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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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Suppose you are a billionaire and want to decrease the amount of racism in the world; what decent options do you have?

Lobbying politicians and funding research (think George Mason, Hillsdale College, or private think tanks) come to mind.

Suppose you are a CEO of a corporation, what policies do you put in place to ensure there is no discrimination based on skin color in hiring, promotion, etc?

A lot of tech companies have attempted to make hiring as merit-based as possible. Have several people interview every candidate. Make teams set up rubrics so that candidates can be evaluated according to specific, objective criteria that correspond to their ability to do the job. Everyone fills out their feedback separately, then if needed, everyone meets for an open discussion. If you have a personal connection to the person, you're separated from the hiring process. Similarly for salary, raises, and promotions: These are all based on specific factors which get written down, collected, and evaluated by multiple people. Also, make sure that the job requirements actually match the job; unnecessary college degree requirements will unfairly exclude a lot of minorities. Some companies are working towards salary transparency as well, where the salary range for every position is available to the whole company and employees are not discouraged from discussing salary with each other.

These measures have the advantage of reducing a wide range of negative hiring practices, not just those based on race. For example, it prevents a charismatic but unqualified person from charming their way through.