Thursday, October 03, 2024

Links - 3rd October 2024 (2 - Diversity)

Grummz on X - "Kyle Brink, the fired Executive Producer for DnD who said that white males needs to leave the hobby and got his wish....  Has gone protected.  You'd think this was the perfect moment for him to talk about what a great decision DnD made.  Oh yes, btw, he was replaced by a woman, Jess Lanzillo (who's probably much better, we'll see!).  These wokies talk big about "stepping aside and making room for other voices, but they mean YOU, never themselves."

Meme - i/o @eyeslasho: "In all states, the reason for removing the bar exam requirement has been to increase the number of black attorneys.  Blacks enter law school with significantly lower LSAT scores than whites and Asians, drop out at higher rates, mostly graduate near the bottom of their classes, and pass the bar at lower rates.  Why? Because their distribution of intelligence is significantly less favorable than that of other groups — the single most important fact about group disparities in America that, while firmly scientifically established, isn't permitted to be entered into public discourse."
"TABLE 34.1 Estimated percentage of racial/ethnic group members who exceed various IQ score cutoffs"
@amuse @amuse: "DEI: Washington joins Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire as the fourth state that no longer requires the bar exam to become a licensed attorney. Supreme courts in California, Minnesota, and Utah are considering similar moves."
"WASHINGTON STATE NO LONGER REQUIRES LAWYERS TO PASS BAR EXAM. Washington state has concluded that the traditional bar exam "disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks" Black individuals from becoming practicing attorneys. Washington joins Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire as the fourth state that no longer requires the bar exam to become a licensed attorney. Supreme courts in California, Minnesota, and Utah are considering similar moves."

Surely liberals should support white nationalism? - "Since Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, American liberals have become obsessed with the threat of white nationalism. As you can see in the chart below, there’s been a huge spike in mentions of the term in books, which began in 2016. Likewise, Zach Goldberg and David Rozado have shown that mentions of terms like “racism” and “white supremacy” in newspapers skyrocketed in the mid 2010s.  All this is despite the fact that white nationalists comprise a tiny percentage of the US population. In a 2018 poll for the Washington Post, only 1% of white Democrats and only 3% of white Republicans said they considered themselves “supporters of the alt-right or white nationalist movement”.  There may well have been some socially desirable responding (people saying they weren’t white nationalists when they really were). But when George Hawley tried to identify white nationalists in the 2016 American National Election Survey, he still only got up to 6%. And he used a rather questionable definition, namely holding all three of the following beliefs: being white is “very or extremely” important to one’s identity; whites should “work together to change laws” that are unfair to whites; and whites face a “great deal” of discrimination in the US... in the 2018 Washington Post poll Hispanics were more likely to say they were “alt-right” than were whites... assuming it’s true that, say, 1% of white Americans are white nationalists, that equates to around 2 million people. Which means that the majority of white nationalists are not violent. By the same token, there have been terrorist attacks by opponents of the Republican Party and by supporters of Black Lives Matter, but clearly most people who belong to those groups are not violent... The fact that liberals are so outraged by white nationalism (a racist is pretty much the worst thing you can be in their eyes) is particularly interesting in light of what we know about modern America: racially diverse liberal cities are highly segregated. Which means that white liberals choose overwhelmingly to live among other whites.  As this graphic from the FT shows, American cities are far more segregated than British cities, and the most segregated cities are strongholds of Democratic Party support. Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, New York and St. Louis – the most segregated cities in America – all voted for Biden by a large margin.  Here’s a map showing racial segregation in New York City. Each dot represents 120 people of a particular race: blue dots represent blacks; orange dots represent Hispanics; red dots represent Asians; and green dots represent whites. As you can see, there’s almost no overlap among the different races. The white liberal New York Times-readers who are so horrified by white nationalism live largely amongst themselves. It’s a similar story when you look at friendship networks. A recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 66% of white Democrats report an all-white friendship network – which is only seven points less than the percentage of white Republicans who do. And a 2015 Pew Research survey found that white liberals were more likely than white conservatives to have no close black friends... if ethnic separatism is as horrible as white liberals say, why do so many of them choose to live, well, separately from other races?  In fact, shouldn’t white liberals support white nationalism (of the ethnic separatist kind)? For the price of giving up a small amount of territory, they’d be removing a large share of the most racist white people from the country – thereby presumably improving the lives of all the non-white Americans left behind. “These racists have to be part of society” seems like a strange position to take... Ironically, the people who appear to be most outraged by white nationalism tend to live in overwhelmingly white neighbourhoods. Which makes it hard to take their outrage seriously."

