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Rent a White Guy

theatlantic.com

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Re: Rent a White Guy

#41

Post by tedunangst »

lsb wrote: post #21
stcredzero wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Malaysian coworker of mine told me about this sort of phenomenon years ago. (Something like 2002?) He was working for Compaq in the Asia-Pacific region, and noted that his group would often send in someone with asian features someplace with a proposal, which would get rejected. They'd later send a white American to give the same presentation, and it would win.

In Providence Rhode Island, the city paper submitted dozens of résumé pairs to jobs, differing only by obviously-classed name (like William Strathmore vs Tyrone Jackson), no cover letters. The Tyrone Jackson ones got no calls back, whereas the Thomas Strathmore ones got about a 50% callback rate.

Citation needed! If this is the study you refer to, you got the general idea right, but just about every detail wrong.

http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/spring03/racialbias.htm...

Re: Rent a White Guy

#42

Post by ramchip »

mkramlich wrote: post #28
aohtsab wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't the investors be able to see through the smoke, though? I mean, if a phony starts getting peppered with technical questions, and he balks, shouldn't that be a giveaway?

If the "phony" peppered with tech questions was patio11, I'm sure he could handle the questions well enough. :)

In Chinese at a carpet convention? ;)

Re: Rent a White Guy

#43

Post by neilk »

apower wrote: post #36
[deleted] wrote: post #30

[deleted]

Why is it that everytime China is mentioned, some Indians are going to jump in and say how Indians are better in such and such way? Do Indians just envy?

Yes.

Educated Indians look at China and wonder what the hell is going on. Indians have similar corruption and population problems, but a much more savvy segment of English-speaking, technologically brilliant, Western educated elites, for generations even.

And yet, India gets fill-in-the-blanks Java outsourcing contracts while China makes the frigging iPhone. It drives Indian people INSANE.

Source: I'm one-half Indian with relatives involved in outsourcing.

Re: Rent a White Guy

#44

Post by delackner »

dpapathanasiou wrote: post #25
wyclif wrote: post #8

In Japan there is a similar phenomenon for couples about to get married; it's called "Rent a White Minister." Japanese couples who want a fancy wedding often rent a white guy to perform the ceremony. Very often, probably most of the time, said white guy isn't even an ordained minister in any Church.

Very often, probably most of the time, said white guy isn't even an ordained minister in any Church. It's not really an issue, though, because doing a "Christian" wedding is more of a fashion statement than a religious one; there are very few practicing Christians among the native Japanese population.

Quite. There's a lucrative industry in Japan of providing gorgeous purpose-built western-style chapels, or rather, their imagined vision of what a wedding chapel should look like. No one is getting scammed because they are only doing it because they want the movie-like glamour of the fashion of a western wedding.

This is also a country where many buddhist and shinto temples are for-profit family businesses, so the whole concept of authenticity is a bit lost...

Re: Rent a White Guy

#47

Post by mbenjaminsmith »

patio11 wrote: post #26

Ahh, this brings back memories. Japan has a tradition called "sakura" -- bringing in non-essential people for the sake of keeping up appearances. I've been a sakura, quite frequently. For example, at my ex-ex-job at the technology incubator, one of our incubated companies started selling their technology abroad. They were very happy and even got local press coverage -- a photo on page one. But what can you use as a p…

My first job out of college (in Thailand) I got basically because the PR agency was required to have a Westerner on staff to interface with one particular British company (big, respectable brand, if a bit racist).

Unfortunately, the work was insanely hard (at 22 I would have gladly taken a high-paying appearances only job while I played music on weekends), especially being green and having to deal with the cultural/language barrier.

Re: Rent a White Guy

#48

Post by delackner »

vdm wrote: post #9
mojuba wrote: post #5

2040: "Rent a Chinese Guy"

Maybe. If they're really that fake and superficial maybe it will trip them up in the long run. Even when everything is documented, there are still gaps in communication, and trust fills them.

Ha! Read up the history of the start of Kingston memory, a little RAM manufacturer that I am pretty sure you've heard of, given its massive visibility in US retail.

Many many very successful and "respected" companies start out with a big gamble that is used to fund the creation of a legitimate business. This is a huge gamble, but the market market calls the losers of these gambles "scam artists" and the winners "captains of industry".

How many startups have given presentations about their amazing technology, using demos that mislead the potential investors about how far along the tech really is, only to turn around and use the investment money to actually pay for the real hard part?

Personally I prefer the complete lack of stress associated with just being honest: you never have to care who learns any particular details about your behavior, because there's nothing to worry about defending.

Re: Rent a White Guy

#49

Post by VictorHo »

gaius wrote: post #6

Heh, yeah, this is nothing new. There is more than one investment bank in London that hires professional actors to deliver presentations, then the real bankers take the stage at Q&A time. If someone says "now I'll hand you over to my colleague..." that's a dead giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't do their own PowerPoint slides either... There are people employed full time to do just that. We're all human,…

If someone says "now I'll hand you over to my colleague..." that's a dead giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't do their own PowerPoint slides either

Yeah ok that just plain isn't true. I worked at Goldman Sachs in FIG investment banking, and now at McKinsey and Co in New York as a consultant. While we do have a graphics department that we can call on to help spruce things up, as well as workers in India to help with tasks such as following simple instructions to translate spreadsheets into charts, 95% of the work is done by the bankers/consultants themselves (i.e., me).

In fact, the reason I left Goldman is because as an analyst 80% of your time is spent line editing charts, checking footnotes, and making sure everything is aligned. We even used MS Word with built in macros because Power Point wasn't precise enough. When you're working 110 hrs/week, that's not fun. McKinsey is better but not much different - which is why I'm moving back to SF in 4 weeks to be an entrepreneur.

Same goes for the "I'll hand you over to my colleague" statement. Often times an Engagement Manager who is well versed in the overall project presents for continuity sake (so the audience doesn't get confused by 5 people all chiming in), and questions are directed to the analyst in charge of the section.

Re: Rent a White Guy

#50

Post by gaius »

VictorHo wrote: post #49
gaius wrote: post #6

Heh, yeah, this is nothing new. There is more than one investment bank in London that hires professional actors to deliver presentations, then the real bankers take the stage at Q&A time. If someone says "now I'll hand you over to my colleague..." that's a dead giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't do their own PowerPoint slides either... There are people employed full time to do just that. We're all human,…

If someone says "now I'll hand you over to my colleague..." that's a dead giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't do their own PowerPoint slides either Yeah ok that just plain isn't true. I worked at Goldman Sachs in FIG investment banking, and now at McKinsey and Co in New York as a consultant. While we do have a graphics department that we can call on to help spruce things up, as well as workers in India to…

1 bank out of the 700-odd in London? YMMV, clearly.
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