A Diversity Anecdote
It would be nice if it just happened without any help.
![[a cartoon of a diverse group of people]](https://outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/diversity-cartoon-gender-race-workplace-1000x550-570x314.jpg)
James Joyner’s post on MIT’s incoming class turns my mind to an experience I had not that long ago. I was at a training conference with a number of colleagues from my institution of employment. One of the conference speakers made a passing remark that made mention of critical race theory (CRT). I think it was simply in terms of explaining that person’s area of research.* One member of my delegation made a derogatory remark about CRT, and then brought it up again in some chitchat later.
So, here’s the deal. The delegation I was with included all five college deans (all white males), an associate dean (a white male), a senior-level administrator (a white male), the head of development (a white male), and several development officers (all white, one of whom was female). So, there were roughly a dozen of us, all white, and only one female–in the most junior position of the group.
I was waiting for a chance to point out to my colleague that, yes, clearly, diversity happens by itself without any help whatsoever! Just look at all of us.
Indeed, it is an observation I could have made about any significant meeting that I was in during my time in administration. Given the configuration of different groups, the number of females at the main table would range from zero to one, ditto the number of persons of color.
But, of course, the reality is that people tend to replicate themselves in the hiring process, whether they realize it or not. That doesn’t always mean race and gender, but can mean professional/educational profiles, personality, etc. But it very frequently can be about the basic, ascriptive characteristics that people are comfortable with.
And, to the point of why affirmative action may be needed at educational (and other) institutions, it can affect who is even eligible to be in the hiring pool in the first place. If structural conditions make it less likely that, say, Black students get into school, the number of Black persons available for leadership opportunities is smaller.
Further, it takes time. If MIT, to take the example from James’ post, admits fewer undergraduates of color, then that means, downstream, fewer graduate students of color, and then fewer professors, chairs, and deans of color.
Since we know that, as a group, Blacks start off in a different position than Whites, it makes sense to try and ameliorate the long-term effects of this fact. Unless, of course, one thinks the Whites and Blacks deserve their current relative starting spots. In that case, whatever we get is the just result, regardless of all the generations of injustice that have come before.
*This was around the transition from CRT being the Big Scary letters before DEI become the letters to fear!
The Republican Party motto
Spot on, Steven. I’ve been unhappy with the weak representation of women in CS for decades. I did as much as I could, which wasn’t much, it turned out. While representation of Indians (from India) and Chinese was pretty good in the field, representation of blacks and Mexicanos was pretty bad.
Honestly, I think the problem starts at around 12 years old. Those kids see possibilities and identities, and some avenues don’t seem right to them. Of course, the attitudes down the road tend to erode representation as well.
I remember doing some back-of-the envelope calculations when I was at MIT looking at the percentage of female students in different majors. It looked like there was a certain level in mathematics, which dipped much lower for physics, then increased for chemistry and biology, then even more for engineering. My theory is that the scholarly types jumped into math/ chemistry/ biology directly, while a lot of the others felt “well, if I’m going to crack the barrier and jump into STEM I might as well do it into something that actually makes money.”
My own major, physics, was too practical to attract the math scholars, and too impractical to attract the engineers. Hence the dip.
@Stormy Dragon: My take for a long time has been that conservatism is the philosophy of “but”. It would be good to have more Blacks at MIT, but. We could raise taxes to cut the deficit, but. We could get everyone good health insurance, but. Whatever the nice thing, there’s always a reason we can’t have it.
We could do the math, if we had the skills, but the odds of the 12 best humans capable of doing that job being nearly all caucasian men are pretty dang low.
Undoubtedly, the Statistics professor from the math department was wringing his (likely) hands over the situation.
“I was waiting for a chance to point out to my colleague that, yes, clearly, diversity happens by itself without any help whatsoever! Just look at all of us.”
A. Did you get your chance?
B. What happened?
@Grumpy realist: As a college student in the early 60’s I didn’t have in mind any particular career path except being a military pilot which only required a bachelor’s degree, the major didn’t matter. I hated writing and avoided any course which required writing papers. That came to bite me in the ass when years later I entered law school. I enjoyed math and physics so when the time came to apply for my degree I had enough hours for either a b.s. in math or physics but not both. There was one course which be counted toward either a degree in math or physics but not both. The course was essentially the third semester of d.e. and involved doing calculations of problems like ballistics and electric discharge rather than pure math. I decided to take a b.s in math because I thought there would be plenty of jobs for someone with a b.s. in math but I would need a PhD for a job in physics. Maybe the students in your study had similar thoughts.
@Pylon: Perhaps it was an incredibly diverse group of white men and one white woman, cutting across religious, economic, nationality and sexuality lines.
Also, I’m sure if you get a dozen or so semirandom white people together, and then ask the KKK, they will be able to tell you why a couple of them aren’t really white.
@Tony W:
Not if you rig the social, educational, and employment systems to ensure that non-white non-male high performers never get the education, experience, and networking needed to be “most capable of doing the job.” Hiring on merit will be fair when access to merit is equal.
@Pylon: Sadly, I did not.
One thinks
What actions can individuals within the institution take to advocate for greater diversity and inclusion in leadership roles?