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‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

nytimes.com

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Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#221

Post by zo1 »

bra-ket wrote: post #208
KirinDave wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a San Francisco denizen says to you, "I stepped in human poop" you don't say, "Pics or it didn't happen." That's becuse it's a common occurrence. It's plausible it happened. The same is true of racism in Silicon Valley and the adjoint areas. Being less racist is actually the unusual condition that requires proof.

>Being less racist is actually the unusual condition that requires proof are you for real?

They are real, and they've been multiplying in numbers for decades now because people are too-afraid to call them out in public.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#222

Post by tptacek »

roenxi wrote: post #191
xenadu02 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've never done this sort of thing before: there's a huge market for these "external consultants". Their unstated job (and reputations) are as whitewashing firms. You hire them to ensure there is "no evidence" of anything done wrong. The primary purpose is to create a credible defense in lawsuits but PR purposes are also common. Firms that find problems suddenly see their business dry up because most companies d…

To repeat the grandparent, what else can they do? Many of the "issues" bought up in this article aren't even problematic. It says John Russ left because Armstrong took public stance that he wanted Coinbase to focus on crypto space stuff. Coinbase's stance there is fair, reasonable and moral. It is desirable that some companies just do what it says on the tin. If Russ had a reason for quitting that was race-related th…

For starters, they can publish the results of the external investigation they paid for, which is something other companies in similar situations have done. Then we can assess the credibility of that report. This seems pretty basic, so it's surprising to see people asking "what else can Coinbase do?".

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#223

Post by nshepperd »

Pfhreak wrote: post #219
nshepperd wrote: post #184

It's interesting how spot-on Coinbase's 'prebuttal' was ( https://blog.coinbase.com/upcoming-story-about-coinbase-2012... ). There's very little in the NYT article that isn't mentioned. The only point of inaccuracy seems to be that the story was published on Friday morning, the day right after the prebuttal, not Sunday as originally suggested. Maybe the prebuttal forced NYT's hand?

The rebuttal said "in print Sunday" and online sometime before.

Oh, you're right, I misread that part.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#224

Post by tptacek »

2-tpg wrote: post #179
pvg wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT didn't title their piece 'Coinbase is racist'. It's reporting on 'lots of Coinbase's black employees feel the company handles race and diversity issues poorly'. The reporting looks into that and, well, reports on why the employees think that. The 'other side' of this is a Coinbase blogpost that says 'we hired a consultant who told us we don't have such problems'. You are certainly free to decide which of thes…

The article was written as if the hook/angle for the article was created after the No-Politics-Policy, then filled in by contacting former and current employees. I don't think a report with "Coinbase gets lots of unfair flak, but tries really hard to be inclusive" article would be published, or even could have been written with the selection of sources. That's like scientists finding a negative result, and not gettin…

An anonymous Coinbase employee upthread has claimed that the "no politics" rule was in place before 2020.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#225

Post by jasonhansel »

roenxi wrote: post #202
jasonhansel wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's pretty clear that one's moral duty to oppose racism far outweighs one's fiduciary duty to investors.

Everyone at Coinbase opposes racism. They just disagree with noisy activists about how.

> Everyone at Coinbase opposes racism.

That is clearly false, given the evidence collected by the Times, which shows an extensive pattern of racist conduct.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#226

Post by roenxi »

chris11 wrote: post #220
roenxi wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To repeat the grandparent, what else can they do? Many of the "issues" bought up in this article aren't even problematic. It says John Russ left because Armstrong took public stance that he wanted Coinbase to focus on crypto space stuff. Coinbase's stance there is fair, reasonable and moral. It is desirable that some companies just do what it says on the tin. If Russ had a reason for quitting that was race-related th…

> Armstrong took public stance that he wanted Coinbase to focus on crypto space stuff. I don't think that he would have taken that public stance if he didn't feel that the company was being distracted internally by racial justice issues. It being a fair response is highly dependent on those internal conversations. And the NY Times reports that prior to this conversation there was a public meeting where Black employee…

Well, I don't know what is going on in Coinbase. But the NYT has in the past overplayed the race card with no evidence.

Now I'm happy to agree that the retention rate of black people at Coinbase raises some questions. But the NYT, having asked those questions, came up with no particular evidence of racism.

The major piece of evidence that these issues are substantially due to race is that the NYT felt it warranted a hit piece. That is weak evidence. Being passed over for promotion and feeling unappreciated - which they lead with - isn't evidence. Most of us have been passed over for promotion plenty of times. Most people are unappreciated too.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#227

Post by worker767424 »

oh_sigh wrote: post #56
chandra381 wrote: post #6

> One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun, trading on racist stereotypes. Another said a co-worker at a recruiting meeting broadly described Black employees as less capable. Still another said managers spoke down to her and her Black colleagues, adding that they were passed over for promotions in favor of less experienced white employees. The…

So do you believe that all the white employees just laughed about this? Did any of them corroborate the allegations? I work at a FAANG and a massive percentage of employees are rabidly anti-racist, and wouldn't stand for anything like that. Are coinbase employees just cut from a different cloth?

> I work at a FAANG and a massive percentage of employees are rabidly anti-racist, and wouldn't stand for anything like that.

I get nervous when I make a comment about Zoom being insecure because it's Chinese around Chinese coworkers, and I can at least point to its bad track record on security and how Five Eyes members are treating Huawei.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#228

Post by notsureaboutpg »

cblconfederate wrote: post #210

Eagerly anticipated and Streisandeffected piece but i got rather bored. I hope i won't be disappointed by the ensuing drama at least. In other news, What is a crypto company even doing in SV?

Coinbase took a stand against quotas and "anti-racist" "woke" dogma (not actually being against racism but the "anti-racism"™ that best-selling authors peddle to suburbanites) and now surprise surprise they're being attacked in the press by the arbiters of the very ideas they stood up against.

Not surprised

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#229

Post by roenxi »

tptacek wrote: post #222
roenxi wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To repeat the grandparent, what else can they do? Many of the "issues" bought up in this article aren't even problematic. It says John Russ left because Armstrong took public stance that he wanted Coinbase to focus on crypto space stuff. Coinbase's stance there is fair, reasonable and moral. It is desirable that some companies just do what it says on the tin. If Russ had a reason for quitting that was race-related th…

For starters, they can publish the results of the external investigation they paid for, which is something other companies in similar situations have done. Then we can assess the credibility of that report. This seems pretty basic, so it's surprising to see people asking "what else can Coinbase do?".

That would probably violate privacy. It is unclear to me whether they can do that.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#230

Post by notsureaboutpg »

snicksnak wrote: post #17

This piece paints coinbase as a company with racist tendencies and a hostile place to work for black people. Based on the evidence or lack there of provided the article and after reading coinbase's rebuttal, I must say this NYT piece feels like an attempt to bully coinbase/armstrong into reverting its/his stance on engagement in issues unrelated to coinbase core mission and into submission to the cause.

That's exactly what it is and sensible people know but are too afraid to tell their colleagues / friends. Say what you will but this is true.
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