Nathan Cofnas on X - "University of Tokyo students say it will be "great" when Japan becomes like Paris with "people with different skin colors," and that immigration "will positively disrupt the existing values and lead to more diversity, creating a more stimulating world."  Japan is on the same trajectory as the US circa 1960. 10% of Tokyo residents in their 20s are foreign born (not including non-Japanese born in Japan), and 70% of Japanese say it's good to have more foreigners.  There are several theories about why the West opened its borders: whites fell victim to Jewish mind control, liberal politicians wanted to import friendly voters, Northwest Europeans are uniquely individualistic, etc. But a key part of the story is that, unless they're indoctrinated to be nationalists, most people of all races just don't care about racial purity, and their culture means less to them than a kebab stand."

How Japan Increased Immigration Without Stoking Xenophobia - "the latest immigration reform has faced little scrutiny by the media or in wider conversation. “In general, there has not been much controversy regarding the law,” Yashiro said.  Much of that can be traced to the clear government messaging behind the reforms—and the messenger. Conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has based his support for the changing immigration policy not on any humanitarian concerns but rather on pragmatic, demographic arguments... Rather than simply relaxing immigration restrictions overall, however, Japan has developed a unique program of customized immigration, based on specific requests for workers from various countries... “It’s important to understand that Abe’s government introduced these reforms not to change Japanese society, but to sustain Japanese society,” said Eiji Oguma, a sociologist and historian at Keio University in Tokyo, who has spent most of his professional life researching and writing about immigration and Japanese identity...   The strongest support for the bill came from the most conservative wing of parliament, and opposition has largely come from Abe’s left, over concerns about a lack of regulation on employers, which they fear could lead to exploitation... This dynamic was common in the immigration debate in Europe and the United States in the 1980s and ’90s, when pro-business conservatives often pushed for more immigrants and guest workers, while labor unions raised concerns for workers’ rights and downward pressure on wages... The widespread xenophobia in Japan is hardly a myth. In 2010, the U.N.’s human rights experts called out Japan for racism, discrimination, and exploitation of migrant workers. Increased immigration has not changed the country’s notoriously strict asylum policies. In 2018, only 42 asylum-seekers were approved, out of around 10,000 applicants."
From 2020. European countries also invoked demographic reasons, but the reception was very different. Because the types of immigrants and the controls on them are very different

Dan Snow on X - "The idea that Britain is a ‘powder keg’ because of its diversity is in itself stunningly racist. Millions of us live in diverse families bound by ties of love & respect that are as combustible as granite."
Thread by @wanyeburkett on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " This is the core progressive position on immigration: the fact that the powder keg exists at all is racist. It doesn't matter that all the data show that immigration decreases social trust, because it *shouldn't* do that. When it lowers social trust that's only because the people are *wrong* and *bad* and so you don't have to consider their reaction. It just gets factored out, rounded down to zero. You don't have to think about what *is* because what *is* is racist. One thing I wish I could popularize is the view that progressivism is deeply anti-intellectual. They never care about measuring reality as it actually exists, because it's irrelevant, anyway. If the data show that a progressive policy leads to bad results, then that's just because bad racists aren't getting in line. It's never the fault of the policy. They have no concept of, "this policy doesn't work because it doesn't create the results we want with the people we actually have."  No, a policy is good if it's good in the abstract. And if the people you actually have aren't getting inline, then something should be done about them.  This isn't a small point. This is how you get gulags."
The moralistic fallacy in action

