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Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

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261–270 of 898 posts

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#261

(Black man here) Two things can be true at once. I have built great things. I can stand on my own. My merits are great. I do not want to be the token employee that is trotted around for Diversity Points (tm). I do not like the diversity porn that a lot of these DEI groups get off on. That being said, I do recognize that I have benefited from these groups (at least at their most genuine). There are groups that are aim…

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Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#262

I wish we would transcend to a point where we look up to people based on their achievements and separate their race from it. I’m Asian btw. I can relate to Lebron just as much as I can relate to Neil Armstrong or Satya or Matz or Woz or Marie Curie because they are all excellent at what they did/do. I want to be excellent like them. Because we all are humans.

I always get confused when people say they need to have people who look like them in prominent roles in order to feel welcome in a hobby/career/whatever. I'm a fan of boxing, and my favorite boxer is a black Muslim. I do some hobby-level game dev on the side, and most of my favorite devs that I look up to are Japanese. Young black men seem to disproportionately love Dragon Ball Z, with an Asian-appearing main charact…

Assuming you’re white and male: there are loads of white boxers and game devs! And you probably know some of them!

Think about how men feel about traditionally femme activities which may be stigmatized for hetero men. If you see even one other straight man get their nails done at a salon it sort of implicitly opens that door to you.

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#263

(Black man here) Two things can be true at once. I have built great things. I can stand on my own. My merits are great. I do not want to be the token employee that is trotted around for Diversity Points (tm). I do not like the diversity porn that a lot of these DEI groups get off on. That being said, I do recognize that I have benefited from these groups (at least at their most genuine). There are groups that are aim…

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Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#264

I wish we would transcend to a point where we look up to people based on their achievements and separate their race from it. I’m Asian btw. I can relate to Lebron just as much as I can relate to Neil Armstrong or Satya or Matz or Woz or Marie Curie because they are all excellent at what they did/do. I want to be excellent like them. Because we all are humans.

It's also funny to use the term "Asian". I'm also "Asian" (from Israel). There are hundreds of completely non-related ethnical groups in this vast continent.

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#265

Honest question for the crowd. Obviously DEI or affirmative action-esque initiatives are not perfect. But is there something better that could be done? Asking bc I went to a good school that had affirmative action. It was for years that I just assumed it was racist, even if it was helping poc. Then it dawned on me in my last year that it was also benefitting me . That if the govt hadn’t done something to intervene, I…

The problem you’re describing is extremely rare in tech. The industry is full of immigrants and people of color; I’ve personally never worked on a team with more than 30ish% white people, although I’ve interviewed for a few and I hear they’re more common in different specialties.

But of course one of the key goals of diversity initiatives is to frame the discourse so people don’t think this way. How often do you hear the Google diversity office talk about how proud they are to have a PoC as CEO?

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#266

I wish we would transcend to a point where we look up to people based on their achievements and separate their race from it. I’m Asian btw. I can relate to Lebron just as much as I can relate to Neil Armstrong or Satya or Matz or Woz or Marie Curie because they are all excellent at what they did/do. I want to be excellent like them. Because we all are humans.

It's interesting to me seeing all asians and pacific islanders lumped together and excluded from most DEI efforts because HR departments think there's too many of you already and that you're too white-adjacent. Seems like blatant racism to me.

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#267
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever my company has had conversations about DEI initiatives, I always come back to the same argument: "talk is cheap, we can talk all day long about how we are diverse. How about we shut up, put our money where our mouth is, and actually hire some folks from diverse backgrounds". DEI is something that is easy to talk about but actually kinda hard to implement. Part of the problem is the makeup of the industry in…

> actually hire some folks from diverse backgrounds Because you’re trying to hire from a small pool of candidates (minority software developer or whatever) that EVERY OTHER tech company is trying to get in a desperate attempt to not look bad (because not having a sufficient number of minorities on staff is a sin). It’s simply a question of numbers. There’s only so many minorities, and only a fraction of them are suff…

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Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#268
post #3

You're not alone. My partner has the same issue. They work in a field where performance can be judged somewhat objectively, but in which reputation still matters. They get not only impostor syndrome, but also the fear that other people will think their achievements are only due to DEI initiatives. Another issue is that senior minorities constantly get dragged into (useless, time-wasting, chore-like) committees that h…

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Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#269
I remember seeing a cartoon of a dog typing at a computer with the caption of 'Nobody knows you are a dog on the Internet'. Unless someone goes out of their way to point out their race, gender, ethnicity, or age; you generally have no idea who is commenting or who wrote the software.

I couldn't personally care less if my computer was created by a Japanese woman or if my software was created by a black gay man. I just want it to work properly. Same goes for nearly everything else I buy.

Re: Tell HN: DEI initiatives undermine the self esteem of PoC within a company

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve hired people at my jobs (big tech to startups in SV) that were underqualified because of diversity measures. If we had ran them through the typical interview gauntlet with the same rubric, they wouldn’t pass. We often changed the interview format or the rubric when presented with someone who was URT pool. I’ve talked to enough managers who complain about lackluster employees and how they’re not fireable because…

That's disappointing to hear. It also seems like a mixed bag for these lackluster hires, who get a paycheck but likely have a less-than-stellar work experience and little opportunity for advancement. Is there any effort at follow-up training? Seems like this interview strategy HAS to be paired with a long-term training strategy for taking less-qualified hires and turning them into very productive employees. If not, d…

>Training Hahahaha, you dare suggest that we hired somebody underqualified? You can't make them feel like they are inferior, you utter racist.

Yes, I have had a slightly less hyperbolic version of this actual conversation about less-than-qualified diversity hires. Good way to end your career.

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