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Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#231

Post by neonate »

komali2 wrote: post #138
oa335 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment. I'm not blakc, but I agree that reading some of these comments is quite depressing and proves that we have a long way to go on race issues in tech.

I'm frustrated that my comments promoting allyship are being downvoted to oblivion elsewhere in the thread. How can people be reading these experiences and not grasp the truth of this reality? I have people claiming that POC is a non-existent concept. It's madness.

It might simply be that "comments promoting allyship" are off-putting. They very easily become preachy, and if it feels like a third party inserting themselves and telling me what to think, I get irritated. The comments by the black programmers in this thread are a million times more interesting. Sometimes I feel like all the loudest voices in this debate are white and that just has to be wrong.

I don't mean this to make an argument, I just heard you about feeling frustrated and wanted to offer a possible explanation.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#232

Post by AlexTWithBeard »

solzhenitsyn wrote: post #182
darkerside wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for speaking up. I don't know how to fix any of this, but I do know that we need to value each other's experiences, and that can't happen without us sharing them for what they are. Hard as it is for you, and easy as it is to say for me, I do believe your uncomfortable experiences are changing things for the better. Every VC that hurries out of a room may not have invested in your company, but you just pushed a…

Do you want equal opportunities or equal outcomes? One does not beget the other.

We generally want equal opportunities, but alas that sometimes produces unacceptable outcomes.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#233

Post by AlexTWithBeard »

tartoran wrote: post #205
octaveguin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that horribly patronizing? I'd feel offended if someone treated me with kid gloves based on my skin color.

> Isn't that horribly patronizing? Not a racist but am torn between ignoring race - wr’re all people stance - and the behaviour described as patronizing. My conclusion is that nobody has a clue how to deal with this mess. We need to have some sort of clear guidelines on what is best tto do in these cases without offending nor patronizing. Im an Eastern European immigrant to the US and in my US education it has been d…

I think the idea is that you should ignore the race, but doing that requires effort and awareness.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#234

Post by historyremade »

toochini wrote: post #85
octaveguin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that horribly patronizing? I'd feel offended if someone treated me with kid gloves based on my skin color.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gFP4dJHJXoI Couldn’t find the whole thing, but I agree it seems constantly talking about race leads to more racism and not less. Seems so opposed to the civil right movement stance against segregation.

Off-topic. The same for drugs..

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#235

Post by historyremade »

forgot_user1234 wrote: post #148

I am really curious about brown people. How come Indians succeed in tech? Why do we have so many Indians in tech? if it's just the skin colour. Why do Indians in tech rise to the top. P.S. - Before you try to cancel me - I am not trying to start a flame war. I am curious about your explanation.

I always had bad experiences with Indians. It's like they do it for fame. Most Indians end up scamming me out. That's another topic.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#236

Post by austhrow743 »

zerr wrote: post #196
jeffrallen wrote: post #163

I'd hire either of you, if you kick ass on the take home challenge. Work and teamwork matters. Everything else has no place in the work place.

You don't ask the first meal for free when you go to the restaurant, do you?

If I was looking to drop hundreds of thousands on a catering company, when the relationship could net them millions and millions over the future years, hell yes I'd expect samples to be part of the sales process.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#237

Post by nec4b »

komali2 wrote: post #213
bJGVygG7MQVF8c wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Allyship for POC doesn't imply bias against white people. Sure, in theory. In practice, bias against whites exists, some of it catalyzed by woke ideology. (By woke logic) White-presenting people are really the only ones with standing to speak to such bias in their own lives. > Well, anyone that isn't in a white hood, anyway. Ah yes, the IRL downvote: call someone a racist / Nazi / fascist / Klansman.

Where did I call anyone a klansman? I'm saying you can bring up the oppressed minority populations without putting anyone else down, with the explicit exception of people who are punished by society for their hateful ideology. > bias against whites exists Not in any meaningful way, especially when compared to the experience of POC in America. > some of it catalyzed by woke ideology. Sometimes racists lose their jobs.…

You really should try to travel and visit places out of your comfort zone to see how other people live, before dismissing their hardships.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#238

Post by ilaksh »

My personal take is that there is still a massive global problem with racism and more generally prejudice that reinforces social inequality. I actually think it is not just a problem for black people (although this is a primary example, and I do not mean to say that all prejudicial treatment is equivalent) but for many different groups. For example, my fairly poorly informed understanding is that in some large segments of Chinese population racism against all other groups is very popular. And also for example Han versus non-Han, although that may be more of an ethnic distinction, which to me is a flavor of the same.

Or for example there seems to be a very strong stereotype for Americans as being lazy, unintelligent, and gun-toting. So I guess these are not all the same concept, but different types of prejudice.

It feels like a fairly monumental task to reduce prejudice and the inequalities that it reinforces.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#239

Post by anonytrary »

UncleMeat wrote: post #188
anonytrary wrote: post #179

> Black people make up 13% of the US population, we are naturally in the minority. But in the tech workforce, we are missing. Among the top eight largest tech companies in the land, black people account for only 3.1% of the workforce. I think the right metric to look at is the "percentage of black people who have the necessary degrees or equivalent qualifications". You can't blame companies for the problem if the dis…

Do you know what school graduates more black cs graduates than any other. Georgia tech. How many major tech companies have serious hubs in Atlanta? Some of them, but certainly not all. People don’t like to move. A nontrivial amount of the pipeline problem can be addressed by opening offices in the southeast.

If the best talent or opportunity isn't in the southeast, then companies won't go there, so I think it's not as simple as "just open your office in the southeast". Companies are distributed closer to their relevant hubs. Like you said, people don't want to move, especially if it means taking loss in efficacy.

Re: Viewpoint: 'I feel like I was accidentally hired'

#240

Post by forgot_user1234 »

dang wrote: post #229
forgot_user1234 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve been passed up for promotions, fired, and hired based solely on my color "solely". It's easy to pin point a problem on others. This might come in handy - https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1276956836856393728?s=20

It's also easy to be dismissive on the internet. Please don't do that here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Disclaimer - english is not my first language

Hey dang,

I am curious. what could I have done better?

if OP said he is suffering "solely" because of his colour and I think, its borderline impossible to pin point a result of large complex system on any one thing?

P.S. - do people flag my comments or did you just see it on your own.

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