On Wednesday, Dropbox innocently tweeted a link to its 2016 Diversity Report.
Alas, they made one small error. They chose this photo to accompany the tweet.
Diversity at Dropbox: https://t.co/Th0eP2QmDz
...sort of making it look like "Diversity at Dropbox" is the caption to this photo....which doesn't appear to include any individuals who could be read as Black or Hispanic.
(It is worth noting that Dropbox's actual representation of Back & Hispanic employees is at 11%, a figure which, again, outpaces both Google & Yahoo.)
Needless to say, the woke Twitterverse pulled no punches.
@Dropbox
Savage.
@Dropbox
@Dropbox
@Dropbox same
GIFs of melanin-rich individuals were pointedly used
@Dropbox
.@Dropbox
Even Mayo wasn't safe!!
.@Dropbox
Predictably, things got political.
@Dropbox
Too soon, guys, too soon
People dragged the author of the tweet
@Dropbox You need to reconsider whoever approved this.
@Dropbox “Groupshot from office holiday party” might be a more apt title.
@Dropbox whoever tweeted this was like....
But at the end of the day, more laughter and joy was brought to this cold, cruel year, and that's a goddamn blessing
@Dropbox lol is this a joke?
@Dropbox This made me literally laugh out loud. Seriously.
Thanks, Dropbox.
Unveiling the diversity at @Dropbox
(P.S. Dropbox issued a clarifying statement a few hours after the initial tweet)
Our photo doesn’t fully represent the diverse workforce we strive for at Dropbox. Improving our diversity continues… https://t.co/QIxOmUlbhV
No good deed, amirite?
@Dropbox
P.P.S. This meme, when taken literally, is perhaps the best explanation of what got Dropbox into trouble. Indeed, people reacting to the image don't think "diversity" means what Dropbox meant. Tech companies have historically had a high enough representation of Asians that when an assessment is made of representation of "people of color" in the workforce, the aggregation of ethnicities disguises underlying disparities, particularly for Hispanics/Latinos & African-Americans. The gender gap for STEM employers is nearly impossible to similarly hide and perhaps feels more glaringly obvious in a country which is 50.8% female. For example, in President-Elect Trump's much-ballyhooed tech exec meeting, just 3 of the 13 tech leaders who took a seat at the table were women. This perfectly explains Dropbox's proud showcasing of its female VPs. Still, Dropbox and other tech companies continue to set ambitious targets for increasing ethnic diversity--after all, it escapes no one's notice that Silicon Valley lies in a state which is 38% Hispanic.
P.P.P.S. As an interesting parallel, Census data shows that Education is also one of the least ethnically-diverse & gender-diverse professions (78% white, 76% female). What makes this more troubling for some is that Americans age 5 & younger are, for the first time in our Nation's post-Christopher-Columbus-history, majority non-white (50.2%) and will struggle to find role models in the classroom with whom they identify ethnically. Plus, their President is no longer black.
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