The LA Examiner reports on a new job search website from the Tribune Co. which is specifically targeting "minorities."

The press release for the new service ("ProFound") is here:

The joint effort will create a unique job recruiting resource for recruitment specialists who are seeking top caliber candidates with professional experience and diverse backgrounds. ProFound will help fulfill diversity initiatives that an increasing number of companies have implemented in order for their organizations to reflect changing demographics. The partnership aims to be the primary resource for human resource recruiters by bringing thousands of professional Hispanics and African Americans under one banner...

"Among the options available to HR recruiters are traditional job postings, resume searches utilizing ProFound's extensive database of professionals and banner advertising that targets candidates with specific qualifications."

This caused me to post the following comment:

In other words, ProFound is going to help support diversity by (presumably) only accepting applications from Job Applicants Of Color.

I wonder, do bi- or multi-racial people have an advantage when helping a corp meet its Diversity Goals? Will ProFound require a breakdown of ones ethnic components? Would someone who's, say, half-Colombian and half-Lebanese count as 1 person of each, or would each half only contribute .5 to the corresponding Diversity Goal?

(I was thinking of Shakira, as I often do, when constructing that last example.)

A couple more comments I might make include:

If someone is three-fifths black and two-fifths white, do they count as one black person towards my company's Diversity Goals?

and:

What if someone is mainly white, but has a little bit of black blood in them. Even if it's just one drop, can they count as black for our Diversity Goals?

I think I'll post cleaned-up versions of these questions to an HR board or two, and wait for the serious replies to come in.

I'll also remark that the Tribune Co. has lots of money, and lawyers like money, so...