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Racism at a gaming company

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Re: Racism at a gaming company

#301

Post by jeffreybaird »

001sky wrote: post #231
tptacek wrote: post #137

Decoder ring for nerds who are unable to read past words like "neoliberal colonizer" without racing to the nearest TEXTAREA: * A black coworker is singled out by another (non-black) coworker with "watch out for that guy, he’s trouble, he talks a lot of shit" * Referring to a latino coworker, that same coworker suggests jokes: "Like ‘you’re a mexican whore’ or like ‘your mother’s a Mexican whore?" * The black coworker…

Relevant> via google image search: http://allthingsd.com/20120530/kixeyes-games-on-facebook-are...

I don't know if the OP is reading this but he should probably be a little careful. I found it incredibly easy to track down "Steve's" Linkedin profile. While what he went through was awful, fighting a libel suit would only make this worse even if he eventually won.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#302

Post by tripzilch »

paganel wrote: post #208
cstross wrote: post #3

"We don’t even tolerate people brining up concerns of racism here." Translation: "we don't want to admit that we have a toxic, racist corporate culture so we're going to blame the messenger." The emphasis here is on racism, but there's a ton of casual sexism -- and I'd be surprised if ageism wasn't present, too. This is, at best, a company where HR have taken their eye off the ball. More likely, there are serious ins…

> Note: this is me trying to stay dispassionate and non-angry. If I was the author of this piece I'd be incandescent. Props to him for staying calm and documenting this stuff rather than simply walking out. Or exploding I couldn't even make it to the end, I think I just managed to read 80% of the whole piece, I'm pretty, pretty f.ing mad, and I've never even been to the States. A little OT: And while we're on this, I…

A friend once advised me, to seriously and intently ask such people "what the fuck is wrong with you?" (and possibly shake your head a bit in a confused mildly disgusted manner). Then walk away, because whatever they have to say is not going to be worth your time.

The one time I applied this, it netted me a rather sincere apology half an hour later, so I guess it has some merit in at least some of the situations.

(note that I was not in the group being discriminated against, I don't think it'd be a good approach if I were)

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#303

Post by RivieraKid »

JPKab wrote: post #153
ditonal wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This attitude, and the casual "reverse" racism of this author, sets back social progress against institutional racism against blacks/hispanics so much. I totally accept that blacks face more racism in many aspects of society today, especially professionally. But in Baltimore a bunch of black kids jumped me, and they told me it was because I was white and I "thought I could walk around their neighborhood" (a block fro…

Welcome to my world buddy. Any white (or middle eastern, as my good friend from Detroit can attest) person who has lived in a poor, mostly black neighborhood has had to deal with this shit. The fact that it is actively ignored by the media and government and dismissed as being criminally, rather than racially motivated is terrible. But having to listen to whites who have no idea it even exists proclaim that racism, a…

Aren't all racial attacks criminally motivated?

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#304

Post by strlen »

tptacek wrote: post #259
JPKab wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brilliant analysis. I am one of the readers who had deep concern for the truthfulness of these observations. If they are true, then he got screwed, royally, and should sue. Except for the pendant comment. That's just a case of taking yourself too seriously. Yet another nail in the coffin of his credibility.

The things you think sap his credibility add to his credibility for me; if he was making things up, it would have been easy for him to leave his own politics and sensitivities out of the post to make it more painful for his ex-employer. To me, it reads like he's just venting to his peers. We're the ones making a big deal out of it.

Yes: if his "plan" was to defame an employer, he'd want to conceal his views (which, again, are completely irrelevant here) as opposed to express them in a transparent fashion (which he does).

