mekka okereke Jan 23, 2025

"We’re going to continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the veterans community."

“It’s good for business; it’s morally right; we’re quite good at it; we’re successful,”

- Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase

Go fash, lose cash.

But... Jamie Dimon likes cash.

So he's like, "Nah. Y'all have fun tho!"

He's not doing this because he loves Black people. I doubt he has a favorite Kendrick Lamar song.🤷🏿‍♂️

He's doing this because this way makes more money than the other way.

If you're the richest person in the world? Then sure, you can afford to drop Mackenzie Scott money being anti-social.

Everyone else should ask themselves if they can really afford to lose money by backing segregation.

And you will lose money.

Show threadThadd Selden

@mekkaokereke I did my yearly compliance training at my company a few weeks ago.

In the DEI module, they cited a study showing that strong DEI programs lead to a 19% increase in revenue. They go on to say any other initiative that resulted in a fraction as much additional revenue would be a no brainer to adopt so DEI is even more so, basically end of discussion.

It might be nice to see a moral stand there, but the fiscal one is hard for anyone to argue against.

Jan 23, 2025 at 4:26amWeb
Show threadmekka okereke Jan 23, 2025

@thadd

My evergreen advice to Accessibility teams in tech ♥️ struggling to get their features prioritized, is to wrap every accessibility feature that they deliver in experiment flags, and measure revenue of that cohort of experiments against a holdback. If you are not already doing this, I promise you, you will be shocked.

https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109781392864632657

🤔 Do I love accessibility because I'm a tender hearted DEI zealot? Or because I only care about making money charts go up and to the right? You decide! Either way we're fixing stuff.

mekka okereke :verified: (@[email protected])

Me: Hey app devs! During economic slowdowns it's really important to make sure that your app doesn't have a leaky funnel, and works for as many of your users as possible. Here's how you can use ML to make 5% more money from your existing app! Crowd: Hells yeah! ML! *Pays attention* Me: Here's how you can fix accessibility issues to make 5% more from your existing app! Crowd: *Tunes out* *yawns* Me: You can also make 5% more by making your app work better for Black and brown --- Crowd: Booo!

Hachyderm.io
Show threadVulpine Labs Inc.Jan 23, 2025
@mekkaokereke @thadd we would if we had contributors to
Show threadJeffy 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦 ❤️🇱🇺Jan 23, 2025

@thadd @mekkaokereke @bynkii

They're willing to make "big spends" on driving the world back to pre-union, company towns, robber barons, no rights era USA.

Show threadThe Animal and the MachineJan 23, 2025

@thadd @mekkaokereke
An excellent point although sadly facts are processed by the later evolved logic part of the human brain and so will be overpowered by the earlier evolved emotions.

If we didn’t still have a problem with sexism where men actively spend work to hamper the work spent by women I would be more hopeful.

Still an excellent point though.

Show threadRobin BobcatJan 23, 2025

@thadd @mekkaokereke

You would think so, but they don't trust numbers and statistics. It has to "feel right" for them to accept it, by which they mean support the decision they've made.
Instead, attack the *emotions*. The correct way to phrase it is that strong DEI programs lead to the company becoming "more popular", and "attracting more customers", who are willing to "spend more." *Then* you mention the nearly twenty percent (they also like round numbers) increase in revenue.