WWDC 2015 scholarships increased to 350 as Apple works to boost gender, racial diversity

Posted:
in General Discussion edited April 2015
Apple this year is offering 350 scholarships to WWDC 2015, a substantial increase over last year that will pull in students 13 and older, as well as members and alumni from a number of groups including women, blacks, and Latinos.




The 350 scholarships issued this year, focused on promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning, is up from the 200 scholarships offered by Apple for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in 2014, as noted by Re/code. Among the 20 STEM organizations eligible this year are ones like App Camp for Girls, Black Girls Code, Code.org, LaTechLa, and the National Society of Black Engineers.

The founder of App Camp, Jean MacDonald, told the publication that "quite a number" of women iOS developers volunteering with the Oregon group are interested in applying by submitting an app. A spokesperson for the National Society of Black Engineers, meanwhile, remarked that Apple has been working with the organization for the last year, and recently joined its board of corporate affiliates.

In the wake of pressure from the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and its own 2014 diversity report, Apple has been looking to spur the diversity of its US workforce, which is predominantly white and male. Last year Apple said that 11 percent was Latino and 7 percent was black -- by comparison, those groups made up 14 and 12 percent of the overall US workforce.

WWDC 2015 is running from June 8 through 12 this year in San Francisco. Apple is expected to showcase iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, and possibly announce things like a new Apple TV, and streaming music and/or TV services.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    danielswdanielsw Posts: 906member
    If the 350 scholarships are part of the 5000 attendee limit, that's 7%. That sounds reasonably generous. Also, a random selection of developers applying for tickets sounds fair.
  • Reply 2 of 29
    singularitysingularity Posts: 1,328member
    A good move by Apple but I predict a flood of the usual suspects ranting and raving against this.
  • Reply 3 of 29
    White people to the rescue

  • Reply 4 of 29
    Because we can't just pick the best candidates, they must meet quotas. :no:
  • Reply 5 of 29
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Because we can't just pick the best candidates, they must meet quotas. :no:

    Exhibit A from usual suspect # 1.

    Mr. Usual Suspect, may I remind you that you are the product of the longest and most vicious quota system ever instituted in the history of human exploitation?

    White guys just have to shut up for a couple of generations, if only not to look like cultural imbeciles. I say this as a white guy myself.
  • Reply 6 of 29
    flaneur wrote: »
    Exhibit A from usual suspect # 1.

    Mr. Usual Suspect, may I remind you that you are the product of the longest and most vicious quota system ever instituted in the history of human exploitation?

    White guys just have to shut up for a couple of generations, if only not to look like cultural imbeciles. I say this as a white guy myself.

    Right. I totally forgot I can just sit at home, and money and privelege falls from the sky, I have six Porsches in the driveway, a mansion house in the Bahamas, etc.


    Gotta love the message this sends to minorities: "You're not good enough to get this on your own, we must help you!"

    All the people doing this want is more slaves. "You can't do it without us. You need us."
  • Reply 7 of 29
    Wonderful. Jesse Jackson does his usual diversity-through-extortion bs and Apple capitulates. Diversity is fine but when it's achieved through racism and personal enrichment at the expense of the best person for the job it's something else entirely.
  • Reply 8 of 29

    Ah, cue the "why-do-we-need-gender-race-etc-etc-diversity-when-young-white-men-can-do-it-and-there-are-plenty-available" crowd....

     

    Another useless shouting match in the making.

  • Reply 9 of 29
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    danielsw wrote: »
    If the 350 scholarships are part of the 5000 attendee limit, that's 7%. That sounds reasonably generous. Also, a random selection of developers applying for tickets sounds fair.

    if they are part of the 5000 person limit, Apple has screwed up in my mind. I have nothing against programs for youths but lets face it there are thousands of programmers that won't get a chance to attend WWDC this year due to the 5000 person limit. These are people with real jobs, not 13 year olds breaking into the craft.
  • Reply 10 of 29
    hodarhodar Posts: 357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flaneur View Post

    White guys just have to shut up for a couple of generations, if only not to look like cultural imbeciles. I say this as a white guy myself.