Thread by @aaronsibarium on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "NEW: Doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital were forced to attend a racially segregated DEI training that claimed black people are "systematically targeted for demise" and pressed white docs to "tap into their repressed racial memories" to develop a white "race-consciousness."🧵
Held in August 2022, the training was mandatory for the gastroenterology department and divided participants into three "racial caucuses"—a white caucus, a black caucus, and a "Non-Black POC Caucus"—to "minimize harm to our black learners and facilitator." Each caucus completed separate "racial identity development exercises" based on the work of prominent diversity consultants, including White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo. The black group was asked how "you work against internalizing anti-Black messages," while the "Non-Black POC" group was asked to consider "which of your actions are anti-Black" and "how Black people will always be more susceptible to structural racism than other non-Black POC." White doctors, for their part, were told to "divest" from "whiteness" and "unpack their racial stories" by drawing on "repressed racial memories." They were also asked to "commit to practicing racial storytelling with at least one other white person." The training, which began with a land acknowledgment, spanned four separate workshops and was led by a child psychiatrist at Seattle Children's, Roberto Montenegro, who "uses a social justice lens to help children and youth surmount the trauma inflicted by systemic racism(s)."
At the end of one session, the slides suggested that doctors "need to implement" systems to "prioritize" black patients. Seattle Children's Hospital did not respond to a request for comment about whether it was prioritizing certain patients based on race.
The training offers a window into how one of the top-ranked pediatric hospitals in the country has made racial identity—including white racial identity—a touchstone of its diversity efforts. From scholarships for "minoritized" medical students to a "microaggression reporting system," Seattle Children's has a panoply of programs that encourage doctors to view themselves, and their patients, through a race-conscious lens. Residents "identify implicit bias and structural racism in clinical scenarios" as part of the hospital's "health equity rounds," case-based conferences that address "issues of equity, bias, and racism that play out in medical settings today." They can also join race-based affinity groups that, according to the hospital, provide "safe spaces to process sensitive resident experiences related to diversity, equity and inclusion." "We build protected spaces for minoritized residents as they undergo training as physicians," the hospital's website says. "In doing so, we hope to build inclusivity while celebrating people's intersectional identities."
These efforts kicked into high gear with an "Anti-Racism Action Plan," launched in 2021, that called for "organization-wide training" on "equity, diversity, and inclusion." The August 2022 sessions were part of a pilot program that was designed to fulfill that mandate and has since expanded to both the hospital's rheumatology department and bioethics center. All divisions will eventually complete similar trainings, according to the hospital, which says its approach will "dismantle racism with bottom-up, rather than top-down, pressure."
Seattle Children's did not respond to a request for comment about who would facilitate those trainings or whether the trainings would separate participants by race. Once the province of graduate school seminars and human resources departments, racial caucusing is an increasingly common practice in health care settings. UCSF medical school has used affinity groups to "supplement longitudinal antiracism education," according to a 2020 paper about the school's initiatives, which initially offered participants a choice of three groups: "Black or African American, all people of color, and White." "In a space without White people," the paper said, "BIPOC participants can bring their whole selves, heal from racial trauma together, and identify strategies for addressing structural racism."
UCLA medical school likewise planned to divide students into three categories—white, black, and "NBPOC"—to engage in "collective healing and self care." UCLA canceled the exercise in January after a civil rights complaint was filed against the school. At Seattle Children's Hospital, which is affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine, stomach doctors were encouraged to self-segregate even after the training ended. "BIPOC learners" should commit to "immersing" themselves "in racial/ethnic experiences and group settings," one slide says, while "white learners" should work with other white people to foster "racial identity formation." During the third workshop, in a section called "Setting the Tone," facilitators presented doctors with a list of statements adapted from the official Black Lives Matter organization. "We believe black stories," one statement read. "We do not question them." If a story doesn't check out, the slides explain, that may be because "anti-Blackness" is "not always easily quantifiable by those outside of the Black community who have not shared the lived experience of anti-Blackness." "We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise," the statements read. "We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum.""
The people who go on about "white fragility" claim black people are harmed when interacting with other races

