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

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

#351

Post by phaus »

bsanr2 wrote: post #307
twybriny wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things that confuses me quite a bit is the focus on laws that expired or have been abrogated 50-60-70-150 years ago and make it as if everything wrong with contemporary American society is caused directly by such laws and nothing else. * GI Bill: adopted in 1944, expired in 1956. * Social Security: adopted in 1935, unclear what the impacts were at the time. Unclear what the impacts are today. * Redlining:…

>As an immigrant that landed in US post 2000 with $1000 to my name and a tenuous F1 situation, all this sounds like ancient history. Well, it's not. In living memory: >The wealth of black Americans was halved by the 2008 financial crisis, in part because of predatory lending practices which specifically targeted them by race and misrepresented their creditworthiness https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/201…

>Black Americans have watched a completely different and profoundly more compassionate response to the white people affected by the opioid epidemic than they experienced in the crack/cocaine epidemic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/crack-h....

https://thewitnessbcc.com/crack-epidemic-opioid-crisis-race-....

Great post and you brought up a few things I hadn't considered. Just curious about this one though. America in general has gradually shifted towards a view that drug addicts are sick people that need help. The shift was already taking place before opioids and methamphetamine addiction reached epidemic levels. How much of an impact do you think systemic racism had on the response to the opioid epidemic and how much can just be attributed to the fact that we have gotten smarter about drug addiction in general?

I'm not super educated on the opioid epidemic, but is there evidence that even now the resources allocated for a response are being distributed unfairly?

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

#352

Post by gowld »

tqi wrote: post #243
goodoldbiff wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bringing in Biff is what VCs always do. Or at least always used to do. I've encountered it personally. The term they used was "seasoned executive". Biff is a better name. I'm not doubting Timothy's experience, but if he's right, the point would have to be that VCs bring-in-Biff more often with black founders than they do white ones. Which seems entirely plausible, but that's not the argument I think I'm reading here.

Even if they weren't bringing in Biff more often with black founders than white founders, if the pool from which they select Biff is overwhelmingly white men, the effect is still that black founders get pushed aside in favor of white men. Even if their selection process for Biff was completely gender / race blind, as long as the primary qualification for Biff is "has previously been CEO" then the next generation of c…

If all Biffs are white, but not all whites are Biffs, does it make sense to lump the non-Biff whites in Biff's race, for purposes of stereotype/bias analysis? Maybe "white" is too vague.

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

#353

Post by neonate »

triceratops wrote: post #226
nsporillo wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly are the powers and material structures that contribute to the perceived racism in our society? From my limited understanding of this position, it sounds like the goal is a dismantling of police and courts which form the backbone of a civil rule of law society.

> it sounds like the goal is a dismantling of police and courts which form the backbone of a civil rule of law society. It's not. The goal is to demand equal protections under the law for all, eliminate racial bias in policing, judging and sentencing, and make police themselves follow the law. Don't be misled by the "defund police" mantra. It's just a way to divert resources to community engagement programs and/or ge…

It's more complicated than that. There's a debate about what it means among the people advocating for it, with (as far as I can tell) the people who originated the phrase strongly objecting to the suggestion that they didn't mean it literally.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23470187

https://twitter.com/jduffyrice/status/1270380991178321921.

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

#354

Post by callmeal »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #238
callmeal wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What white person has achieved this goal? I know at least one person who has. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/27/black-like-me-... I know it's not possible for everyone to do what John Howard Griffin did, but reading that book and living that experience vicariously can be a start.

I don't think that's the best example. How does one separate: "They're treating me poorly because I'm a black person" and "They're treating me poorly because I'm a white guy trying to be a black person"

You just made his point. "They're treating me poorly because I'm a black person" and "They're treating me poorly because I'm a white guy trying to be a black person" translate to "They're treating me poorly because of the color of my skin".

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

#355

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

throwaway_jobs wrote: post #287
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I acknowledge racism is a real issue but think it’s reasonable to disagree what the best solution is. This stuff (white fragility etc) just smells way too much like “original sin” and “we are all sinners but must strive towards holiness, however unachievable” to me. I’ve always been a “treat others as you would like to be treated” person. But a lot of this anti-racist concept is appearing on all my pod casts. And n…

> I’m in Australia and I think these are largely US concepts. Based on that statement alone I think I can accurately conclude you are not an indigenous Australian (aboriginal). Seems they share quiet a lot in common with native Americans from stealing of their lands/displacement, mass killings, enslavement By colonists, to ongoing racism that continues to carry on today.

I’m not indigenous. I said we have to combat racism. I never said there are not similarities with what indigenous people went through.

But it seems racism in the US has a lot of deeper cultural implications so they came up with anti-racism. Australia needs to figure out what equality means to us and make our own cultural changes. Not copy the US.

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

#356

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#357

Post by avs733 »

Reedx wrote: post #338
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm skeptical about Robin Diangelo, I read her book a few months ago, and it only seems to be an advertisement for her services as an anti-racist instructor. Her entire argument frames race relations within the context of the workplace which is problematic because her approach is coercive, not educational. It's more a guide on "how not to get fired for being racist" than anything. There are much better books for foun…

Your skepticism is well warranted. Unfalsifiable theory, dogma you can't question, purity tests, good vs evil, original sin, heresy, excommunication, self-flagellation and so on... It's a religion and Kafkatrap, but not yet widely recognized as such. Further explanation: https://newdiscourses.com/2020/06/intellectual-fraud-robin-d... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/why-third-... https://www.wsj.com/…

I find it interesting you choose the word 'explanation' as opposed to 'counter argument'

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

#358

Post by isatty »

sfj wrote: post #336
darth_avocado wrote: post #187

For everyone arguing "honest mistake" or "just chance", think about the person at the receiving end. For the person making that mistake, it could be their first, but for the person at the receiving end it could be the hundredth, and that too, not without consequences. The first 3-4 times I got "randomly selected" for additional screening at the airport, I was like whatever. But years later after my probably 100th "ra…

Did you ever think it might be the way you dress or your demeanor? Obviously, it could be racial also, but how could you know that?

His clothes or demeanor can’t possible be the same for n > 100, but his race sure is.

Let’s face it, the TSA blatantly discriminates against race and it’s not a secret.

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

#359

Post by rootusrootus »

kube-system wrote: post #45
olivermarks wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked it up - according to the NYT 'black, indigenous people of color'. Based on this shouldn't the correct wording for 'black lives matter' be 'BIPOC lives matter'? Surely people of color and indigenous people are taking offense at this?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that non-black people of color are disproportionately experiencing police violence at the same rates?

I saw someone else here arguing with statistics and apparently police kill a lot of white folks, too, and the rates aren't much different than blacks. What does happen, though, is blacks are disproportionately targeted by police in many other non-lethal-but-still-terrible ways.

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

#360

Post by kps »

As a non-American non-SV resident, every time I visit there I feel like I've stepped into the '60s. All the developers and managers are white or asian, and all the janitors, cooks, security guards, bus drivers, etc. are black or hispanic. Silly Valley talks the talk, very loudly, but they don't walk the walk.
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