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11 Stan. J. C.R. & C.L. 155 (2015)
Civil Rights 2.0: Encouraging Innovation to Tackle Silicon Valley's Diversity Deficit

handle is hein.journals/stjcrcl11 and id is 167 raw text is: CIVIL RIGHTS 2.0: ENCOURAGING INNOVATION TO TACKLE SILICON VALLEY'S DIVERSITY DEFICIT Richard Thompson Ford* Silicon Valley suffers from a lack of diversity. Women and minorities are underrepresented in the high-tech industry generally, but they are particularly underrepresented in leadership positions in the industry. Yet appeals to antidiscrimination law as a simple fix fail to recognize an important tension: that antidiscrimination law has both individual- and group-based premises. The individual aspect demands that employment decisions be made for good cause and not simply based on race, gender, or other protected status. The group aspect, meanwhile, demands adequate representation of women and minority groups in the workplace. A libertarian ethos that pervades much of Silicon Valley is at odds with both of these principles, and a conventional civil rights approach in this context is not only misleading but also a bad strategy for change. Therefore the law should encourage experimentation in achieving workplace equity by offering employers making significant measurable improvements in diversity a safe harbor from discrimination liability. INTRO D UCTIO N ........................................................................................... 156 I. ATLAS SHRUGS OFF CIVIL RIGHTS: HIGH-TECH LIBERTARIANISM AND ANTIDISCRIMINATION LAW .................................................... 159 A. Labor Market 2.0: High-Tech Hiring Practices ......................... 160 B. Radical Libertarianism in the Valley of Atlas ............................ 163 II. INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS: THE REGULATORY DIALECTIC OF D ISCRIM INATIO N ............................................................................. 167 A. Collectivism and Proportional Representation: Individualism and U niversal G ood Cause ...................................................... 171 B. Principle Leads to Polarization: Disparate Treatment Versus D isparate Im pact ...................................................................... 173 C O N CLU SIO N .............................................................................................. 176 * George E. Osborne Professor of Law, Stanford Law School.

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