    And you call others racist?

    Look around you, don't listen to your friends - actually look and think for yourself. Look at every country on the planet - and I do mean every country on the planet.

    Do you notice any similarities? Do you notice that the same poor countries, are always crying the same lame excuse. Meanwhile, countries that are even POORER are shooting forward. Do you care to compare the natural resources of Africa against India? Yet, somehow - despite the crowding, the poverty - India is managing to make tremendous gains. Look at Asia, they too are making tremendous gains.

    You do not get stronger, by penalizing those who work hard. If you want to feel guilty about your race; that's YOUR problem, not mine. Call the Waaah-bulance and cry in your oatmeal. Meanwhile, let the rest of us work hard to try to excel. Do you realize that practically every freedom, every medical advance, every technical wonder you see, touch, feel or hear is the product of "some white guy"?

    The key to prosperity is making sure that everyone has equal chances to run a race; not penalizing participants based upon the outcomes of a race. If certain genders or races opt not to work hard (and America is hardly the only example of this), perhaps the reason isn't the fault of everyone in America. Perhaps the reason is in the culture and the heroes that culture has chosen for themselves.
  • Reply 11 of 29
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    All the sessions and the keynote will be online. Some live and others posted by end of day. If you did not get selected to go to the event you can learn everything you want online. The youth program is for young people to get an understanding of becoming a professional developer not really about learning any actual code. Current working professionals can participate online. They are already professionals so learning the culture of the industry is something they already know. No one is missing out on any content.

  • Reply 12 of 29
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post





    if they are part of the 5000 person limit, Apple has screwed up in my mind. I have nothing against programs for youths but lets face it there are thousands of programmers that won't get a chance to attend WWDC this year due to the 5000 person limit. These are people with real jobs, not 13 year olds breaking into the craft.



    And those people with real jobs probably didn't get a leg up in the field because of some sinister social engineering project and racist quota system. 

     

    I love how the people that insist on racial preferences and quotas are the first to cry "racism!" when someone wonders if the minorities that are given a leg up actually earned it or not (usually they didn't). And I notice that their systems always define people by their race or sex, instead of their individuality, but then get upset when anyone takes that que and starts to define people by their race/sex, instead of their individuality. 

     

    It's funny how other fields such as sports have minorities that thrive in a highly competitive environment, and successfully rise to the top from humble beginnings without quotas and free passes because of their race. But minorities in tech apparently need all sorts of crutches and step-stools, which rarely actually helps them and instead can actually reduce the real drive and motivation that produces excellence, and makes them look like less in the eyes of their "peers" (which they often are -- otherwise, they would reject the handouts and want to achieve based on their own merits as people instead of colors). 

     

    If minorities want to get ahead in tech (or any field), there's only one right way: start a grassroots movement in their communities that values and teaches the skills that produce tech success, from an early age. Make it a priority. That would start producing some candidates that move ahead based on real skill and achievement, and everything else would start falling into place. 

  • Reply 13 of 29

    White guys just have to shut up for a couple of generations, if only not to look like cultural imbeciles. I say this as a white guy myself.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flaneur View Post





    Exhibit A from usual suspect # 1.



    Mr. Usual Suspect, may I remind you that you are the product of the longest and most vicious quota system ever instituted in the history of human exploitation?



    White guys just have to shut up for a couple of generations, if only not to look like cultural imbeciles. I say this as a white guy myself.

     

    I guess you can consider me usual suspect #2. i see the NAACP kool-aid has gone straight to your head and turned you into a white guilt riddled hand wringer. you should be less concerned with looking like a "cultural imbecile" and more concerned with looking like a sniveling invertebrate. just sayin.

  • Reply 14 of 29
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Guilt schmilt. Let me revise a bit. You white guys need to take some time off to meditate on world history since 4000 BC. If you're serious/honest intellectually, that's how far back you have to go to see where the doors opened for white MEN, since that's also who we're talking about here.

