Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 828 posts

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#81

Post by scarface74 »

remote_phone wrote: post #58

There was a presentation from the Black Diversity group in my company where they described an incident where they gathered for an ERG meeting. They were a collection of engineers, managers, legal, etc from across the company. The front desk security, who also was black, assumed they were cafeteria staff and directed them to the cafeteria without even asking. It was eye opening how deeply unconscious bias occurs. My A…

Asian women being taken as an authority figure? Heck, anecdotally they can’t even be seen as developers. I have an Asian friend/former coworker. Anytime that we would all go to a local conference they would assume she was QA.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#82

Post by somethoughts »

chongli wrote: post #73
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #21

I thought this was a great article. One of the most interesting things to me was how the embarrassment/defensiveness of the white people involved was one of the biggest blocks to the black CEOs in their advancement, e.g. the VCs who "just wanted to get the hell out of there" after mistaking a white subordinate for the CEO. I've recently been reading/watching some videos and writings by Robin Diangelo on systemic raci…

I think the trouble here is the double meaning of the word racist. When some people hear the word, they think of cross-burning fanatics and mass murderers. On the other hand, the current big conversation is about how everyone is racist and that society is rife with systemic racism. That creates a catch-22 for anyone who commits a faux-pas (like mistaking the black CEO for a subordinate). Either admit to racism and ca…

Yes - perhaps if the current big conversation was rephrased as "everyone is biased and that society is rife with systemic bias" - people would be more willing to agree that its a problem and agree that they are part of the problem and would be more willing to be involved in solving it.

To be honest - everyone, no matter who they are, makes judgements and has biases.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#83

Post by mmsimanga »

api wrote: post #3
blueadept111 wrote: post #2

wow, it sure is fashionable these days to point your finger and call people racist. Had a rough day? Been confused with someone else? racism.

> Guest after guest walked past the pair of executives to greet their White employee, offer their congratulations and ask how he got the idea for the product. This sort of thing has never, ever happened to me. Nobody has ever suggested that I hire a wingman of a different ethnicity or gender or anything similarly asinine either.

African here, this is common in Africa but in a different way. Often by fellow black Africans will trust a foreign white person over me. The big global consulting companies are making a killing sending over specialists in different fields.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#84

Post by ChuckMcM »

mlpgx wrote: post #44
ChuckMcM wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the discussion of your action here confirms, even more strongly, that not only is the bias real, but also it is sometimes completely opaque to people who hold that bias. Thanks for unflagging it, otherwise I would have missed it I'm sure.

The problem is that everyone has his own personal experiences. In my surroundings I've seen black women get funding where white men did not. I've seen minorities preferred in hiring. The world has changed drastically in the last five years. It is white men who feel silenced in the tech industry, by HR, the press, CEOs and activists. So the article can be true of course, but it aligns less and less with what we see in…

I see it differently, I recognize that my personal experiences are not in any way indicative of everyone's experiences, and so when I talk to others I try to hear their experiences in similar situations. That helps me understand or at least appreciate the variability in the system.

My earliest experience with this was seeing the difference in how people with college degrees from "good schools", "no-name schools", and "technical college" were treated during hiring at all of the companies where a third party put into place hiring policies.

Each of those people has their own "personal experience" about how easy or hard it is to find a job in the bay area. And those personal experiences are very different than mine.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#85

Post by scarface74 »

mlpgx wrote: post #44
ChuckMcM wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the discussion of your action here confirms, even more strongly, that not only is the bias real, but also it is sometimes completely opaque to people who hold that bias. Thanks for unflagging it, otherwise I would have missed it I'm sure.

The problem is that everyone has his own personal experiences. In my surroundings I've seen black women get funding where white men did not. I've seen minorities preferred in hiring. The world has changed drastically in the last five years. It is white men who feel silenced in the tech industry, by HR, the press, CEOs and activists. So the article can be true of course, but it aligns less and less with what we see in…

Why do you think your “personal experience” negates data?

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#86

Post by remote_phone »

tomp wrote: post #75
ceejayoz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's stereotyping, not racism. It can be both. "Women drive badly" is a sexist stereotype, but not racism. "Black people drive badly" would be both a stereotype and racism.

Well, it's still sexist. Same thing. Also, wrong. A better example would be, "women aren't passionate about driving". That's a stereotype, likely a correct one (i.e. substantiated by statistics... I mean, I'm not certain, but that would be my prior, but I'm very open to changing it), and most importantly: not harmful . It's just a stereotype. I'm not denying that things could be harmful (racism, sexist, ...). But not…

Saying it’s not harmful is your privilege showing. Imagine you’re a 6 year old girl and you love cars but you never are encouraged because “women aren’t passionate about driving”.

How about just not making any assumptions at all and ask and support people, be it white, black, male, female, trans, etc?

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#87

Post by crazygringo »

dang wrote: post #5

This is an interesting and in-depth article that was inappropriately flagged. I've turned off the flags. I understand the impulse to flag follow-up stories [1], especially on the hottest controversies of the moment, which always produce a flood of articles, most of which aren't very good. Curiosity and repetition don't go together [2]. But it's important to recognize the articles that are higher than median quality a…

dang, I just wanted to thank you for unflagging it. There have been a number of stories in the news over the past few weeks that have opened my eyes to realities I wasn't aware of, and this is one more valuable one. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#88

Post by erik_seaberg »

neonate wrote: post #69
stevenbedrick wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a really interesting story, actually! The question of whether and when to capitalize has been an active one since at least the early 20th century. Here's a (very) recent Columbia Journalism Review article that discusses it from a stylistic perspective: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php And I also thought that this article, about the Brookings Institution's decision to capitalize Black i…

Capitalizing White seems extremely weird, though, and somehow emblematic of how we're sliding backwards into a racialized consciousness even while trying (and hopefully succeeding) to step forwards toward equality.

This. The words "white" and "black" are not proper names of places, and they aren't honorifics. To say I'm "White" would be like saying I'm "Fat" or "Tired".

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#89

Post by jpxw »

rectang wrote: post #62
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #32

Stylistic question. I noticed Black and White capitalized in this article. Is that an emerging convention?

It's something which is developing and being debated. The Root had a rundown earlier today: https://www.theroot.com/capitalizing-the-b-in-black-is-nice-... > At The Root, we’ve had a long-standing debate over capitalizing the “B” in black. Some of us are adamantly for it, while others (myself included) are grammar freaks who think that if we capitalize “black” we would also have to capitalize “white,” and I, personal…

That quote really sums up the ridiculousness of this imo.

Re: For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

#90

Post by hello_friendos »

JPKab wrote: post #56
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #21

I thought this was a great article. One of the most interesting things to me was how the embarrassment/defensiveness of the white people involved was one of the biggest blocks to the black CEOs in their advancement, e.g. the VCs who "just wanted to get the hell out of there" after mistaking a white subordinate for the CEO. I've recently been reading/watching some videos and writings by Robin Diangelo on systemic raci…

I've read "White Fragility". While I completely agree that the stories in this article are hugely problematic and represent issues that need to be solved, I think books like "White Fragility" are not helpful in solving them. This is due to a focus on group identity, and describing "White" as if it's a monolithic group of people, all with the same culture, emotions, and reactions. Another interesting aspect I identifi…

I think instantly feeling uncomfortable about a term like "White Fragility" and writing an entire comment about being uncomfortable about the term instead of a comment about the racism Black people face in all walks of life is a perfect example of white fragility.
Post reply on HN