Meme - "KNOW THE WORK RULES: APPROPRIATE
"IM MOORISH, WE CONQUERED WHAT IS NOW SPAIN AND PORTUGAL"
"AWW, DIVERSITY, IS SWEET AND GREAT"
INAPPROPRIATE
"IM A SPANISH CONQUISTADOR, WE CONQUERED THE AZTECS AND INCAS"
"HELLO, HUMAN RESOURCES?"

White Man Sues IBM For Firing Him So 'They Could Hire More Women And Minorities'; Slams Company's Diversity Targets - "A white man has filed a lawsuit against IBM, alleging that he was terminated to accommodate the company's diversity hiring initiatives. According to Randall Dill, he was a highly regarded employee at IBM, cultivating relationships with the Pentagon and other major clients. Much to his dismay, Dill said he was terminated to make room for hiring more women and minorities. According to a lawsuit filed in a Michigan US District Court on Wednesday, Dill's superiors did not clearly explain his termination. Instead, they falsely claimed that he needed to generate more business, even though this was never part of his job... According to the 18-page complaint, he consistently received high marks in performance evaluations and earned praise at monthly meetings. The lawsuit claims Dill's boss, Jay Zook, informed him in July 2023 that he was "not bringing in enough work" and placed him on a performance improvement plan (PIP).  This remark surprised Dill, who had only worked with existing IBM clients and had never been responsible for acquiring new business. Despite this, Dill attempted to secure a contract for the company. However, when he requested support, Zook told him, "You are on your own." He was terminated in October 2023. Weeks after Dill's termination, a video surfaced in which IBM's CEO, Arvind Krishna, disclosed that managers were facing pressure to fulfil DEI hiring quotas. "All executives in the company have to move forward by 1 percent on both underrepresented minorities ... and gender," Krishna said.  "That leads to a plus on [their] bonus. By the way, if you lose, you lose part of your bonus," the top executive added. In a video from 2021 that has since been made public, Krishna stated that hiring managers needed to increase the number of women, Black individuals, and Hispanic employees at IBM to receive their bonuses. He further noted that there were already sufficient white and Asian male employees within the company. The lawsuit says the performance improvement plans were a tactic employed by IBM managers to "quickly and cheaply" eliminate white male employees, such as Dill, allowing Zook and other executives to achieve more significant bonuses... This is the second lawsuit AFL, a conservative legal action group, has filed against IBM. In May, a former sales chief sued IBM's Red Hat subsidiary, alleging that he and 20 other white men were terminated during the company's aggressive DEI initiative."

Meme - Jeremy Kauffman 🦔 @jeremykauffman: "The worst part about this is there's no solution other than becoming a racist.  There aren't third party metrics for dentist quality. You are strongly incentivized to avoid black medical and legal professionals until they restore meritocracy."
memetic_sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "The funniest grifts on the internet are black women pretending they write excellent personal statements that are good enough to overcome shitty grades and scores."
"Reasons I Shouldn't Have Been Accepted into Dental School
Graduated from an HBCU. No dental related volunteers hours. Applied the day before the deadline. Scored a 14 on the PAT. Accepted on 1st Application Cycle. Find out how in the caption"

