought, the first thing to do is encourage diversity of thought! Fb is different but at msft, ICs are lemmings. For lemmings, you don’t need diversity of anything. Step 0: encourage creativity Step 1: find people with different ways of thinking... Without step 0, you will end up with frustrated employees
It's tough to encourage diversity of thought, because it's likely illegal to ask the right questions which would identify it. Economics might be a good proxy.
My mom worked 2 to 3 jobs to put food on the table. I always had used shoes/clothe. Kids were relentless. My grandparents helped my mom out as much as they could... my dad gave little for child support. I’m white, grew up in a small town. I paid for my college myself. California said I couldn’t get assistance because I made to much as I worked full time in college to pay for books/food and tuition. All this talk of hiring because you look different is absolute garbage. I hope it backfires.
I think there’s a lot of truth to your question, but also some explanations: 1.) it’s hard to recruit for directly. How would you get / verify that information? 2.) it already correlates well with race (unfortunately) 3.) as others have said, it’s not a category protected under law. This is related to the fact that American society doesn’t really recognize social class and therefore social class issues. Everyone, and I mean everyone, thinks they’re middle class. This means legal and social incentives don’t exist like they do for race
Whites receive more welfare than most. We aren't being honest with the stats.
Oh I’m not saying all poor people are minorities! I’m saying minorities are disproportionately poor (except for a minority of minorities who are not (except for a minority of a minority of minorities who are))
Don’t be fooled: the performative hysterics around race and gender are done precisely so nobody ever brings up labor vs. management issues. That’s what makes the system so rigged: the right wing wants fuck you got mine libertarian economics and American liberals are ok with that as long as the ruling classes are proportionately brown/women enough.
Your question assumes that poor people live in countries where government assistance is even available. The poor of the world live in under $2 a day and don't get any assistance. The poor in America are not really poor in absolute terms, but they complain disproportionately. I have Indian friends who grew up sleeping on dirt floors and are now very successful professionals whereas in America you have "poor" who grow up on government handouts. Typically due to self loathing only one parent at most stays around, no example is provided to the children on how to strive for success in life and be self-supporting - and there you have it - 5th generation of poverty since LBJ declared the war on poverty. Government intervention has unintended consequences.
Nice way to minimize people's struggles.
My family has fallen back on food stamps going back several generations. I also used them when I was working my way through college as a first generation student. Nobody at work knows that about me and I don't think I'll ever bring it up. There's a lot of stigma around government assistance.
And we're white or white passing since as far back as anyone remembers. The funny thing is, like most families, as soon as we weren't getting assistance both my grandparents and my parents described themselves as middle class. It's the classic phenomenon of white Americans, no matter how poor they actually are, thinking of themselves as temporarily embarrassed members of the middle class. I've heard my grandfather and father talk disparagingly about the "government handouts" that other people take, as if social programs weren't how their children survived.