Live data from Hacker News

'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

reuters.com

121–130 of 163 posts

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#121
post #35

>The complaint recounts an incident, for instance, about Johnson telling DiBenedetto in 2020 that he expected to retire in a couple of years. DiBenedetto said he was interested in applying for his boss’ job. Johnson allegedly noted DiBenedetto’s short "runway." According to DiBenedetto, the boss said, “In these roles, you know, you've got to be able to adapt and move, and I'm not saying you can't, but a 58-year-old w…

When I initially read that I honestly didn't think it was all that bad. Inappropriate? Yes. Lawsuit worthy? No. But then, I imagined if the same thing were said to a 58 year old black woman, and immediately realized that it's severity. Is it just me, or has racism towards white people become acceptable/main stream (at least, much more so than racism towards other races)? I feel as if my lack of a visceral reaction to…

Definitely is more accepted, e.g guess which one of these subs got quickly banned and which is deemed OK.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Fragilewhiteredditor/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Fragileblackredditor/

I think whites are the least likely to have fragility issues which is why it’s allowed to continue.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

While I agree with you that they are trying to do it, the Johnny Depp case was an example to show that there is a limit that will backfire after 6 years if crossed. There are lots of cases in court where men are discriminated against (domestic violence was an example), but I believe that being white still has enough advantages generally. Agism is a stronger thing though that will get worse, as old people don't get in…

IMO the Depp case if anything says that you can buy your way to better outcomes, but that's always been true no matter your race or sex.

> There are lots of cases in court where men are discriminated against (domestic violence was an example), but I believe that being white still has enough advantages generally. Agism is a stronger thing though that will get worse, as old people don't get instagram likes.

I'm not sure what point you're making. What advantages does being white still have, and why is it "enough"?

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#123
post #35

>The complaint recounts an incident, for instance, about Johnson telling DiBenedetto in 2020 that he expected to retire in a couple of years. DiBenedetto said he was interested in applying for his boss’ job. Johnson allegedly noted DiBenedetto’s short "runway." According to DiBenedetto, the boss said, “In these roles, you know, you've got to be able to adapt and move, and I'm not saying you can't, but a 58-year-old w…

When I initially read that I honestly didn't think it was all that bad. Inappropriate? Yes. Lawsuit worthy? No. But then, I imagined if the same thing were said to a 58 year old black woman, and immediately realized that it's severity. Is it just me, or has racism towards white people become acceptable/main stream (at least, much more so than racism towards other races)? I feel as if my lack of a visceral reaction to…

It's because the ideas come from early 20th Russian bolshevism. It's an application of Marxism to race so you can't be "racist" towards White people because they're "oppressors." It's why I wish people would use "bigoted" instead of "racist" because it's less ambiguous to the extremists pushing the nonsense and the people listening to them.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#124
post #123
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I initially read that I honestly didn't think it was all that bad. Inappropriate? Yes. Lawsuit worthy? No. But then, I imagined if the same thing were said to a 58 year old black woman, and immediately realized that it's severity. Is it just me, or has racism towards white people become acceptable/main stream (at least, much more so than racism towards other races)? I feel as if my lack of a visceral reaction to…

It's because the ideas come from early 20th Russian bolshevism. It's an application of Marxism to race so you can't be "racist" towards White people because they're "oppressors." It's why I wish people would use "bigoted" instead of "racist" because it's less ambiguous to the extremists pushing the nonsense and the people listening to them.

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

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

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#125
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

law school grad here--generic white males are not afforded the same protections as protected classes

Not law school grad here but my understanding of protected classes - sex, age, race, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status - is that it’s that particular characteristic, not the values of those classes. I can’t fire someone for being male or female. It’s not ok to fire someone for being male, or white. It’s not like only some religions are protected, while others aren’t. You may want to check into a r…

You can legally deny an Asian (or white) male's college application on the basis of race though, see Grutter v. Bollinger. The Fourteenth Amendment might be worded in a universal way, but the application of its protection is currently very selective.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps age is just an oddball compared to the other protected classes, because there are legitimate reasons not to employ someone young (e.g., if the position requires x years of professional experience but the candidate has only been of working age for <x years) while there aren't many legitimate reasons not to employ someone old. Gender, race, etc. don't have this natural asymmetry.