MIT diversity data confirms 'worst fears' about end of affirmative action - YouTube - "What is so tragic about it is there are also those reading this outcome as an example of what happens when merit is taken as the principal, deciding factor. When in fact this is actually proving the opposite... So what does it mean that we can't take into consideration race? What it will mean is they can't build the kind of diverse class they want to build and we know that focusing on class alone cannot address this issue. So part of what we have to deal with is the bad faith of these actors who are pressing this issue... I think institutions need to live their values and not be afraid of being sued."
Clearly, being born black means you have merit
Prioritising merit means you are a bad faith actor
No one is above the law - unless it pushes the left wing agenda

Richard Hanania on X - "People debated whether the Supreme Court banning affirmative action would have an impact on university admissions.  MIT is the first elite university to release data. For the class of 2028, underrepresented minorities are down to 16% from 25% in recent years. In one year, the number of blacks went from 15% to 5%. Asians increased their numbers, from 40% to 47%.  If you know anything about test numbers, you know they're still putting their thumbs on the scales. A purely meritocratic system wouldn't get you anywhere near 16% black, Hispanic, and Native American.   But the Supreme Court did make their lives harder, and significantly cut the number of undeserving minorities admitted. Political and legal victories do matter."

steve hsu on X - "MIT admissions data, before and after the 2023 SCOTUS decision eliminating Affirmative Action.  Asian American representation in freshman class went from 41 to 47 percent. The White percentage went from 38 to 37 percent.   This suggests that under Affirmative Action spots that should have gone to Asian Americans based on merit were instead allocated to underrepresented groups.  Note, factors like socioeconomic status, family background, etc. can still be considered. Only race-based preference has been eliminated.  Defenders of Affirmative Action claimed that Asian Americans were NOT disadvantaged by race preferences, but these numbers suggest otherwise."

Thread by @kiyahwillis on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I'm a black woman who went to MIT. Here's why I'm anti-affirmative action 🧵
1. Affirmative Action is explicit bigotry, and I'm not a bigot. If someone works hard and achieves excellent grades, extracurriculars, and test scores, they should not be discriminated against or seen as an inferior applicant based on demographic, no matter their demographic.
2. When I was there, I saw kids from all demographics struggle to keep up with the workload. Many of them took more than four years to graduate. Some didn't graduate at all. I think many were likely admitted due to AA policies and were set up to struggle/fail from the start. They would have had a better college experience elsewhere, but now some have loans they probably can't quickly repay because they don't have the degree they hoped to get. Many of them struggled with anxiety and depression because they were overwhelmed with the workload. Many of the unqualified graduates went into jobs unrelated to their degrees because they weren't qualified or were burnt out. They didn't retain much of what they were taught in their classes because they put all their efforts into barely passing.
3. I want the best people going into STEM industries. I don't care about the sexual orientation of the person who built the bridge; I don't want it to collapse. I don't care about the skin color of my doctor; I want the one who knows the best about medicine and can cure me. When you prevent the brightest, most talented, and most hard-working in any field from getting the best education, you prevent the most excellent people from making the most positive change in the world.
4. I want people to have healthy self-esteem. I don't know whether I was an affirmative action admit. I did well and graduated in less than 8 semesters, so I doubt I was unqualified, but I will never know if it was my hard work or my skin color that ultimately got me admitted. When MIT or any of these colleges or activists focus on demographics instead of ability, qualified people question whether they are competent and deserving of what they have achieved, and ammunition is given to people who doubt the merit of their achievements.
To summarize: Affirmative action benefits no one.  It's bad for bright students who miss opportunities because of their race, for unqualified students who struggle academically, for qualified students who doubt their abilities, and for society to miss out on its fullest potential"

Crémieux on X - "Harvard has chosen to defy the Supreme Court's ruling against it and is continuing to blatantly engage in racial discrimination in admissions. Bizarrely, their Class of 2028 profile doesn't even list Whites. Instead, they're treated as a residual race."

