Whether it's affirmative action, policing, or what have you, if often seems like most DUers don't even consider Asian-Americans to be a minority group.

It seems to be acceptable to make nasty racist jokes and spread cultural stereotypes about Asians. Disappointing.

Where's your evidence of "nasty racist jokes and spread cultural stereotypes about Asians" on DU, because I sure as hell haven't seen any.

Been around here around 12-13 years and Ive NEVER seen nasty jokes and stereotypes of ANY race. Please stop cagefreesoylentgreen.

Basically, you have three different forces at play here. First, you've got to understand that more than 50% of the South Bay tech workforce is now of Asian origin, so ANY advertised tech position is probably going to have a majority of Asian applicants. As a white programmer in the South Bay, I know for a fact that I've landed jobs because employers wanted to maintain a diverse workforce. We're a shrinking demographic.

First, you've got the whole brogrammer thing. Yes. Office spaces filled with Nerf gun toting dudebros and company provided bongs are a real thing in the Silicon Valley, and the concept of the "cultural fit" is pretty ingrained in many younger tech companies. I once lost out on a job because I showed up in a tie, and my interview panel was made up of flip-flop wearing brogrammers. They were pretty blunt about passing me over because I wasn't a good "cultural fit" for their company. Asian workers tend to be less enamored with the brogrammer lifestyle, and would probably be heavily filtered by companies looking for people who fit in with their current employees.

And did I mention spies? Yes, yes I did. Spies aren't just a fixture from Tom Clancy novels and bad Hollywood movies. Chinese tech spies are a VERY REAL THING, and many companies that deal with sensitive technologies are pretty paranoid about them. Palantir is a data mining company and would probably be very wary of potential spies. My current employer does background checks on all applicants and won't hire ANYONE with ANY links to mainland China or Taiwan. We hire a lot of southeast Asians and Koreans, but workers of Chinese origin rarely make it through the interview process (you've pretty much got to show that your family has been "American" for at least the past 50 years). Is it discrimination? Absolutely. Is it appalling? Yes, without question. Is it common? You'd better believe it. EVERYONE in the Valley is paranoid about Chinese corporations or the Chinese government ripping off their technology, and it's no secret that both of those elements recruit people to steal technology from American tech companies. It's a pretty fucked situation all around.

Finally, you've also got the anti-visa thing. A lot of companies with established tech workforces refuse to hire noncitizens, because it tends to breed resentment among existing employees ("They're replacing us with visa workers! Grab the pitchforks!&quot A substantial percentage of the Asian tech workforce in the South Bay aren't citizens and carry everything from Green Cards to H1-B's. While many larger companies prefer these workers because they can be exploited, smaller tech companies tend to shun them to keep their current employees happy and productive. Many companies simply discard all non-citizen applications, which is going to filter a LOT of Asian applications.

In spite of these hurdles, Asian tech workers still dominate the workforces of many larger companies in the SV, and are a large demographic within the workforces of nearly all companies. Finding a company that is actually "all white", as Palantir apparently was, is pretty rare.

I suspect this is revenge against Theil, who is on bad paper in Washington.

You have to screen very hard with ethnic Chinese because they are used by their Co-ethnics in the old country to spy.

Not sure why not wanting Chinese spies working at your company is appalling.
Chinese data & patent theft and spying is definitely a real thing.

On one hand, Chinese data and patent theft is a VERY real, VERY huge problem in technology companies. Companies have gone out of business because Chinese tech spies have stolen their IP, or used them as vectors to get into other companies. It's a very real problem that doesn't get discussed much outside of tech circles.

On the other hand, blacklisting an ENTIRE ETHNICITY because a relatively small percentage may be spies is pretty fucking disgusting behavior. The companies know this, and most have processes in place to prevent the creation of evidence trails that could eventually land them in court. At the last company I worked for, a person of Chinese descent could only get hired if a non-Chinese person knew them and vouched for them. That was official policy. It was also a violation of both state and federal law.

While I understand the immense problem facing tech companies, the current solution is unacceptable. It's not racism, per se, but it's discriminatory and it locks a lot of innocent people out of jobs.

is a buzzword for discrimination against anyone who isn't male, caucasian, and under 35. That describes quite a few people in tech, and its amazing that they get away with it.

All companies make lovely statements about "diversity". In my experience, I may be totally qualified for a job, but whenever they say something about 'cultural fit', I know I'm not getting the job. It's a very difficult thing to prove discrimination.

I run a business.

If I pass on hiring the best people for any reason, that gives my competition the benefit of hiring better people than I.

And the result is soon my competition will putting me out of business.

So where's the problem?

Just asking.