    The origin of patriarchy starts in central Asia, the steppe, with the invention of weapons of horde warfare—the horse-mounted warrior, the mace for cracking heads from horseback, the wheel and the war chariot. The tribal war god, who later became the god of Abraham who still plagues us today, and the ideology of mass murder and exploitation, date from this period. (see Merlin Stone, Marija Gimbutas, David W. Anthony, Riane Eisler)

    5500 years later, circa 1500 AD, the ideology allows the white guys to start conquering, subjugating and enslaving on every continent. Later, until very recently and superficially, the subjects of the conquest, nonwhite and female, don't get to draw on the vast reservoir of liberal civilization so painstakingly developed for the nearly worldwide ruling class.

    Simple history, and it's got nothing to do with guilt. All we got to do is open doors for them that are already open for us for two hundred generations.
  • Reply 15 of 29
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    (post deleted...somehow I clicked on one story and it posted to this one instead)

  • Reply 16 of 29
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Flaneur View Post



    Guilt schmilt. Let me revise a bit. You white guys need to take some time off to meditate on world history since 4000 BC. If you're serious/honest intellectually, that's how far back you have to go to see where the doors opened for white MEN, since that's also who we're talking about here.



    The origin of patriarchy starts in central Asia, the steppe, with the invention of weapons of horde warfare—the horse-mounted warrior, the mace for cracking heads from horseback, the wheel and the war chariot. The tribal war god, who later became the god of Abraham who still plagues us today, and the ideology of mass murder and exploitation, date from this period. (see Merlin Stone, Marija Gimbutas, David W. Anthony, Riane Eisler)



    5500 years later, circa 1500 AD, the ideology allows the white guys to start conquering, subjugating and enslaving on every continent. Later, until very recently and superficially, the subjects of the conquest, nonwhite and female, don't get to draw on the vast reservoir of liberal civilization so painstakingly developed for the nearly worldwide ruling class.



    Simple history, and it's got nothing to do with guilt. All we got to do is open doors for them that are already open for us for two hundred generations.



    Guess AI really hit the jackpot of trolling formulas here. The class warfare and racial politics stories have noticeably increased of late. As for this particular story, it doesn't really bother me. I think it's wrongheaded, however it's not something enforced by the government (and that's the best spin I can put on it).

  • Reply 17 of 29
    silenciosilencio Posts: 134member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Hodar View Post

     


    The key to prosperity is making sure that everyone has equal chances to run a race




     

    And yet Apple is getting pilloried on these forums for taking a step towards achieving this very thing?

  • Reply 18 of 29
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    silencio wrote: »
    hodar wrote: »
    The key to prosperity is making sure that everyone has equal chances to run a race

    And yet Apple is getting pilloried on these forums for taking a step towards achieving this very thing?

    If you offer scholarships to organisations that are all black (Black Girls Code - black females, National Society of Black Engineers - mostly black males) or all female (App Camp for Girls - mostly white females), it's not equal opportunity.

    "App Camp for Girls
    Black Founders
    Black Girls Code
    Blacks In Technology
    Coalition for Queens (C4Q)
    Code.org
    Code2040
    CodeNow
    Girl Develop It
    Girls Who Code
    Hack the Hood
    Hackbright Academy
    LaTechLa
    Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA)
    National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
    National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
    Technovation
    Thurgood Marshall College Fund
    Women Who Code
    #YesWeCode"

    These aren't diversified groups of people, they are segregated by race and gender. The intent is positive in that the aim is to reverse generations of racial and gender discrimination but as people have pointed out, it's not based on merit, it places gender and race first and merit second.

