The D.E.I. Industry, Scorned by the White House, Turns to ‘Safer’ Topics; The New York Times, July 15, 2025

  Niko Gallogly, The New York Times; The D.E.I. Industry, Scorned by the White House, Turns to ‘Safer’ Topics

"When President Trump signed an executive order in January targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies, schools and the private sector, Arin Reeves, who has been a D.E.I. consultant for 26 years, said many in her field were in a panic.

“All the federal government stuff, I was watching it, and I genuinely didn’t even know where to go with it,” Ms. Reeves said. For those in the industry, she added, there was a feeling of: “What do we do?”

The answer for many D.E.I. professionals has been to adapt to what companies feel comfortable offering: employee trainings that maintain the principles of diversity and inclusion but without necessarily calling them that. That has meant fewer sessions that focus explicitly on race, gender, sexuality and unconscious bias, and more on subjects like neurodivergence, mental health and generational differences, a training that teaches about how age affects viewpoints in the workplace."

Congress is worried about AI bias and diversity; Quartz, February 15, 2018

Dave Gershgorn, Quartz; Congress is worried about AI bias and diversity

"Recent research from the MIT Media Lab maintains that facial recognition is still significantly worse for people of color, however.

“This is not a small thing,” Isbell said of his experience. “It can be quite subtle, and you can go years and years and decades without even understanding you are injecting these kinds of biases, just in the questions that you’re asking, the data you’re given, and the problems you’re trying to solve.”

In his opening statement, Isbell talked about biased data in artificial intelligence systems today, including predictive policing and biased algorithms used in predicting recidivism rates.

“It does not take much imagination to see how being from a heavily policed area raises the chances of being arrested again, being convicted again, and in aggregate leads to even more policing of the same areas, creating a feedback loop,” he said. “One can imagine similar issues with determining it for a job, or credit-worthiness, or even face recognition and automated driving.”"

Jeremy Vine criticised after calling ‘Black Panther’ cast “overwhelmingly black”; NME, February 10, 2018

Larry Bartleet, NME; Jeremy Vine criticised after calling ‘Black Panther’ cast “overwhelmingly black”

"When stars Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) and Danai Gurira (Okoye) appeared on The One Show to discuss the film yesterday (February 9), Jeremy Vine said: “Chadwick, it is a remarkable film, it’s very different the film that you’re both in, because you go in the cinema and it is overwhelmingly a black cast.”

In response to Vine’s remark Boseman paused and smiled, responding: “Yeah, I guess that is very striking,” before joining in with an outbreak of laugher from the audience and continuing: “It’s weird because I’m used to it now, having been on this film for over a year, with this family of people… because we carried part of that cast into Infinity War. So it’s sort of a normal thing. I don’t go to work every day going: ‘Wow I’m around all these black people.'” The moment can be seen at the 16:25 mark on iPlayer.

On Twitter, Vine’s wording was labelled “strange and uncomfortable”. The man himself was called a “typical middle-aged white male” by one user, while another remarked: “no one called Avengers: Age of Ultron ‘overwhelmingly white'”, adding that the moment was “a stark example of racism being solidly entrenched”."

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director: 'Unconscious bias' in tech exists; Politico, 12/10/15

Eliza Collins, Politico; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director: 'Unconscious bias' in tech exists:

"Michelle Lee said Thursday there is an “unconscious bias” in tech, but it isn’t just specific to women.

Lee was speaking at POLITICO’s Women Rule event.

Lee, the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, challenged leaders to make sure they’re giving equal jobs to men and women.

“Unconscious bias applies to both men and women,” said Lee, the first woman to serve as director of the Patent and Trademark Office."

Mustaches Outnumber Women Among Medical-School Leaders; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/17/15

Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education; Mustaches Outnumber Women Among Medical-School Leaders:

"Q. There’s an absence of female leaders in many professions. Are there reasons specific to the medical field that explain why there aren’t more women in charge?

A. Our data show that there is variation based on type of specialty. There are certain specialties that have fewer women — many of the surgical specialties, for example. There are several steps that department leaders can take to address these issues. In addition to policies that limit sexual harassment and allow for maternity leave, there are two really strong, evidence-based solutions that we make.

One is ensuring that people doing the hiring have well-defined, very specific hiring criteria. Unconscious bias is well documented: When interviewers and recruiters are making hiring decisions, they tend to favor the male candidate and then excuse or explain their decision in retrospect. Having very clear, a priori criteria makes them more likely to make a fair decision.

The second thing is that women are penalized for taking short breaks off for childbearing when jobs are structured in a way that reward long, continuous hours. So giving more control over where you work and how you work really helps women’s advancement."

Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color; Harvard Business Review, 1/22/14

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Harvard Business Review; Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color:

"It’s a topic which corporations once routinely ignored, then dismissed, and are only now beginning to discuss: the dearth of professionals of color in senior positions. Professionals of color hold only 11% of executive posts in corporate America. Among Fortune 500 CEOs, only six are black, eight are Asian, and eight are Hispanic.

Performance, hard work, and sponsors get top talent recognized and promoted, but “leadership potential” isn’t enough to lever men and women into the executive suite. Top jobs are given to those who also look and act the part, who manifest “executive presence” (EP). According to new CTI research (PDF), EP constitutes 26% of what senior leaders say it takes to get the next promotion. Yet because senior leaders are overwhelmingly Caucasian, professionals of color (African-American, Asian, and Hispanic individuals) find themselves at an immediate disadvantage in trying to look, sound, and act like a leader. And the feedback that might help them do so is markedly absent at all levels of management.

EP rests on three pillars: gravitas (the core characteristic, according to 67% of the 268 senior executives surveyed), an amalgam of behaviors that convey confidence, inspire trust, and bolster credibility; communication skills (according to 28%); and appearance, the filter through which communication skills and gravitas become more apparent. While they are aware of the importance of executive presence, men and women of color are nonetheless hard-pressed to interpret and embody aspects of a code written by and for white men."