Maybe There's a Reason Disney Hates Poor People.

I have a quick question about DEI stuff. Jeff mentioned that If someone has a black sounding name then they tend not to get a call back. I am curious to what everybody thinks of people using a government supplied number like a social security number as a name on any official document like a loan document or a school application? I guess any application where bias could be applied? So like insted of a name of any kind or a gender we use # 123452343. Would that help to stop bias and only be merit driven? It would have to be a random number to not show any ageism as well.

That’s sort of a bandaid on a gunshot. At some point, you’re going to meet people. Evidence shows race will bias the impressions you have of the person. No amount of obscuring things at other levels will change that.

DEI is designed to address it.

SSN's are among the most sacred of personally identifiable information (PII). You can't (or shouldn't) really be collecting that if you can avoid it, because it's also the most valuable in a data breach. You still have to get it for credit checks, but when at all possible, software systems will avoid durably storing the number. And to Andy's point, you don't hire numbers, you hire people that you meet and talk to.

A lot of what DEI ends up being is things like anti-bias training. Basically you watch boring videos or meet with consultants who do exercises to help you become self-aware of your unconscious biases, and also a review of the legal issues.

Jeff:

Basically you watch boring videos or meet with consultants who do exercises to help you become self-aware of your unconscious biases, and also a review of the legal issues.

And then go act exactly as you would have in the first place.