Georgia General Assembly 2021

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

I know many would like to think that lack of representation must be due to lack of ability, but that's pretty short-sighted to say the least.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...ion/100977038/

https://www.latimes.com/business/tec...-black-workers

It’s not due to lack of ability at all, but if anything a lack of role models and the right encouragement. However, without the interest, education and drive it’s hard for anyone.

To use a stereotype - there are many Jewish lawyers, doctors and entertainers. One study I read said 14.1% of doctors were Jewish despite being 1.9% of the population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1490160/

Whatever the reason why, it becomes self-perpetuating - the child of a doctor is probably more likely to want to become a doctor as well.

For Black kids, especially boys, professional sports seems to be that role model.

An interesting article -

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion...227089314.html

I do understand the catch-22 involved here - someone gets a STEM degree, but they don’t have contacts so they won’t get hired. In their circle of family and friends it’s clear it’s not a good direction, and the negative feedback loop turns people away from STEM.

BTW, that LA Times article was interesting. But I can take it even further on how narrow “the club” is within certain areas of IT.

At some companies, if an IT leader is Indian (and by that I mean born, raised and educated in India) they will only hire Indians under them. Even more crazy is that if they’re northern Indian they won’t hire people from the south of India and vice versa. I’ve seen departments where every name was clearly of Tamil origin. Needless to say they’re not hiring black people either.

I’ve seen something similar with Chinese IT leaders.

So it’s not surprising the same thing happens in Silicon Valley (preferring Stanford and MIT grads) and the trading platform/algo business in NYC (preferring Russians, ideally with advanced math degrees.)

We can never get rid of favoritism, but we can minimize it.

To fix this structural problem there needs to be a few companies who can clearly hire “blind”, selecting based solely on education and aptitude, and likely a few making pure diversity hires. But as I said earlier, in most tech companies if you’re not great you’re either left behind or pushed out.

A friend of mine and a past colleague for 20 years is a black tech executive based in Atlanta. If he needed a gig and I was in a position to hire him I’d do so in a second, but not because he’s black. It’s because he’s awesome.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by markjames68

It’s not due to lack of ability at all, but if anything a lack of role models and the right encouragement. However, without the interest, education and drive it’s hard for anyone.

To use a stereotype - there are many Jewish lawyers, doctors and entertainers. One study I read said 14.1% of doctors were Jewish despite being 1.9% of the population.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1490160/

Whatever the reason why, it becomes self-perpetuating - the child of a doctor is probably more likely to want to become a doctor as well.

For Black kids, especially boys, professional sports seems to be that role model.

An interesting article -

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion...227089314.html

I do understand the catch-22 involved here - someone gets a STEM degree, but they don’t have contacts so they won’t get hired. In their circle of family and friends it’s clear it’s not a good direction, and the negative feedback loop turns people away from STEM.

BTW, that LA Times article was interesting. But I can take it even further on how narrow “the club” is within certain areas of IT.

At some companies, if an IT leader is Indian (and by that I mean born, raised and educated in India) they will only hire Indians under them. Even more crazy is that if they’re northern Indian they won’t hire people from the south of India and vice versa. I’ve seen departments where every name was clearly of Tamil origin. Needless to say they’re not hiring black people either.

I’ve seen something similar with Chinese IT leaders.

So it’s not surprising the same thing happens in Silicon Valley (preferring Stanford and MIT grads) and the trading platform/algo business in NYC (preferring Russians, ideally with advanced math degrees.)

We can never get rid of favoritism, but we can minimize it.

To fix this structural problem there needs to be a few companies who can clearly hire “blind”, selecting based solely on education and aptitude, and likely a few making pure diversity hires. But as I said earlier, in most tech companies if you’re not great you’re either left behind or pushed out.

A friend of mine and a past colleague for 20 years is a black tech executive based in Atlanta. If he needed a gig and I was in a position to hire him I’d do so in a second, but not because he’s black. It’s because he’s awesome.

Precisely. It's the closed nature of networks along with corporate cultures that aren't as diverse as they could be (not only when it comes to Blacks, but Latinos, women, and LGBT folks). When it comes to the lack of diversity in the workplace, I know from firsthand experience how alienating and discouraging that can feel, and that certainly has an impact on retention.

