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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'

#261

Post by randompwd »

foogazi wrote: post #94
LudwigNagasena wrote: post #49

> I am a Guinean citizen, who went to French school in Saudi Arabia, and now lives in California. So he is not even African-American. I can’t understand why it is important to him how much people share skin color with him, he should feel as good as any other immigrant. Do even middle class Americans segregate themselves by race at work?

It is important to him because it’s important to the other non-PoC people that keep thinking he should not be in the room Re-read the interview anecdote: the interviewer, probably not having many black coworkers, thought that a black man would not be interviewing in tech Nothing to do with job qualification for the job

> Re-read the interview anecdote: the interviewer, probably not having many black coworkers, thought that a black man would not be interviewing in tech

How are we able to put words in the (non participating) interviewer's mouth?

If you're using the words 'probably' and 'thought' in one sentence, maybe your point isn't really valid. That's a lot of pre-supposing.

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

#262

Post by [deleted] »

ilaksh wrote: post #238

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 segmen…

[deleted]

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

#263

Post by _8j50 »

neonate wrote: post #248
_8j50 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really curious what your accent is like. Also, I think it depends on which megacorp but I seen a multi-billion revenue corp with a rough majority black IT staff. Also goes the other way I guess. All I can say is I hope your bank account looks great,at the end of the day that's what a job is for.

> Really curious what your accent is like. Why do you say that?

Cultural curiosity I suppose

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

#264

Post by unishark »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #27

The author hits on something really important. Many people who entered the field 10+ years ago are people who had computers as children. If you’re 30+ right now, that means your family had some means, because computers were very expensive up until pretty recently. Hopefully we’ll see the pipe really getting wide now, and many more people from many different backgrounds entering this excellent field.

I remember when the vic-20 price was cut to $99, and the commodore 64 wasn't much more.

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

#265

Post by komali2 »

nec4b wrote: post #242
komali2 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This alt-right trope that diversity and inclusion is modern racial segregation should have been DOA but I keep seeing it crop up even here. Frustrating. The ask is to become aware of and fight against your own unconscious biases, nothing more.

Oh the ctrl-left trope we are only fighting unconscious biases. Is fighting the unconscious biases like Don Quixote fighting the wind mills or more like repentance for the original sin your born with?

Do you disagree that society should be equitable regardless of race?

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

#266

Post by komali2 »

nec4b wrote: post #237
komali2 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You really should engage in good faith instead of combing through nearly all of my comments in this thread and shitting out drive by rhetorically fallacious comments.

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

#267

Post by komali2 »

zosima wrote: post #251
komali2 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thread is being lost - what exactly is the point you're trying to make?

That self-selection for living and organizing with kindred is something that also happens in the absence of extreme power disparity.

You've failed to provide evidence. All the examples we're discussing involve extreme power disparity.

That also doesn't necessarily mean that diversity = bad. It's easier to stay at home and watch Netflix than it is to travel to a foreign country and experience their culture, yet every time I do the latter, no matter how uncomfortable the trip can make me at times, I always come back grateful I did the trip, and imo a far better person.

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

#268

Post by datavirtue »

bJGVygG7MQVF8c wrote: post #99
nus07 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you . That was a very honest reply . As someone who is brown and worked for over a decade in Oregon - I used to be similar to the first guy in my 20s . I was laidback , felt in touch with the local culture and was easy to work with. All of that was great until I gained experience and did not get promotions and saw my white co-workers keep getting promoted to lead and managerial positions . This was despite me b…

This is useful to see, thanks for sharing. It mirrors my own experience. I came into this profession with a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and an open heart. Then I had a couple of experiences that triggered "The Great Noticing" in me. I haven't really been the same since, though I've tried to keep an open heart/mind and lean against the wariness that's come with experience. But mostly I try to stay away from SF, the PNW…

Everyone comes into the industry bubbly. The corporate grinder doesn't care what your skin color is. Most of the older people I have known are traumatized and very guarded through years of getting jerked around by office politics. Witnessing the toxic shit that happens in groups of white people of similar background I have always wondered what utopia people expected out of being "treated equal." Meritocracies and healthy teams are very rare.

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

#269

Post by datavirtue »

dafoex wrote: post #74
rootusrootus wrote: post #12

This seems like such a hard problem to really solve, since so much of what we consider racism, or at least borderline racism, has a significant basis in fundamental human thinking. I really feel for the guy, but it's hard to know where to start. I try really hard to ignore color, but I'm not immune to at least noticing . Then I try hard not to double-take. It's completely expected to meet Indians at the workplace, bu…

For the longest time I felt like I didn't notice race: yeah, if I looked it was there, and the town I grew up in and live in is pretty multicultural, so it wasn't a novel thing to see people of different colours. Sadly, as I've become more aware of the bitter division of race present in some people, I feel that I've not only become acutely aware of the races around me as if its something strange and unexpected, but I…

Yes, everyone feels like this. This has been happening on a much less acute level for decades in America. I have always felt it was a way to keep people divided--on purpose.

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

#270

Post by foogazi »

bryan_w wrote: post #146
Baeocystin wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accessible job stability and good benefits. The overall pay is lower than the private sector, but if you're looking for stable income first and foremost, working for the government is an excellent option. This stability will be particularly appealing for people who grew up in poverty. Source: My father worked for the government, and my grandfather was a working-class immigrant who started with nothing, so money was t…

Can confirm, I'm black, and growing up I would often hear my parents and aunts often say that the government jobs were the best because it was stable

Good point- I have seen that thrown around as a reason to enlist in the military (family benefits) or defense contractors (job security for 20 years!)
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