Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Kevin Drum, always trying to justify racist policy and pandering

HBR cites a book on racial stereotypes:She (author) studied hiring committees at professional services firms that believed they were ensuring rigor and counteracting bias through group discussions of job candidates from the school-recruitment pipeline. But those conversations actually dampened diversity by giving negative racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes greater sway over decisions—particularly “in ambiguous situations, where the quality of a candidate [was] not clear.” In those cases, Rivera points out, “stereotypes served as an unconscious navigational system, guiding interviewers’ attention to where they should focus and look for clues in order to figure out if the candidate did or did not have the right stuff.” This gave evaluators “a common lens and shared language” when they didn’t immediately agree on someone’s value to the organization.

So her statistical anaklysis and control were effective when she observed some hiring committees?  No way, I did not tread the book, and do not intend to.  But the likelihood that this author was able to detect subtle stereotypes from observations of hiring committees is ludicrous.

Then Kevin Drum picks up the theme.  His logic is that if merit is not accounted for correct then hiring committees must be racist!  Kevin Drum is always looking for new ways to pander to the races.  My suggestion to the Dem party, find the platform in your party that specifies pandering by race, remove it.

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