Wally Nunn: Progressives who refuse to acknowledge progress

Apparently the Philadelphia Inquirer could not produce enough anti-racist rhetoric from its own staff — which is difficult to comprehend — so they ran a piece from the Washington Post written by Naomi Nix. The Nix article relied almost entirely on analysis from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to show that there is continued discrimination in high-tech employment. 

The actual numbers belie their premise.

According to their numbers, racial diversity in high-tech jobs (that is to say, the percentage of non-white employees) has increased from 26 percent in 2005 to 40.1 percent in 2022 — a 65 percent increase. Their own numbers show that the percentage of white workers in high-tech has decreased from 74 percent of the industry’s workforce to 59.9 percent, a 20 percent drop.

According to the United States Census Bureau white non-Hispanic population is 58.4 percent of the U.S. population. A reasonable person would conclude that tremendous progress has been made. The white majority now holds high-tech jobs in line with its percentage of the U.S. population. Eureka! Equity!

Wait a minute: the article goes on to show that two minorities are underrepresented: blacks (7.4 percent) and Hispanics (9.9 percent). It also goes on to show that Asians (18.1 percent) are hugely overrepresented. Unless whites have figured out how to disguise themselves as Asians, do Asians have too many of the high-tech jobs? Asians are 6.4 percent of the U.S. population and hold 18.1 percent percent of the jobs, nearly three times their “equitable” share.

If the percentage of whites job holders is now in line with their percentage of the population, is there evidence that whites are loading the dice? Not really. Perhaps what we are seeing is the antithesis of “equity” — merit — and not white oppression.

A 2016 article in the New York Times by Quoctrung Bui and Claire Cain Miller might explain the underrepresentation of black and Hispanic workers in high-tech jobs. “Among young computer science and engineering graduates with bachelor’s or advanced degrees, 57 percent are white, 26 percent are Asian, eight percent are Hispanic, and six percent are black”. 

High-tech companies are constrained from hiring more black and Hispanic workers simply because of the supply of qualified candidates, not racism.

In the Naomi Nix article, she also addressed the underrepresentation of women in high-tech jobs. “In 2022 women made up 22 percent of workers in high-tech roles..” Clearly this is an underrepresentation as half the population is female. Unlike racial diversity which has seen a vast shift since 2005 the percentage of women in the high-tech sector has not moved.

Pew Research Center, in an article published April 14, 2021, that gave these statistics, 22 percent percent of the degrees in engineering were earned by women. It goes further to say that 19 percent of computer science degrees were earned by women. Once again the supply of qualified women constrained the hiring of women in high-tech jobs.

Why are Asians so clearly leading in high-tech employment? I believe that, at least part, of the answer lies in culture, not racism. 

In a study issued by the Annie Casey Foundation, they found that 15 percent of Asians, 24 percent of whites, 42 percent of Hispanics and 64 percent of blacks live in single-parent homes. The bureaucrats at the EEOC (and for that matter the journalists who constantly blame bias for any outcome they disagree with) should read the book “The Two Parent Privilege” by Melissa Kearney, which shows the effect of stable two-parent households across race and class lines.

Not everything is caused by racism: some things are caused by poor choices.

Wally Nunn is the former Chairman of Delaware County Council.

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