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Pinterest published its sixth annual diversity report today and it’s encouraging on several fronts.
It hit a milestone this year: The company has exceeded all three of its stated goals for hiring women and underrepresented minority employees.
And here’s Pinterest by the numbers:
“It’s hard to feel inspired when you don’t feel represented—online or in your workplace—and research shows that diverse teams make us more creative, diligent, and hard working,” says Jo Dennis, Pinterest’s human resources chief in a blog post introducing the report.
We asked Candice Morgan, the company’s head of inclusion and diversity (and raceAhead favorite) for a comment. She’s proud of their recruitment and hiring efforts. “The impact is tangible in more inclusive products and policies, whether it’s launching our skin tone ranges search feature, developing internal resources like the gender transition guide, or making policy decisions that reduce harmful, insensitive content,” she says.
Click through to see their three big learnings from this work. The third caught my eye: “We learned that if we want to create a working environment where people can do their best work, we need to invest further in understanding what drives retention. We’ve expanded accountability metrics for inclusion and diversity to include retention and engagement parity, alongside hiring. These are reviewed with the executive team, as well as each business unit, on a quarterly basis at a minimum.”
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
BBC finds that Twitter’s advertising platform allowed the micro-targeting of hate group members Want your ad to reach cat enthusiasts? No problem! Want your ad to reach neo-Nazis? Homophobes? No problem. And that’s a real problem, reports the BBC. "I can see this being used to promote engagement and deepen the conviction of individuals who have indicated some or partial agreement with intolerant causes or ideas,” says the social media researcher for Hope Not Hate, a non-profit that fights extremism. When confronted with the report, Twitter responded that they’d missed the mark. "[Our] preventative measures include banning certain sensitive or discriminatory terms, which we update on a continuous basis," the company said in a statement. “This was an error. We're very sorry this happened and as soon as we were made aware of the issue, we rectified it.” Click through for how the ad platform functions and what the BBC found.
BBC
Virginia declares state of emergency as armed militias threaten to storm the capital Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says he was responding to “extremist rhetoric” and “credible threats” of violence similar to those reported ahead of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. People are also temporarily banned from carrying firearms on Capitol grounds. At issue is a planned pro-Second Amendment rally on January 20, which coincides with the Martin Luther King holiday. “Lobby Day,” was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, in response to recent gun legislation. I believe them when they say this is a peaceful event—that’s what democracy is,” said Northam. “Unfortunately, they have unleashed something much larger, something they may not be able to control.”
Vice
Jay-Z sues the head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections It’s a promise kept. The mogul, who has been working on criminal justice reform issues, filed the suit on behalf of 29 incarcerated people who claim the head of the Department of Corrections and the warden of the state penitentiary have done nothing to stem the violence that has taken the lives of five inmates in two weeks. “These deaths are a direct result of Mississippi’s utter disregard for the people it has incarcerated and their constitutional rights,” says the lawsuit, filed by Jay-Z’s lawyer Alex Spiro. Learn more about the horrific situation in Mississippi here and here.
NBC News
A popular Japanese politician is making waves for taking paternity leave Shinjiro Koizumi comes from a prominent political family and is on a short-list to be future prime minister. But he shocked the country yesterday when he broke from tradition by announcing publicly that he would be taking leave to care for his child expected later this month. The move drew widespread praise. “I hope my taking paternity leave will lead the way of working styles to one where everyone can easily take child-care leave without hesitation in the environment ministry,” he said. The public announcement is a good first step. Leave is theoretically available for men, but the status quo dictates that men focus on their roles as breadwinners, creating a culture of workaholics.
New York Times
On Background
A collective of 100 Black British women take on the media, racism, and Meghan Markle This open letter was published by a group called InfluencHers, described as a collective of 100 Black British women from media, law, health, education, and publishing. They begin with an easy target, Piers Morgan. Morgan had invited New York Times columnist and author Afua Hirsch to appear on his morning talk show to discuss her recent piece which asserted that racism contributed to the decision of Markle and her husband to step back from their duties in the royal family. The haranguing from Morgan that followed is typical, they write. “Having to engage, articulate, and explain racism again and again to predominantly white hosts, white men, and white guests is draining and exhausting.” It’s an affront to the journalism profession. “Journalism’s rules are replaced, when it comes to race, by too many of these white hosts, without expectation of challenge,” they say. “We will not stand by silently while such a crucial issue is sidestepped in such a cavalier, irresponsible manner,” they say, pointedly addressing advertisers.
InfluencHers
Once again for those in the back: Implicit bias training doesn’t work This opinion piece from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, the chief talent scientist at Manpower Group and a professor at University College London and Columbia University, echoes the concerns of many diversity professionals when such trainings were instituted across the corporate world as a universal “solution.” It’s just a little more complicated, he says. “Scientific evidence suggests that the relationship between attitudes and behaviors is much weaker than one might expect,” he says. You don’t have to genuinely believe something to behave well in the workplace. "'Faking good' is a key part of good organizational citizenship.” Instead, “Organizations should focus less on extinguishing their employees’ unconscious thoughts, and more on nurturing ethical, benevolent, and inclusive behaviors.”
Bloomberg
What we owe Puerto Rico Yarimar Bonilla, a professor at Hunter College-CUNY, and José Caraballo-Cueto, director of the Census Information Center at the University of Puerto Rico, have put together a list which describes the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis the island is facing. While there are specific things our fellow citizens need—release aid money promised from the previous disaster, help with the growing mental health crisis, serious debt relief—what we really owe Puerto Ricans is our respect. “Imagine that a predominantly white area in the United States that had been struck by a devastating hurricane later became the epicenter of repeated earthquakes,” they write. “Well, this is happening in Puerto Rico—also part of the United States—with none of the attention or response.”
New York Daily News
Quote
“There's a lot of things in the system that clearly don't make sense. It's keeping many young black men caught up in the system without even committing crimes. I grew up in in America in a ruthless neighborhood where we were not protected by police. We grew up with people selling drugs in our neighborhood on our front steps. We grew up in ruthless environments. We grew up around murder. If you grew up in my neighborhood, you see seven people die a week, I think you would probably carry a gun yourself?"
—Meek Mill, in an interview with CNN
