Compared to Whom? Contextualizing Black and Latinx Disadvantage in Silicon Valley Technical Hiring

• In Event: 2250 - Job Search and Opportunity

Abstract

How do we assess whether blacks and Latinxs are penalized in hiring in an increasingly diverse workplace? In this paper, I propose that to more comprehensively understand how minorities are disadvantaged in hiring, we must expand the implicit comparison beyond “whites” to include Asians who are often associated with economic success. Based on a case study of the software engineering hiring process at a midsized high technology firm in Silicon Valley, I show how black and Latinx job candidates are penalized early in the hiring process (callbacks), but for different reasons depending on the comparison group. Compared to U.S-educated whites, blacks and Latinxs are penalized in callbacks because they excluded from referral networks. Compared to U.S.-educated Chinese, differences in elite education, rather than differences in referrals, explain the minority penalty in callbacks. The findings suggest different policy recommendations depending on which “gap” – minority/white or minority/Chinese or both – is most important to close.

Author

• Koji Rafael Chavez, Indiana University