Another interesting angle is that everyone eventually will become old and therefore in this protected class. It's not like race, gender, etc. in that way.

Everyone old was once young, but not everyone young will live to be old.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#127
post #124
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the ideas come from early 20th Russian bolshevism. It's an application of Marxism to race so you can't be "racist" towards White people because they're "oppressors." It's why I wish people would use "bigoted" instead of "racist" because it's less ambiguous to the extremists pushing the nonsense and the people listening to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Bolshevism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_th...

It's a conspiracy theory until it turns out to be an actual conspiracy. Just because they're right wing doesn't mean they're wrong. Most "normal" people in the US are pretty far to the right (and for good reasons as we can see here.)

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the whole "diversity and inclusion" thing is explicitly about giving unequal (more favorable) treatment to people who aren't white/male/cis It's too bad you see it that way when in a lot of cases it's explicitly about giving equal consideration to everyone rather than giving anyone more favorable treatment. Not every case, obviously, but that shouldn't invalidate attempting to level the playing field.

> It's too bad you see it that way when in a lot of cases it's explicitly about giving equal consideration to everyone rather than giving anyone more favorable treatment. Not every case, obviously, but that shouldn't invalidate attempting to level the playing field. It's a lot more than just "not every case" though. Every place I've ever worked, we have explicitly hired inferior candidates due to their racial/gender/…

> Every place I've ever worked, we have explicitly hired inferior candidates due to their racial/gender/etc characteristics.

In another comment downthread, I explicitly say " Don't hire bad candidates. " I'm well aware that there are lots of folks who do DEI wrong or justify bad decisions with it. Moreover, I get why this happens. Lots of people want or need the needle to move, and culturally speaking a company might not be ready yet to actually move that needle. It's growth hacking as applied to DEI, and it sucks. Rest assured that there are people working on fixing this, some in their roles at individual workplaces and others as an industry-wide effort.

> I will agree that DEI initiatives are not all bad all the time.

That's really what I'm going for here. I'm hoping we can all agree that we could do more to make hiring and promotion and such fair, and just in general that things could be improved in a way that benefits us all. Once we're all in agreement and understand the value prop, we can start holding each other accountable and making sure that we're being fair to everyone.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#129
post #127
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Bolshevism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Marxism_conspiracy_th...

It's a conspiracy theory until it turns out to be an actual conspiracy. Just because they're right wing doesn't mean they're wrong. Most "normal" people in the US are pretty far to the right (and for good reasons as we can see here.)

>The conspiracy theory of a Marxist culture war is promoted by right-wing politicians, fundamentalist religious leaders, political commentators in mainstream print and television media, and white supremacist terrorists,[8] and has been described as "a foundational element of the alt-right worldview".[9] Scholarly analysis of the conspiracy theory has concluded that it has no basis in fact.

Re: 'Old white guy' can move forward with workplace bias suit against AT&T

#130
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps age is just an oddball compared to the other protected classes, because there are legitimate reasons not to employ someone young (e.g., if the position requires x years of professional experience but the candidate has only been of working age for <x years) while there aren't many legitimate reasons not to employ someone old. Gender, race, etc. don't have this natural asymmetry.

There's similarly good reasons to not hire somebody old though - theyve already been trained in some other work method, have/spend time with their families, have retirement sooner, etc

> theyve already been trained in some other work method,

We hired them for prior experience on purpose, yes.

> have/spend time with their families,

If that stands out, your company has a serious culture problem.

> have retirement sooner,

Isn't the average time at a job like 3 years in tech? Who cares if they leave for another company or retire at the end? Outside of tech I'm still skeptical that the odds of jumping for another job vs retiring is that different, actually.

Post reply on HN