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

Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 514 posts

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#121

Post by peter422 »

trention wrote: post #108
peter422 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people being laid off likely grew up in America 25-40 years ago. Modern policies are not relevant to the people I'm talking about (though obviously still a very interesting and important discussion).

Affirmative action in college admissions and hiring has been a thing at least since the early 90s.

Oh I misread your original post, sorry about that.

So your belief is that affirmative action in college admissions is the defining factor in race inequality, even though the vast majority of the structural disadvantages happen much younger?

Remember that this is the American society that upon integration decided over and over again they'd rather fill public pools with cement than have them shared between white and black children.

You don't believe those same barriers carried over to housing and schools? You just ignore the data and massive, persistent wealth gaps?

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#122

Post by weatherlite »

rurp wrote: post #63
white_dragon88 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider myself very ‘liberal’ per American standards (pro abortion, pro lgbt rights, pro racial diversity and acceptance), and this to me screams of woke culture gone wild. Looks like anything can be weaponised.

Same here. I'm pretty liberal on a number of issues, but this kind of language is extremely off-putting to me. If it means that the layoffs were explicitly racist, that is disgusting.

But we are all fine with racist hiring...

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#123

Post by geodel »

pastor_bob wrote: post #11

Mostly in "Go-To-Market". Same as Patreon I don't even know what that is, but sounds like a money pit.

Well its true for me also. When I go to market and end up spending money on useless junk. These people go to market and probably try to sell something similar.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#126

Post by trention »

peter422 wrote: post #121
trention wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Affirmative action in college admissions and hiring has been a thing at least since the early 90s.

Oh I misread your original post, sorry about that. So your belief is that affirmative action in college admissions is the defining factor in race inequality, even though the vast majority of the structural disadvantages happen much younger? Remember that this is the American society that upon integration decided over and over again they'd rather fill public pools with cement than have them shared between white and bl…

No, there are zero barriers "in front" of minorities in the states, only advantages. There is no institutional discrimination against minorities, only against the now-majority, soon-to-be minority.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#127

Post by phillipcarter »

taeric wrote: post #124
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #90

Back in my time, we called "treating people differently, based on their race" racism.

Quoted post unavailable.

I agree with this in the abstract. I think it's just, uhh, a little weird to pair this kind of message with a "we're removing tons of jobs that people relied on" kind of message.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#128

Post by John23832 »

zo1 wrote: post #105
John23832 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, I don't know why you're trying to paint me as something when I'm the OP of the thread that has taken umbrage with the layoffs. First, go outside and breathe. Second, the statement clearly says that it is a part of the calculus. Nobody is fired because they are white or black or whatever. The statement is just that it is taken into consideration (which is something that I have issue with). Please (and I mean thi…

"Part of the calculus" is just a euphemism indicating that race was a criteria that was possibly the reason someone was layed off. Let's be honest shall we instead of trying to play mental gymnastics. Imagine if the response to the Civil rights movement was "its okay stop complaining, race is just part of the calculus we use to determine who gets to go on the front of the bus, no one is forced to sit in the back beca…

First, you're responding negatively to me about something that I ORIGINALLY said that I didn't like. So I'm not sure where the energy is coming from, but that's fine.

Secondly, busing does not compare to at will employment? The analogy also ignores the power dynamic behind racism (and all -isms), but that's a longer discussion than I'm willing to have here.

Lastly, I'm not sure who the "we" was there... but whoever the in-group that you're associate with is, I would suggest they look more at the socioeconomic conditions that we are all living through that lead us to these conversations filled with baseless accusations and labeling rather than making minorities the targets of your fears of replacement.

Whoosah.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#129

Post by [deleted] »

white_dragon88 wrote: post #37
anonym29 wrote: post #18

Anyone else read the letter from the CEO where they claim that the layoffs "were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens"? That's verbatim from the actual PDF, in case anyone was curious ( https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001447669/5c6aa73... ) Page 6, under the heading "How did we decide which roles would be impacted". I wonder what race they deliberately targeted for these layoffs, with la…

I consider myself very ‘liberal’ per American standards (pro abortion, pro lgbt rights, pro racial diversity and acceptance), and this to me screams of woke culture gone wild. Looks like anything can be weaponised.

[deleted]

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#130

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

John23832 wrote: post #34

(I am a black man) I feel like the statement that the layoffs "were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens" puts a target on the backs of the people who you claim to be helping. If you're affected by layoffs described this way, you then question whether that was because of who you are. That then makes it harder for the minorities you claim to be "helping" to stay in the room anywhere else because of…

I don't get why they had to make that public statement in the first place. They could have kept that to themselves and complete the layoff just fine without the inflammatory statements, while still practicing whatever fashionable principles they choose. Is this a way to signal piety to the tech community in the hopes that more people aligned with those politics will apply there in the future?
Post reply on HN