Finally, you have to wonder, how much of abuse the employer had to dish out to turn (judging from the picture) an apolitical gamer-hipster-nerd into an anti-colonial radical. I don't want to make this story about me, but as a secular Jew who immigrated from former USSR as a teen, I can say that experiencing racism firsthand tends to change your perspective.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#305

Post by cantastoria »

pja wrote: post #276

Just as an exercise, I went and collected all the responses here that matched entries in Derailing for Dummies ( http://derailingfordummies.com ). We have at least: "You're too hostile", with a side order of "You're being Overemotional" and "You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry" plus a few "But that Happens to Me Too!" and plenty of "But I'm Not Like That - Stop Stereotying!". Any more? (I could link to the gui…

I love how someone always hauls out this set of speech codes every time there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum as if there's a "correct way" to participate. If you want let a bunch politically correct rules dictate how you discuss these issues then go ahead, but please don't expect the rest us to follow suit. Hopefully, the rest of HN doesn't subscribe to that kind of self-censorship.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#306

Post by jeltz »

pja wrote: post #209
Tipzntrix wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tone isn't helping his case. I've been around these kind of complaints in person, and while I know that the injustices taking place are horrible and uncalled for, I also know that the complainer is also (not-so-subtly any more) racist as well. Perhaps he wasn't before he entered the school system or the workforce (not necessarily this job), but saying things like dumbwhite *, bringing up colonization like slavery…

Ah, the tone argument. Are you looking to round out the racism discussion derail bingo card, or just completely clueless?

I am not sure he is using the tone argument, since he concludes with "but I agree that the author deserves some justice.". He may just be suggesting that many here at HN attack the author due to the racist tone of the post.

Pointing out an ugly tone does not mean you think it invalidates the argument.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#307

Post by Apocryphon »

methoddk wrote: post #196
saraid216 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He frequently used the extremely general term, "Dumbwhite motherfucker.", which is blatantly racist Agreed. > makes his complete argument null and void No, actually it doesn't. That's really not how logic works. This is an audience problem. This post was pretty clearly not meant to be an intellectual tour de force; it was a rant, and a step away from frothing at the mouth. The author doesn't claim to be perfect, no…

Except it really does. I fully support a good rant to get something off the chest. The OP is so intensely focused on the race of his attackers, that it is debilitating to the rest of his problem. It makes him look just as bad as his attackers for stooping to the race level.

Except he never used that sort of language towards his coworkers at a professional setting.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#308

Post by antihero »

iy56 wrote: post #249
saraid216 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apart from the comment about the pendant, any one of the comments listed above would be a firing offense here. You know, it occurs to me that it's kinda sad that "firing offense" is the highest degree of punishment we have available to inflict. It's our proxy for social exile, but it's not actually social exile. That doesn't seem enough, but jailing and fining don't seem to fit either.

What would you suggest instead? That an employer can tar and feather workers for violating company policy?

Shunning of racists?

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#309

Post by cantastoria »

pja wrote: post #276

Just as an exercise, I went and collected all the responses here that matched entries in Derailing for Dummies ( http://derailingfordummies.com ). We have at least: "You're too hostile", with a side order of "You're being Overemotional" and "You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry" plus a few "But that Happens to Me Too!" and plenty of "But I'm Not Like That - Stop Stereotying!". Any more? (I could link to the gui…

I love how someone always hauls out that set of speech codes every time there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum, as if there's a "correct way" to participate in these discussions. You're not our proctor. If you want to let that absurd list of rules dictate how you discuss these issues then go ahead but please don't expect the rest us to follow suit. Hopefully the rest of HN doesn't subscribe to that kind of self-censorship.

Re: Racism at a gaming company

#310

Post by cantastoria »

pja wrote: post #276

Just as an exercise, I went and collected all the responses here that matched entries in Derailing for Dummies ( http://derailingfordummies.com ). We have at least: "You're too hostile", with a side order of "You're being Overemotional" and "You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry" plus a few "But that Happens to Me Too!" and plenty of "But I'm Not Like That - Stop Stereotying!". Any more? (I could link to the gui…

I love how someone always hauls out that set of speech codes every time there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum, as if there's a "correct way" to participate in these discussions. You're not our proctor. If you want to let that absurd list of rules dictate how you discuss these issues then go ahead but please don't expect the rest us to follow suit. Hopefully the rest of HN doesn't subscribe to that kind of self-censorship.
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