Thread by @WokeCapital on Thread Reader App
This is the most salient 3-minute clip from a long all-hands on "Diversity and Inclusion" at @AmericanExpress
On how they're going to stack the deck against white men (@ ~15s): "how are we going to do this? We're going to do it through a focus on recruitment, we're going to do it through a focus on actually helping people progress their careers through promotion and through retaining great talent and we're going to do it through a culture that's truly inclusive where everyone feels they can belong and they can bring their best talent to work every single day."
Translation: we're going to lean hard on our recruiters to prefer candidates who are not white men. We're going to lean hard on our managers to promote employees who are not white men. Expressed (heh) through a feminized, moralizing framing of inclusivity and belonging.
Recruiters and leaders will be scored on how well they do to advance towards these diversity quotas/targets, and almost certainly will be praised if they outperform. That's how targets work; you don't think they want to just stop at x%, do you anon? No, it's meant to be aggressive but achievable.
More (@ 2:22) : "We've been focused on this area for a number of years, and we have made tremendous progress. And certainly when you look at our representation versus the industry, we are actually ahead in terms of the tech industry. However, the tech industry is not as well represented as other industries. So again, we have a lot to do."
When you get systemically disadvantaged for hiring or promotion, they call this "tremendous progress." And despite being "ahead" of the industry, there's still "a lot to do." Until we are 100% diverse, there is more work to be done!
Continuing on: "And you can see that we're looking to improve across all dimensions, including really cementing our senior leadership roles, where we would get close to and in some cases match the company aspirations for senior leadership."
Again, they call you being denied entry or pushed out "improvement", and they're looking to "improve" across the board at every level. Formal disadvantage in hiring, promotion. They just come right out and say it, with what they think is a positive message of course.
Take this realistic scenario: there are 5 director roles, only one of which is an open. They want to promote one of the managers into it. There are currently 3 male directors and 1 female. There are two managers up for promotion. As the male manager, you've got no shot, because the VP making the decision is scored on having a ~30% female director org. There's literally nothing you can do about it besides troon out. As long as this sort of policy exists, it will drive outcomes.
"So now I'm going to talk to you about how we as a team are going to do this, and it's definitely a we and not an I."
Another passive aggressive flex. Not only are we going to have this policy that explicitly disadvantages you, but you're going to help us implement it (unspoken: "or else").
I'll leave you with one more thing. This is not unique to American Express, not even a little. I've sat through these presentations. I have seen this at every Fortune 500 company I've ever interacted with or researched. I have seen this in the Federal Government (pre-Trump) and the United States Armed Forces. I have seen this at startups. This is literally and explicitly systemic discrimination. They boast about it openly everywhere you go to flex on you.
It can't go on. #OperationChimpOut
More Amex employees have chimed in.
The common theme? These employees do not have the required skills, they lie from the jump. There's no recourse, so the competent Americans being pushed out shoulder an ever-increasing load.
These employees defraud our immigration system, then defraud our corporations, make working there hell, the existing workforce, products and services all suffer.
If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break. 