    The results being sought are diversification and this will likely improve diversification but the aim is that this continues on its own momentum. These kind of programs can't go on forever and it's not something that's expected of every nation. Nobody would expect Asian or Indian companies to diversify with white or latino. Take the following high value Indian company:

    http://www.ril.com/html/aboutus/board_director.html

    Nobody would see an issue with an all Indian board of directors in India. A black PhD student talks about his experience in India here:

    http://www.outlookindia.com/article/India-Is-Racist-And-Happy-About-It/250317

    In China, there's a similar problem:

    https://www.yahoo.com/travel/im-black-so-im-kind-of-a-big-deal-in-china-102452030434.html

    These people wouldn't be treated anything like that in Western countries. Western countries have gone pretty far in removing discriminatory barriers. The numbers even follow population demographics. Apple has numbers on their diversity page:

    https://www.apple.com/diversity/

    Population:
    White 55%
    Asian 15%
    Hispanic 11%
    Black 7%
    Two or More 2%
    Other 1%
    Undeclared 9%

    In Technology:
    White 54%
    Asian 23%
    Hispanic 7%
    Black 6%
    Two or More 2%
    Undeclared 8%

    It matches really closely, all within single digit percentages. The Black and Hispanic numbers are below but only by a small amount, Asian is higher than their population. There doesn't seem to be Asian organisations listed above yet they are a minority just like the others. Apple is also 70:30 male:female. Tim Cook said he doesn't like the numbers but his aim would presumably be to exceed the population demographics, which is inequality.

    The Civil Rights Movement was ~50 years ago. Major Women's Rights advances happened in the 60s/70s or before. A new generation would be considered to be someone raised without the oppression in place and if someone has children between 20-30 years old then two complete generations would be a 40-60 year timeframe.

    It's a sensitive topic to discuss because everybody has their own perception of how things are and the current state of race relations and gender discrimination but people have to be realistic and honest about what the problems are and the goals. It's far better to address specific issues of racism or sexism than just trying to pad numbers out. People say there's racism and sexism you can't see and that's true but it also means you can see it everywhere if that's the evidence being provided.

    I don't think there's necessarily going to be negative consequences as a result of this kind of thing but I think it produces racial and gender tension where it should be the opposite. It can also set people back if they feel they got ahead because of a special program.

    Like I said, these programs wouldn't be expected to continue forever. Should there be all-black or all-female organisations in another 50 years, 100 years, 200 years? If there's a time that people would say that's long enough, what is the goal state that would be reached that would decide this? It can only be the numbers and because they're percentages, if one goes up, the others go down. They wouldn't lose their jobs but the numbers fall out of alignment with the population. This is actually impossible to do without changing the population demographics. If you have a 7% black population, it is statistically impossible for every organisation to exceed 7% black employees. The number would just get worse in other job roles.

    This may be like the equal pay for equal work aim though where it's not actually about equal pay for equal work but pushing people into higher paid different work. The overall aim is taking women and minorities out of lower paid roles and putting them into higher paid ones but women and minorities already hold those jobs in significant numbers so the barriers aren't there at all. It can cause displacement of other groups if the jobs aren't created specifically - a female worker might displace a male worker and he might be supporting a mother at home so it would negatively affect another woman and that household is then much worse off but the female who's now employed may also have a partner who is employed so the end result is one household much worse off and another much better off.
  • Reply 19 of 29
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    If it is Tim's new goal to turn Apple into a mostly fashion and design-based business with further de-emphasis on technology, it should be noted that even in the fashion industry men still dominate the top positions.

  • Reply 20 of 29
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,273member
    White guy doesn't understand what "white privilege" is, or why you have to compensate for it.

    Here's Apple trying to help underprivileged youth (some of whom are white, but just poor -- can't remember if that's different or not) by offering a few free spots (which, no, don't count against the 5000, white programmers! Whew!) to people (oh yeah, right they're human as well -- almost forgot that, didn't you white guy?) who show some talent or interest in the field, and the white guys come down in droves to bitch about it. Somehow not understanding that it was white privilege that made it possible for them to be in a position to attend this show in the first place, by virtue of having gone to schools with computers, having instructors to train them, going to expensive colleges to hone their skills where whites are favored for scholarships, and not having been murdered by white police as much for just existing so they could attend.

    This white guy is VERY aware of how much he stands on the shoulders of others who paved my path and made it easy for me, and wants to be able to lend a hand to those -- particularly those particularly neglected by, or often sexually harassed by, the good ol' boy network -- when they dare to want to become part of the white inner power circle.

    Even if they're (gasp) brown! Or (double gasp) girls!
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