New York Times hit with report of massive 'systemic racism' in its OWN performance reviews

A labor union of New York Times reporters and employees just gave the virulently left-wing paper a taste of its own “woke” medicine.

On Tuesday, The NewsGuild of New York union published a report accusing the paper’s “performance review system” of perpetuating systemic racism against minorities.

As evidence, the report cites the fact that minorities who work for the Times consistently receive lower performance scores than whites.

Not factored into the report, unsurprisingly, is whether maybe, just maybe, the employees who received lower scores did perform worse.

Instead, the report automatically equates a “disparity” in performance scores with systemic racism. This is a common habit on the “woke” left.

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— American Wire News (@americanwire_) April 15, 2022

“The New York Times’s performance review system has for years given significantly lower ratings to employees of color,” the report reads.

“The analysis, which relied on data provided by the company on performance ratings for all Guild-represented employees, found that in 2021, being Hispanic reduced the odds of receiving a high score by about 60 percent, and being Black cut the chances of high scores by nearly 50 percent. Asians were also less likely than white employees to get high scores,” the report continues.

The NewsGuild used data from 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 to reach these conclusions. The data shows that blacks consistently performed the worst, except for in 2021, when Hispanics performed even worse. Asians meanwhile consistently came in at 2nd place, while whites consistently took the top spot.

These disparities are troubling, the NewsGuild argues because performance ratings affect employees’ “paychecks and career opportunities.”

“Recently, the company has started using the results to help determine yearly bonuses. Most workers who received the top rating got a 1.9 percent bonus, while those who received a rating of ‘meets expectations’ got 1.5 percent. Employees who got the two lowest ratings received no bonus at all,” the report reads.

The NewsGuild first published a report about this topic in 2020.

“There is a strong pattern of racial disparity in reviews. Employees of color were disproportionately likely to receive low ratings, while white employees were more likely to be rated highly,” the union’s first report reads.

“The discrepancies most clearly affect employees who identify as Black and Hispanic. Imbalances are obvious in 2019 as well as 2018 and occur in roughly the same pattern in both years. Although the data accessible to the Guild is limited, the results are strong enough that they warrant a clear call for additional investigation and transparency from management,” it continues.

According to the union’s latest report, the New York Times did virtually nothing in response to its original report, in large part because the paper denied that the disparities were “problematic.”

“Responding a few months later, executives acknowledged that Black employees were underrepresented at the top scores company-wide, but said that there were no problematic discrepancies when the scores were evaluated separately for each department. The executives also said the company disagreed with the Guild members’ analysis,” the latest report notes.

“In response, the company hired an outside consultant to analyze the ratings data. It concluded that disparities were minimal and inconsistent, and that therefore there was no evidence of a systemic problem. The company disclosed more information about its analysis but has not responded to the Guild request to provide a copy.”

The irony of all this is that the Times loves using disparity to imply racism. Like other left-wing outlets, it eagerly applies this flawed standard when talking about police shootings, income inequality, the supposed gender pay gap, etc.

Below is a perfect example from an article published four years ago:

“We wrote last week about a sweeping new study of income inequality in the United States, and how it varies by race and gender. The data, including virtually all Americans now in their late 30s, showed how different the prospects of black boys are from those of white boys. Even when black and white boys grow up near each other, in households with similar incomes, black boys fare worse than white boys in 99 percent of America,” the piece reads.

This doesn’t prove anything. Indeed, the piece contains reader questions, and one reader perfectly sums this fact up by asking, “Why is racism the only explanation for this phenomenon?”

“Perhaps something happens to black boys while they are growing up that makes them less capable of succeeding in the U.S. economy. For instance, maybe cultural forces cause black boys — but not black girls — to focus on activities that leave them with poorer time management skills than those that boys of other races are developing. So, why do the authors take the easy way out and blame amorphous racism instead of exploring more subtle explanations that do not make the situation seem hopeless?” the reader comment continues.

Excellent point! But how did the Times respond to this valid reader question? By inviting known racial essentialist Ibram Kendi to argue that the reader was taking “the easy way out” by asking this question.

Look:

Well, if this is the case, then the question becomes, why is the Times taking “the easy way out” by denying that the performance-review disparities documented by the NewsGuild are a result of its own systemic racism against minorities? Hmm?

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Vivek Saxena

Senior Staff Writer -- [email protected]
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.

V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.

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