... you would think that companies are happy to hire minorities even if they are absolute fuckwits.. ...
Probably not happy, but, in the USA they are totally steeped in retarded and divisive identity politics and "affirmative action" rules to rub it in, so they basically *have to create* the very same tribal composition inside the company as exists outside, in society. Especially within government organisations and government contractors. To make the diversity-numbers, HR will pad with "diversity candidates" because it rarely come back to HR that they hired some duds.
The EU perspective and the US is totally different. Maybe that is driving the discussion?
Identity politics did not (yet) take off in Europe, thank God. Here we mostly find only the candidates that were most competent when the hiring process was done, what they *are* is a secondary thing.
The last couple of times I hired women, one Greek, one Iranian.
Very good they are, the most trouble I have with hiring them is that a certain tribe of men in their 50'ies that cannot bear than a 30'ish female is not only smarter and more productive than they are, but, because they deliver above expectations also gets more influence on the project, while those elephants gets less and less because they speak rubbish too much instead of delivering. Then they try to dominate the wimmin in the only way they can, by harassing them, and we get HR in over the bullying, which takes time and effort.
The younger men are no trouble at all (apart from one or two "outliers", which I think has personality disorders, like it sounds like the Google person has. Yes, we get rid of those too - there is too much maintenance required).
PS - I also hired two young scotsmen, also very competent and able to think for themselves, so I am lucky so far.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
