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Comment by ubernostrum | Hacker News Reader

OK, let's argue the way the "anti-diversity" people normally do in these threads.

You assert that advocates of diversity want people:

going out of our way to collect diversity tokens

You must now present, to me, and separately and individually to any other person who asks it of you, a minimum of five credible primary sources of people who advocate diversity and who have used exactly this phrasing -- no paraphrasing, no "well that's what they meant", nothing other than precisely those literal words -- in an explicit demonstrative factually-intended statement of their goals.

(hint: you won't be able to, because you're in the "get all your information from people who want to misinform" camp)

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You must now present, to me,

First off, thanks for that. To think that any random stranger on the internet "must" do something for you... well, that's quality humor right there.

and separately and individually to any other person who asks it of you, a minimum of five credible primary sources of people who advocate diversity and who have used exactly this phrasing

My guess is that he's capable of original thought, and this might be one of his original thoughts. Not everyone builds a facade of intelligence by regurgitating quotations from other people. Because someone else hasn't posted something on the internet doesn't mean it's not a valid thought.

It's depressingly common in threads about diversity issues that people assert a right to force their interlocutors to re-litigate the entire history of discrimination from first principles, impeccably sourced, on demand.

Ironically, the same sorts of people also throw out unsourced assertion after unsourced assertion (see the person who replied to me stating that the BBC has jobs for black people only, and who I suspect honestly and truly believes that, despite the reply to them explaining that that would be very illegal).

If it's fair for them to do that, it should be fair for me to do it, too, and for me to explicitly state that.

He won't be able to because anyone employing such a technique generally wouldn't be stupid enough to use those exact terms.

There are plenty of examples in the UK, specifically with the BBC, putting out recruitment campaigns that specifically state they only take in Black/Minority candidates. There is no reason for it other than to boost 'diversity'. The jobs are just as capable of being done by black people as any other colour.

This is highly unlikely, if only because such hiring practices would be unlawful in Britain in almost all cases.

You can use diversity as a tie-breaker, and you can actively try to persuade people from various under-represented groups to apply, but you can't specifically state that you only take Black candidates (source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...)

The BBC is a large centralised organisation with a hefty HR team and a lot of people who like to beat on it. They're the last people I would expect to be advertising illegal hiring practices.

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