Yale, Princeton, Duke Threatened With Lawsuit Over 'Not Complying' With Supreme Court Ruling On Racial Preferences in Admissions - "The group behind the lawsuit that brought down affirmative action in college admissions is demanding answers from universities that saw almost no change in the racial breakdown of their classes after the ban took effect, arguing that the similarity is evidence of discrimination and possible grounds for a lawsuit.  Students for Fair Admissions, which won its landmark case against Harvard before the Supreme Court last year, sent letters on Tuesday to Yale, Princeton, and Duke, urging their lawyers to "preserve all potentially relevant documents" in the event of litigation...       At a conference of law school officials last year, Mark Alexander, the faculty chairman of Villanova Law, suggested that religious schools might have a First Amendment right to practice affirmative action.  As a "Catholic institution," Villanova believes that "we are strengthened by individuals of diverse backgrounds," Alexander said. "If we were not allowed to pursue those values, would that be a violation of our religious freedom?""
Nobody is above the law - unless they push the left wing agenda

Meme - Underlord @da_underlord: "jews make up 2% of the population but somehow account for 32.7% of White House staff. That’s a staggering 1,635% over-representation compared to their percentage in the U.S. population.  Separation of synagogue and state is long overdue."
The White House: ".@SecondGentleman met with Jewish White House staff in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month. Our Administration is proud to recognize the Jewish staffers who help carry our nation forward each day and are helping create a more inclusive tomorrow."
"155 People in this Picture. https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/16585 19373881933833 474 People work as White House Staff https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/July-1-2022-Report-Final.pdf
155/474=32.7% 32.7% of White House Staff are Jewish. 2.4% of All US Adults are Jewish https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/the-size-of- the-u-s-jewish-population/ This is completely normal."

Meme - Grummz @Grummz: "Kotaku reporter who issued "fight me IRL" video challenges, attempted to cancel and dox an entire discord (@kabrutusrambo ) and cyber-staked dozens of accounts is now claiming harassment and is going to sue."
Alyssa Mercante @alyssa_merc: "It's been nearly six months since my SBI report and the start of the GG harassment campaign. During this time, I've been gathering info and seeking advice from lawyers and can finally confirm that I'm moving forward with legal action against several parties for and defamation. I'm funding this myself, but will probably have to create a GoFundMe to help with expenses. Appreciate all your support!"

Meme - "Sometimes I think Disney was more inclusive when it wasn't trying so hard to be. *Princess and the Frog* *Brother Bear* *The Emperor's New Groove* *Lilo and Stitch*"

Meme - evan loves worf @esjesjesj: "Elon got owned by the doctor from Voyager"
Elon Musk: "Let's make Starfleet Academy real!"
Robert Picardo: "First step : Support a leader that embodies Starfleet values like diversity, inclusion and ethical behavior."
Christian @ccreech911: "Ummmmm. You have to be the best at what you do to get a post on a starship."
Mr. Reality @MrReality_sp: "How's DEI working out for the two astronauts Boeing's decaying tech can't get off the space station?"
Comments (elsewhere): "Starfleet academy was open to all but it didn't have diversity quotas, there weren't reserved spots for tellerites or a cap on humans or putting vulcans on a curve. You want assigned diversity quotas look no further than the borg. Your biological distinctiveness will be added to their own. Your culture will adapt to service them."
"You know what's funny, one of the best Doctor episodes of Voyager was literally about what happens when you use racism to correct past racism and rewrite history to make the formerly oppressed minority look better. Spoiler: it didn't end well."
"Ah yes the "Ethical behavior" of fabricating evidence and false-flag assassinations of envoys to draw neutral empires into war"
"Starfleet was all about merit. DEI would have meant the Borg assimilating the entire quadrant"
"Well, Starfleet functions on hard facts and rationality. So the democrats/far left in America couldn't get along with it. They think maths is racist, FFS."
"The trick to creating a spacefaring civilization is to hire based on race rather than merit"

TENET Media on X - "NASA’s DEI trainings include engineers vocalizing they “feel shame” for being white and for taking part in “white supremacy culture”."

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