Live data from Hacker News

After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

latimes.com

151–160 of 841 posts

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#151
post #6

Is GitHub a hug part of what ICE ... does? Personally I wouldn't want to work for a company actually detaining people, but call me terrible but I'm not sure I'd feel the same about letting them pay to host some code...

This is a genuine question. I want to immigrate to USA, but currently there is no easy way to immigrate to USA. On the contrary Canada has a fair immigration system that allowed me to stay, work and eventually be citizen. Why don't people push for a fair immigration system in USA instead of abolishing ICE? What exactly am I missing here?

>but currently there is no easy way to immigrate to USA

The USA has the most immigrants than any other country in the world at almost 47 million residents. That's 4 times higher than the second place country. And the vast majority of them came perfectly legally. For every one person that immigrates to Canada, 6 immigrate to the USA. I don't really know what people are asking for here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_d...

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#152
Going woke isn’t a great move for a company. And how many workers? Just the vocal “activists?”

In the near future companies will be wary of hiring people with a history of shrill woke activism. Better a quiet Nazi than a vocal Communist.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP didn't say they should be required to work with certain entities, only that it could jeopardize their stance with other, less controversial, entities.

> could jeopardize their stance with other, less controversial, entities That would, of course, be a terrible and illegal abuse of power and essentially be the government policing political speech by private individuals. What an indictment of our government (and I don't mean a single person, but of the system itself) that this seems to be an uncontroversial statement. Because I agree, it's true, and it's the mark of…

Why would that be an abuse of power? The company has demonstrated that they are an unreliable government partner.

It's wholly different to not accept a contract in the first place, but to unilaterally end it for any reason, political or otherwise, is grounds to consider that service provider unreliable.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#154
post #66

Corporations are people. If they don't act ethically, we can't expect people to act ethically. Ending a contract with an agency that runs concentration camps is good. Better, though, is to not accept any contracts with any government that runs concentration camps. Small steps are good. Big steps are better. PS: great fear from all paying customers that run concentration camps that an internet mob could separate them…

Your choice of language by saying "concentration camps" is unproductively hyperbolic and reminiscent of Nazis killing Jews in WW2. People found to have been here illegally are being kept in detention centers until deportation or trial. Nobody is getting gassed or burned in ovens.

He is using the correct definition of concentration camp, you are the one in error. Concentration camps have existed outside Nazi Germany. Just because that was the most horrible instance doesn't mean that other instances stopped being "concentration camps" just like how a particularly horrible murder doesn't make a less violent murder into a non-murder.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/concentration-camp

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#155

I guess this is the reason lot of corporates try to stay out of politics. Because once you set a precedence then people will use that as to push their own political agendas. I personally don't like the slippery slope argument since it's very lazy and justifies inaction in many cases. But at the same time when I see news like this, I just wonder how long it will take two different subgroups trying push their own confl…

We are going through a very strange and extreme period in US History. Corporations are a huge part of the political landscape. Of course workers who are powerful will demand things of their workplaces. All corporations are political. By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political. Now by reversing they would be changing sides. They were already in the political fray.

Providing standard, regular service to anyone willing to pay for it is almost always the "default" non-political way of doing business. Do you want an ideological purity test to buy a bagel or a car? Refusing to provide a service when you have the capacity to provide it is a much stronger political act because it essentially implies "I hate you so much that I'm willing to harm myself (foregoing profit) in order to thereby harm you."

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#156
I fully support steps being taken to reign in police and ICE, however it's still painfully ironic that CHAZ currently has been prioritizing enforcing borders, has roaming groups (peaceful and otherwise) ousting dissidents or those deemed as dissidents and verifying "citizenship".

This kind of behavior in any form is troubling.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"By accepting the ICE contract previously it was political." Just a reminder that government entities like ICE are executing the current laws of the land.

Demonstrably and rather obviously untrue. They're violating the law in many instances, including but not limited to the cases of asylum seekers and current green card holders; it's just they're following the evil, xenophobic whims of the current political leadership, who are failing to hold themselves or ICE accountable to the rule of law, so they are, for the moment, getting away with their lawlessness. I hope we ca…

Given that the pictures of kids in cages came from before our current president was in office, this is the first time I've heard anyone call president Obama both evil and xenophobic.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#158

i wish someone of these workers quit. Tons of IT jobs even in covid. If you are not quitting then you are also profiting form ICE contract.

Well, yeah, that's their bargaining chip. If Microsoft wants to keep their workers, they should listen to their demands.

Re: After GitHub CEO backs Black Lives Matter, workers demand an end to ICE contract

#159

Doing cheap PR moves like blacking out logos or posting Twitter "support" posts from CEO accounts or announcing the end of default branches named "master" is, as I said, cheap. The real issue is dealing with the elephants in the room, such as the aforementioned ICE contract of GitHub. It is about time that corporations, with GitHub here as an example, noticed that backing this or that or another minority or "trying"…

ICE does support Black and Brown people by keeping illegal immigrants from flooding the market. Wages in many restaurants/building sites in NYC, LA, Florida, Texas are lower than other parts of the country because illegal labor gives an alternative to hiring black employees that rightfully require at least a minimum wage.
Post reply on HN