JOBOB: IBM offers paid internship, but only for 'trans women' and non-Asian minorities

Two paid internships offered by International Business Machines (IBM), in partnership with the American Physical Society (APS), are currently offered exclusively to minorities, women, and men who identify as women, according to new reports.

APS, a nonprofit organization that works to “advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities,” lists “diversity” and “inclusion” within its short list of top company values.

Eligible applicants for the APS/IBM Internship for Undergraduate Women include “all students who present or identify as women and/or trans women with sophomore or junior standing at a US college or university at the time of application.” The other internship opportunity, the APS/IBM Internship for Underrepresented Minorities, is exclusively offered to “African American, Hispanic, or Indigenous” individuals.

Several corporations have offered similar internships or career development programs to individuals of a certain race or gender identity, including Apple, Oracle, and NASCAR, while others created blatantly discriminatory racial hiring standards or scholarship opportunities. NASCAR, however, has reportedly removed its racial requirements after receiving backlash from conservative media outlets, but it did not alter its “development programs” geared towards female minorities.

Apple plans to host an entrepreneurial training program this month which will be exclusively open to “black, Hispanic/Latinx, or Indigenous” — the “underrepresented” and “female founders.” Oracle, on the other hand, hosted both an internship as well as a scholarship opportunity for minorities, explicitly excluding whites and Asians.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams also set aside $500,000 to fund journalism scholarships exclusively offered to “students of color” to increase “diversity” in the newsroom.

Scholarship programs hosted by large investment management firms, Voya and Fidelity, also offer programs exclusively to minority applicants, excluding white individuals.

Diversity quotas are not simply cropping up in scholarship programs and career development opportunities. Fortune 500 companies now boast “fewer white men” in high-ranking positions or board seats than ever before. Twenty-two percent of board members at these companies are now filled by members of racially or ethnically “diverse” groups.

The change is even more evident at Fortune 100 companies, where women and minorities make up 46.5% of board seats, though these companies still lament the fact that white men still hold the majority. This piece first appeared at TPUSA.