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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

#381

Post by scruple »

solveit wrote: post #370
r0s wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, there's not a lot of money to be made, and people constantly question it. Would-be spoilers get educated about their own unrealized bias, racism continues to be a huge problem in this country, activists are vindicated and the world moves on.

Can someone get me an actual number so I know what to think?

Estimated at $8 billion dollars a year [0].

I found this book review [1] to be spot-on with my reading of the DiAngelo book, and this is also where I learned of the above estimate from the Washington Post.

> As a business journalist, however, I’ve chronicled the slow progress people of color have made in the corporate world, even as companies spend, by one measure, more than $8 billion a year on diversity initiatives.

[0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/despite-spending-bill...

[1]: https://newrepublic.com/article/156032/diversity-training-is...

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

#382

Post by FilterSweep »

This entire story reminded me a lot of the story of the inventor of the gas mask[1] who had to hire a white actor to play as the inventor during presentations

Scary things don’t change and little progress has been made.

[1] https://www.biography.com/.amp/inventor/garrett-morgan

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

#383

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #53
kgraves wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/hackernews/dangnews/

I understand the impression, but the truth is that no one knows how to make a forum that runs without moderation/curation while remaining interesting and surviving growth. I wish we did; it would be awesome. I could work on the code instead of writing tedious comments and getting accused of opposite things by angry people. If it makes you feel any better, I'm always looking for ways to relax control and intervene les…

[deleted]

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

#384

Post by kaitai »

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 haven't read DiAngelo's work yet. I'm reading some of Ibram Kendi's books, though, as a friend recommended them. Here's an article from 2017 about some of his work and thought: https://theundefeated.com/features/ibram-kendi-leading-schol...

I am particularly attracted to Kendi's point of view because I am coming from an academic background in which there are people who love to theorize and self-flagellate about sexism and racism and then dump all the service commitments and big first-year classes on women and faculty of color. "Oh, we need you to be a role model to these 450 freshmen; I'll sacrifice myself and teach this graduate class to my six graduate students instead." Academics are wonderful at knowing the right words to say, and just as shitty as anyone else when it comes to actual equity. Kendi has it right: from the article, “We have been taught that ignorance and hate lead to racist ideas, lead to racist policies,” Kendi said. “If the fundamental problem is ignorance and hate, then your solutions are going to be focused on education, and love and persuasion. But of course [Stamped from the Beginning] shows that the actual foundation of racism is not ignorance and hate, but self-interest, particularly economic and political and cultural.” This quite closely mirrors the actual phenomena I see in academia and industry.

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

#385

Post by seppin »

greenhatglack wrote: post #160
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…

There's a lot of money to be made in "anti-racism" and "gender-science", especially in tax-heavy countries. No one ever dares to question it, and it's "good" causes that could use some of the workers income. I'll be contrarian and recommend Thomas Sowell's "Black Rednecks and White Liberals" instead.

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweblFwt-BM

contrarian =/ smart. Sometimes you are objecting for the sake of objecting.

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

#386

Post by freddie_mercury »

js2 wrote: post #195
ibudiallo wrote: post #140

I usually choose to believe in "the honest mistake". It happens, two people walk in, one of them is the CEO, you assume it is the one on the right. And then when you realize it is a mistake, you apologize. We are only human. But when it happens over and over and over, you can't help but feel frustrated. You realize that people natural instinct is to think you are the subordinate. One second your are on stage at Techc…

I am Jewish. This gives me no insight into what it is to be black in America. But it does give me some insight into what it is to be a minority in America. I have an inkling of your loneliness and you have my profound sympathy. I wish everyone could experience what it is to be a minority in some, any, aspect of their identity to the extent that it might provide them some empathy for others. (I also never realized wha…

> I wish everyone could experience what it is to be a minority in some, any, aspect of their identity to the extent that it might provide them some empathy for others.

You would be surprised at how pervasive and long-lasting majority privilege can be. I live in Southeast Asia where foreigners are a very distinct minority and they experience all kinds of hardships. Difficulties making (local) friends, difficulties dealing with government bureaucracies, difficulties finding "their" food. Very few of them ever gain any empathy from it.

On one occasion I was at a bar talking with a German guy telling me about how there are some areas in Germany where you get off the train and it "doesn't even feel like Germany". All the immigrants dress differently, talk differently, eat different food. They don't even try to fit in!

Meanwhile, he hasn't learned the local language, has no local friends, lives in an apartment building that is mostly German expats. He actually said "I love my building because there are so many Germans." He doesn't even like the local food; I've never seen him eat it.

You'd think the entire experience would build empathy. "Hey, living in a foreign country as a minority is really tough. No wonder they like to hang out around their own people. I did it too!" But nope. Completely oblivious.

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

#387

Post by seppin »

secondcoming wrote: post #171
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…

There's also the works of Thomas Sowell. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thomas+sowell

I found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rweblFwt-BM

He calls climate science a "racket". Why are you encouraging people to listen to him?

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

#388

Post by gen220 »

brmgb wrote: post #285
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…

There was a very interesting article by Kelefa Sanneh in the New Yorker last year untitled "The fight to redefine racism" which contrasts the work done by DiAngelo with the positions taken by Ibram X. Kendi. [1] Sanneh is not convinced either. [1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/19/the-fight-to-r...

I was trying to remember where I’d heard her name before and this was it. I’ll toss in my recommendation for the piece and its conclusions too. I remember finding the article balanced, humble, and reflective.

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

#389

Post by jimbokun »

phaus wrote: post #351
bsanr2 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> America in general has gradually shifted towards a view that drug addicts are sick people that need help.

Just a coincidence that this shift happened as more white people started suffering from such addictions?

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

#390

Post by darkerside »

commoner wrote: post #335
psweber wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the workplace inherently has an underlying adversarial quality that can provide a never-ending supply of "microaggressions" Did you pick this idea up somewhere else or think of it yourself? I've not heard that concept, and it makes way too much sense.

The term was coined in 1970: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microaggression

I think poster was referring to the fact that workplaces are naturally fun of microaggressions regardless of race or sex, so it's easy to point the finger. It's analogous to how everybody's speeding, so everybody's guilty, and anyone can be pulled over (but usually the black person will happen to be the one pulled over).
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