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Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#461
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you recommend some texts responsible for the change in scope? My understanding of CRT is that race is entirely a social construction, and that the laws and attitudes surrounding race are primarily informed by this social construction and not anything with real biological basis. When did that change?

The Wikipedia page is not bad. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory Note that Ladson-Billings & Tate (1995) was the widespread introduction of CRT into the field of education, which I think is the bit of CRT that is creating a lot of the fuss these days. Here is an article by Ladson-Billings: https://www.loyola.edu/-/media/join-us/karson-institute/docu... Short summary of how CRT is perceived these da…

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, more charitably, "We avoided laying off racial/oppressed minorities for racist/bigoted reasons"

Why not say "we ensured our layoffs were not affected by racist or gendered bias."? Why exclude non-minorities from the policy of non-discrimination? Imagine a company writes, "We avoided laying off Latino men for racist or bigoted reasons." But not Latino women? But not African Americans? What is the message behind limiting this assurance of non-discrimination to a particular group? I agree that people interpreting…

In a lot of parts of the US, "non-minorities" ARE the minority. Somehow, that doesn't matter.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#463
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole ideological movement in vogue that has a really hard time defining what a woman even is.

I always enjoyed that attempt at a definition that led to people pointing out it made women out of chairs and horses. Some of them do manage to be ideologically consistent and exclude vast swathes of cis women from womanhood just to get at trans women, but most just fall back on "but science!" even as actual scientists point out science doesn't support anti-trans ideology.

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#464

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…

> As you all know, we are committed to becoming an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression company. Layoffs like this can have a more pronounced impact on marginalized communities, so we were particularly focused on ensuring our layoffs – while a business necessity today – were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens. Just wanted to add some additional context from the PDF you linked. The civil rights act of 1964…

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#465
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is it plain illegal. For employment purposes Race is a protected class (at least in USA) and racial discrimination while hiring or firing violates federal law. How would they get away with this?

Lack of enforcement. And the ubiquitousness of racism in hiring and admissions.

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#466
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure if you are white and laid off, you will have a pretty strong case for a lawsuit. I can't believe someone in legal wouldn't warn the leadership that putting out a press release stating this was a good idea.

This is San Francisco. When I worked there (2015-2020), most of my co-workers openly endorsed hiring bias against demographics that aren't considered "diverse". I'd be highly skeptical that a jury would side with a plaintiff alleging anti-white discrimination, no matter how solid the proof. If a community widely thinks activity that is de jure illegal should be allowed then it becomes de facto permitted because even…

That is jury nullification.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#467
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole ideological movement in vogue that has a really hard time defining what a woman even is.

I always enjoyed that attempt at a definition that led to people pointing out it made women out of chairs and horses. Some of them do manage to be ideologically consistent and exclude vast swathes of cis women from womanhood just to get at trans women, but most just fall back on "but science!" even as actual scientists point out science doesn't support anti-trans ideology.

[deleted]

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#468
post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole ideological movement in vogue that has a really hard time defining what a woman even is.

I always enjoyed that attempt at a definition that led to people pointing out it made women out of chairs and horses. Some of them do manage to be ideologically consistent and exclude vast swathes of cis women from womanhood just to get at trans women, but most just fall back on "but science!" even as actual scientists point out science doesn't support anti-trans ideology.

"Actual scientists point out science doesn't support anti-trans ideology" -- unfortunately, "actual science" is defined by who speaks for it and what is permitted to be published and any criticism of the sexualization or surgical/therapeutic treatment of vulnerable minors is automatically "transphobia". Right now, we are in a very dark place with powerful lobbies dictating things unimaginable in prior eras and which would and should be illegal in a sane society/world.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most state civil rights laws that list protected classes, specifically only minorities are protected - not white people. That's how it is in NY state.

You are wrong. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/the-law.page

New York state not New York City. Big difference.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#470
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This creates three problems. The first is that some white people who were affected will believe it was because of their race. The second is that minorities who were not affected may be assumed to have been kept because of their minority status. But the most harmful is for minorities who were laid off. That signals that they were really subpar, even more than the average laid off person. It seems like this policy has…

But is it plain illegal. For employment purposes Race is a protected class (at least in USA) and racial discrimination while hiring or firing violates federal law. How would they get away with this?

Because the chessboard has been moved and all the pieces rearranged.
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