@atomicpoet It is just the latest example of the DEI "backlash" following the US Supreme Court affirmative action ruling last year.

Just this week, the world of Corporate HR caved among other industries over the past year: https://www.axios.com/2024/07/15/hr-dei-diversity-equity-shrm

@atomicpoet

What gets me is that DEI is a vital, even critical, part of any company which purports to be invested in making software which is suited to a wide variety of users. When you have a homogeneous set of software writers, you're not going to get a wide variety of inputs -- and your output is going to be likewise constrained. (And that's putting aside the implicit biases found in, say, LLMs.)

What Microsoft are saying now is thus the racist and sexist equivalent to every abled manager dismissing the concerns of a disabled employee -- "It works for me, so it must be a you problem."

@atomicpoet

Microsoft's 10K includes mandatory disclosures about significant business risks: "We derive substantial revenue from government contracts. [...] we could be suspended or debarred as a governmental contractor [...] Some agreements may allow a government to terminate without cause".

Project 2025 (page 258) says: "The next conservative Administration [..]
should eliminate funding for partners that promote discriminatory DEI practices
and consider debarment in egregious cases."

@atomicpoet

At this rate, pro basketball and football will be played by 40 year old white guys. I can hardly wait!