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AirBnB, etc. setting up shop in Atlanta and other cities with access to a sizable Black talent pool is precisely the right move for these companies to grow the ranks of their Black workforces, just as they've set up shop in Denver, Salt Lake City, Austin, etc. to tap their local talent pools (and Google setting up shop in Durham and Amazon HQ2 in the DC area have the potential to do the same in those cities). The fact of the matter is that a lot of Black people, just as others who prefer to live in Austin or Denver, simply don't want to move to Silicon Valley and will either take a job offer there with the intention of only being there for a year or two and then moving on, or turning down an offer in SV to work elsewhere. Not only is it incredibly expensive, but demographically and culturally the region itself is basically like that of any of the blue-chip tech companies on a bigger scale.

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

Precisely. It's the closed nature of networks along with corporate cultures that aren't as diverse as they could be (not only when it comes to Blacks, but Latinos, women, and LGBT folks). When it comes to the lack of diversity in the workplace, I know from firsthand experience how alienating and discouraging that can feel, and that certainly has an impact on retention.

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AirBnB, etc. setting up shop in Atlanta and other cities with access to a sizable Black talent pool is precisely the right move for these companies to grow the ranks of their Black workforces, just as they've set up shop in Denver, Salt Lake City, Austin, etc. to tap their local talent pools (and Google setting up shop in Durham and Amazon HQ2 in the DC area have the potential to do the same in those cities). The fact of the matter is that a lot of Black people, just as others who prefer to live in Austin or Denver, simply don't want to move to Silicon Valley and will either take a job offer there with the intention of only being there for a year or two and then moving on, or turning down an offer in SV to work elsewhere. Not only is it incredibly expensive, but demographically and culturally the region itself is basically like that of any of the blue-chip tech companies on a bigger scale.

The likelihood of establishing a diverse network is higher in Atlanta. As long as Microsoft and others aren’t using it as a low-cost back office processing center and actually hire STEM jobs.

Many people don’t want to go to SV. Count me in as one of those people.

[seussie]

I recommend the Microsoft conversation spill into a new thread or fold into another about economic development.

For those interested, these are some of the failed bills:

FAILED
SPORTS BETTING: Senate Resolution 135 and Senate Bill 142 would have let Georgia’s voters decide whether to allow sports betting. Lawmakers would have split the proceeds among college scholarships for low income students, expanded high speed internet access and rural health care services.

PATIENT VISITATION: Hospitals and nursing homes could have been be required to allow patient visitors, after many cut visitor access because of the coronavirus pandemic, under House Bill 290.

GUN LAWS: House Bill 218 would have loosened Georgia law to allow anyone from any state who has a concealed weapons permit to carry their gun in Georgia and prohibited gun permitting, gun sales and shooting ranges from being shut down in a state of emergency.

PROTEST LIMITS: House Bill 289 would have required a permit for any protest statewide, and classified it as an illegal assembly if two or more people harass someone in a wide range of public places, and enacted harsher penalties for acts including blocking highways.

PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT: The state would have created a commission to investigate and discipline elected district attorneys and prosecutors in House Bill 411.

ADULT CRIMINAL AGE: The age for charging most people with adult crimes would have risen from 17 to 18 in Georgia under House Bill 272.

COAL ASH: House Bill 647 would have required 50 years of groundwater monitoring at coal ash ponds near power plants that are closed.

DISTRACTED DRIVING: Georgia drivers wouldn’t be able to avoid penalties by telling judges they have purchased hands-free devices for their cellphones under House Bill 247.

I am surprised the sports betting bill failed. It seemed so high-stakes. I think we even had a thread about it.

While GAA passed the permanent Daylight Savings Time bill, the change can only be enacted by Congress. So the "the bill has passed, now what?" question is that people have to wait and the time will likely not change until most of the regional area gets on board.

This 4/20 at 10AM the GAA will have a 450 capped "Interstate Cooperation" meeting to discuss the details of the 2021 American Rescue Plan: https://www.legis.ga.gov/schedule/se...WZ8gAAAlpiAAAA

And dates for redistricting maps will likely be posted closer to a month when the time arrives. I stand corrected in one of my earliest complaints–census data is still unavailable and has actually missed its deadline.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by seussie

I am surprised the sports betting bill failed. It seemed so high-stakes. I think we even had a thread about it.

The sports betting bill failed because Democrats refused to support it after the passage into law of the highly controversial voting/election reform bill.

Even though the sports betting bill was being pushed by Republicans, the bill needed Democratic support to pass.

That’s because the GOP’s deeply religiously conservative base refused to support any legislation that expands legalized gambling beyond what already exists in the state in the Georgia Lottery, which many religious conservatives and even some progressives continue to be uncomfortable with.

The prospects for passage of sports betting next year are uncertain because next year is an election year in which many Republicans will be facing very hard challenges from their hard right flanks during primary season.