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Comment by jimbokun | Hacker News Reader

How was the outreach aimed at you different than the outreach aimed at any other students?

It's not about treating students differently. Rather it's about where you spend your limited resources for outreach.

For example, during my PhD I did outreach in both elementary and middle schools where teachers said there were skills gaps they needed help with. The demographics in some of those schools happened to be such that 80-90% of the students were black and brown.

I think if more DEI efforts were expressed as programs like this, there would be a lot less backlash.

That's not really DEI. That's just targeting schools with skills gaps, and it might have turned out to be mostly white. To be DEI, they'd have to be chosen because of ethnicity, gender, etc.

DEI is applied broadly, for example here's a list of demographics targeted for DEI from one of Biden's executive orders [1]:

  The initiative will advance opportunity for communities that have historically faced employment discrimination and professional barriers, including: people of color; women; first-generation professionals and immigrants; individuals with disabilities; LGBTQ+ individuals; Americans who live in rural areas; older Americans who face age discrimination when seeking employment; parents and caregivers who face employment barriers; people of faith who require religious accommodations at work; individuals who were formerly incarcerated; and veterans and military spouses.

[1]: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

Unsurprisingly, "poor people" are not targeted for help.

Nor "people who are doing badly at school".

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