Fascinating. If you are a "progressive" white male then methinks that lack a, fundamental understanding of the purpose, and unfortunately the necessity of these initiatives...also, I find your misappropriation of the term "systemic racism" to be insulting because it implies that one social construct can employ, oh, I don't know, things like redlining, Jim Crow, slavery etc. You know, the little things...so by definition you're essentially positing that minorities can impose those same mechanisms against the white majority?! Umm no. That's a huge fallacy in your logic and I'm being kind i.e. the reason the voting or civil rights act(s) even exist is because minorities were marginalized at all. Minorities don't and never have wielded that kind of political power in this country, the humorous irony in my line of work is that the majority is(opens envelope) THE ONES DOING THE HIRING so your statement falls flat on its face. PS. I came out of retirement from this site to respond to this.

I was always wondering when this was going to come up... For starters, I am the ONLY person with my name, first and surname combination; in the world(I know, hard to believe but true nonetheless) I have never had a facebook account(and never will), but *yet* for some odd reason there is a faux profile of me(I shit thee not) is listed on it with some odd similarities including but not limited to race, sex, location, and activities that I'm into(again I shit you not). I have seen this profile and it has a picture of some loser getting high or doing whatever the hell he's doing WITH MY NAME. Now let's say for example, that I'm looking for a job and the potential employer does a Facebook search which I believe is SOP these days in the job market and that profile pops up. What then is the chance of me being looked at as suitable candidate?! Or let's say for another example I am contracting and the client wants to do some background research on me(which I feel is reasonable) and then again, THAT SHIT POPS UP All I'm saying is that this "feature" has the potential to do a lot of irreparable, long lasting, "digital" damage(i.e. the wayback machine) to a person that has never, nor has any intent, of being on "The Facebook". Sooo, is the only way I(or anyone else with this problem) can protect myself is to sign-up with a real profile in an attempt to set the digital record straight?! Truthfully, if I never get a job or contract again after a background check I fully and indelibly have no one but Facebook to blame...

I used to work for Microsoft Live search division, and they are referred to as "Google dumps". What I'm not sure about is if they(MS), or the advertiser, generates them as part of my job was to parse them(horrible work)... In any case it still comes down to the advertiser as they are the one's that pay for the keyword, phrase, etc.

From my experience, the best way anyone learns anything at all is by being introduced to some aspect of it that is basic, fun, and practical to that relative interest(s).

Win

The best story is when I worked for Windows Live Search a few years ago. Make a long story(which shouldn't have been long) short, some very big client was trying to run ads in Arkansas, Alaska...As this somehow did not quite compute, I showed my manager the map of United States, an atlas, and even the goddamn encyclopedia brittanica to illustrate that not only is there no town/ city in Alaska named Arkansas but that they were in fact 2 completely different states. I seriously got pulled into a 4hr long conference call to go over where on earth I could have possibly come up with this notion....

/true story
//fired 1 month later
//Bing wins