Short up top today, as I’m working on a couple of special things that will hit the site tomorrow.
But it’s worth taking a few minutes to check out this new piece from regular raceAhead contributor Grace Donnelly. Bottom line, data suggests that immigration in the tech sector is good for everyone.
A new paper from the Center for Global Development finds that from the early 1990s to 2010, the H-1B visa program resulted in net gains that benefitted U.S. workers in all sectors to the tune of $431 million in 2010.
Come to find out, tech breakthroughs are making everyone more productive. “A lot of these gains are because of the fact that the tech sector is also where a lot of the innovation happens in the economy,” the co-author of the paper told Donnelly.
The news isn’t uniformly positive. Here’s just one example: U.S. born computer science workers saw a decrease in their overall wages in 2010 of 1.5%.
But the push to train young, ambitious computer scientists has also helped the Indian innovation economy, though the interest in U.S.-based jobs may now be falling under the Trump Administration.
Read Donnelly’s entire analysis here.
On Point
| Shonda Rhimes is changing television, but you knew that |
| Do not miss Nicole LaPorte’s terrific profile of Shonda Rhimes, the busiest woman in TV-land. While Rhimes has achieved the clout and name recognition equal to the most iconic creators in the business – think, Norman Lear and David E. Kelly -- she is also using her endless creative juice to tell stories outside of scripted television. Through Shondaland.com, she is building a movement of advocacy and power that is stretching the definition of a typical television career. |
| Fast Company |
| Loneliness may be the next public health emergency |
| There appears to be a strong a connection between loneliness and premature death, and researchers are worried. A meta-analysis of over 200 studies found that people with solid social connections had a 50% lower risk of dying early compared to people who did not have strong social ties, and that loneliness specifically, was an indicator of premature death. The impacts are similar to those related to obesity, say researchers. And as it turns out, Americans are becoming lonelier by the day. |
| Fortune |
| Colleges are struggling with new student demands tied to their diverse identities |
| As colleges admit a more diverse student body, they are struggling to make them feel welcome, reports The New York Times. The results can be painful, as students increasingly demand more input into how their schools operate, including weighing in on housing, hiring, policies, and curriculum. They’re also demanding official recognition of their identities, which include racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, immigrant and low-income categories. And they expect to keep a piece of themselves, rather than blend in. They are “seeing themselves as important being Jamaican-American, as being Indian-American,” says one professor. |
| New York Times |
The Woke Leader
| By overvaluing confidence, we’ve lost our way |
| In a world that tends to overvalue the brash, confident and arrogant among us –and that embraces the egocentric bias - we’ve overlooked the power of intellectual humility, argues Jacob Burak, a culture writer. Intellectually humble people, he says, prefer truth over status, work hard to grow, and exhibit an openness to new ideas even when they conflict with their own. Here’s just one outcome of valuing confidence over humility: Online trolls thrive. |
| Aeon |
| We were here first |
| New York Magazine has dug deep into the archives of 1969 and republished a devastating read by the legendary Pete Hamill on the plight of the people formerly known as the working class. These are the white lower middle income folks, “the ethnics, the blue collar types,” who have been pushed to the point of desperation. Come for the sepia toned language of race and class, stay for the realization that what vexes the people at Trump rallies and in the workplace is nothing new. |
| New York Times |
| A documentary charts the portrayal of “American Indians” in Hollywood |
| ‘Reel Injun’ is an outstanding 2009 documentary directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond that explores the portrayal of the Indian through a century-long history of Hollywood films. There are many jaw-dropping surprises: some of the earliest films ever made were created by indigenous people celebrating their own culture. Then along came John Wayne. Though an inspiring indigenous filmmaker movement is growing, it is struggling to balance the deep cultural damage that continues to this day. If you make time for one film outside your normal viewing habits, please make it this one. |
| Netflix |
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| —Satya Nadella |
