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[Orange Wizard]

If over 50% of your audience is non-white, why would you employ only white writers instead of hiring people who can also write shows to appeal to the rest of your audience, or can work together with a diverse set of writers to try to make shows that appeal to more than just one demographic?

You don't have to be part of a demographic to write things that appeal to that demographic. Writers should be chosen for their skill in writing, not their sex or skin colour. Obviously there's overlap, but it's not like it's a guaranteed thing.

The threat of serious regional disruption and some big trouble for one of our few non-fairweather friends, plus all the American military personnel in the area is definitely non-trivial.

A better question would be "who would side with NK". WWI is a bad example because everyone was gearing for war anyway. With Korea, they're the only people who want war (and even then it's only really the leader, everyone else just wants food), and if they went for it they'd be immediately curbstomped by US+SK+Japan. China might want to get involved but the current chairman seems to be trying to move away from that.

[mainiac]

And just by some weird coincidence all the best writers are white.  Weird, right?

[Orange Wizard]

Is that actually the case though?

[mainiac]

Oh so you agree with the policy then.

I'm sorry.  I completely judged you wrong.  I thought you were opposed to policies to diversify the talent pool.

[TheBiggerFish]

...Okay, what just happened?

[mainiac]

OW just expressed a sentiment that he thought it unlikely that all the best writers were white and said that he favored a policy to make sure the best people get hired.  I thought he opposed affirmative action but he just said it was important to make sure we hire the best and that the best is diverse.

[Orange Wizard]

I said the best might be diverse, and that it shouldn't really matter. If you're writing about life in a ghetto, bring in someone who knows about life in a ghetto. They might have lived there, they might have studied that sort of thing... does it matter if they're black or white or trans-asian Jew?

[mainiac]

I said the best might be diverse,

Oh so you did mean that 97% of the best writers are white.  So I didn't misunderstand you.

[TheBiggerFish]

I said the best might be diverse, and that it shouldn't really matter. If you're writing about life in a ghetto, bring in someone who knows about life in a ghetto. They might have lived there, they might have studied that sort of thing... does it matter if they're black or white or trans-asian Jew?

This, honestly.

[Orange Wizard]

Oh so you did mean that 97% of the best writers are white.  So I didn't misunderstand you.

... what? I have no idea what proportion of the best writers are white. Why does it matter?

[mainiac]

I imagine it's that mainiac is attributing the argument that you make to the argument that folks who hire screenwriters make

No, he has denounced that now.  He has changed his mind and now he is saying this:

1) He opposes the effort to diversify
2) He wants the best people hired

So he thinks that the status quo is the best people are getting hired.  The status quo is 97% of the writers are white.

[Orange Wizard]

The status quo is 97% of the writers are white.

Oh, okay. Do we have any evidence on why that is? Assuming it's institutional racism probably isn't the best approach.

[TheBiggerFish]

...Mainiac, did OW actually say he thought the current arrangements was actually the best one?

[mainiac]

...Mainiac, did OW actually say he thought the current arrangements was actually the best one?

He said that was the explanation for why the situation happened.  Well to be fair he said it might be the explanation.  So it is actually two logical branches.

Hypothetical 1) The explanation is that 97% of the best writers are white and he opposes the policy on those grounds.
Hypothetical 2) 97% of the best writers aren't white and he wants to see the best hired.

Personally I think 1 is very unlikely.

[mainiac]

There are colorblind approaches to affirmative action that work.  The Texas state universities thing for instance.  The thing is they are actual affirmative action policies not people pretending the policy doesn't exist.

Affirmative action is basically identifying where the biggest gap is between potential and opportunity and correcting it.  And race is a REALLY good prediction of the gap between potential and opportunity.  But there are a lot of factors that are also predictors.  So if you put enough of those predictors into your affirmative action policy you can get the same results through a lot more work.