Marco della Cava

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — On a day that marks Uber's first disclosure of the gender and racial make-up of its staff, the ride-hailing company is drawing fire on social media for some of the names assigned to in-house associations.

Nine employee resource groups were listed Tuesday on a webpage dedicated to diversity statistics and initiatives. These include Los Ubers for Hispanic employees, UberHUE for African-American employees and UberPRIDE for LBGTQ employees. Corporations create such groups to foster a sense of understanding and acceptance.

Under the heading for Shalom, the group for Uber's Jewish employees, the description notes that "our goal is to make the world a little smaller, by connecting Uberettos and Jewbers from all backgrounds, encouraging collaboration and closeness from all corners of the globe." (Uberetto is the company's generic term for any employee.)

Uber spokesperson Matt Kalman said the names and terminology for all groups was determined by the employees themselves.

Self-generated or not, the word "Jewber" immediately irked some on Twitter even though other tech companies have coined similar names including Gayglers, Jewglers and Greyglers, Google's names for its gay, Jewish and older employees. Others took issue with UberHUE as being inappropriate for an African-American association, while some suggested a Spanish name would have been preferable to Los Ubers.

"Yay diversity puns," tweeted @ldignan. "Uber's diversity one pager has a Shalom section for 'Jewbers'."

In another tweet, @RMac18 imagined a conversation between Uber and it's smaller rival Lyft. "Uber: Yo guys, I bet you can't out-stupid our "Jewbers" line," he tweeted, followed by Lyft's response — which is a GIF of rapper Ice Cube mouthing "It's on."

Some comments echoed a general disbelief that Uber, which is facing a raft of problems from a sexist culture to a Waymo lawsuit, didn't steer staffers toward terminology that was guaranteed not to offend. Word choices have gotten Uber in hot water before. In a 2014 Esquire interview, CEO Travis Kalanick answered a question about whether the company's success had helped his social life with the quip, "We call that Boob-er."

Of the diversity group naming news, @AftonMichelle tweeted, "Is this actually real? @Uber c'mon... #JEWBERS?! Los Ubers?! Where are your HR and legal teams?!"

Meanwhile, @HipHopNews saw the opportunity to highlight a missed pun: "How did you guys miss the chance to name that inclusion group "HUEber" instead."

Last month, former employee Susan Fowler wrote an explosive blog post about the company's male chauvinist culture that was buttressed by management. That post led CEO Travis Kalanick to hold meetings with employees, launch an internal investigation and go on the hunt for a chief operating officer to help him guide the company out of this crisis.

Uber's first-ever diversity report showed that the ride-hailing giant is essentially just as white, male and Asian as most tech firms. While the company does have blacks and Hispanics in its pool of 6,000 U.S. workers (about of 12,000 worldwide), people of color and women hold a vastly disproportionate number of low-end jobs while senior management are held overwhelmingly by white men and for technical positions, by white and Asian men.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.