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‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

nytimes.com

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

#421

Post by bra-ket »

sonotathrowaway wrote: post #23
NelsonMinar wrote: post #20

11 of then ~20 Black employees by early 2019* had complained to HR about racism. That's over half! And that's only the people with the fortitude or optimism to talk to HR (HR is notoriously useless at many companies). That's a complete disaster. 15 of that 20 quit! Why wasn't that treated as an emergency? *At the end the article says at the end of 2019 there's 31 Black employees of 1000. At the beginning of the artic…

It was treated as a disaster - they labeled the leavers as “political” and announced they instituted policies to prevent future “political” employees.

It's a private company, they can do whatever they want as long as it doesn't violate the law.

And if there is a legal case against them the accuser has the burden of proof and due process.

All I see from this article is a bunch of hearsay & rumors. It looks like a smear campaign to get some quick 'reparations' by riding a popular trend.

We have this thing in the US called presumption of innocence, but apparently in case of racism accusations you're guilty as soon as proclaimed guilty by the media.

Coinbase legal team should definitely sue NYT and this 'team' of accusers for libel & slander. The hysteria is getting ridiculous.

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

#422

Post by heavyset_go »

xvector wrote: post #398
aspaceman wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But no one is being forcibly shut down here. The debate is happening. It occurs. But then someone makes a comment like above: “is all this debate really necessary?” and the response is “this is censorship”. I would agree that some viewpoints are silenced in public contexts. But insofar as this conversation, I don’t see anyone being cancelled or shut down for an opinion. That just seems like a defensive reaction to me…

> But no one is being forcibly shut down here But they are. If you are skeptical of the claims in the article, then apparently you have taken a “depressing” (incorrect/intolerant) stance.

Sounds like you're upset that people are allowed to have opinions about your opinions, which would be pretty ironic.

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

#423

Post by eric_b »

Why is this on the front page of HN? Coinbase has issued a rebuttal refuting this article. (the refutation is not on the front page, I note) There is no reasonable way for anyone to discern who is "right" in this particular argument based on the data presented.

People who see systemic racism everywhere will undoubtedly side with the NYT plaintiffs. People who are skeptical of the social justice narrative being shoe-horned in to every possible corner will side with Coinbase.

The "white patriarchy" will be called out and there will be tptacek and others falling on their white male swords to gain some woke cred and signal their purity.

Let's stop reading and commenting on this kind of article eh?

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

#424

Post by shadow28 »

TACIXAT wrote: post #331
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should any company or board reflect the population?

When companies do not reflect the population then it shows that some races do not have the same opportunity as others.

Yes, but that's not at the hiring level but at education level. You can't expect every single tech company to be representative of the population since there simply aren't that many female/black/whatever engineers

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

#425

Post by unityByFreedom »

throwmylifawy wrote: post #214

Reading through the comments as black person is depressing. Many of the comments question whether the accusations are even true or collusive attack because of an unfounded accusation that black people tend to be SJWs (stereotyping). Others blame affirmative-action, bad schools, etc. (classic misdirection). Some even venture into the possibility that a black person complaining about being passed over for promotion mig…

My takeaway from such comments is their perception that it is not a problem for them.

And, they are in denial, since if it wasn't a problem for them they would not question the story.

Sharing stories does help. Racism is rooted in lack of exposure to diversity. It may never be eradicated but working to end it among every new generation is worthwhile IMO.

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

#426

Post by akhleung »

tomp wrote: post #360
mattmanser wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is exactly what he said, laid out in argument form: Premise 1: Tech companies are often accused of racism (any, not coinbase, neither of us mentioned coinbase) Premise 2: Tech companies often contain a much larger % of Asians, a minority Premise 3: (implied) having a disproportionate % of any one minority makes you non-racist Conclusion: Therefore Tech companies are not racist The conclusion does not follow…

> You can be racist about other minorities even while enthusiastically supporting one minority group How do you in your mind construct a person with this kind of mindset? Historically, a lot of "racism" or other kinds of ethnic "othering" hatred was between very similar ethnicities - e.g. Nazis and Jews, or Japanese & Chinese & Korean. Even nowadays the "racist" far factions in the US are "white supremacist", and dis…

I think you might be overlooking the fact that bias comes in different forms against different groups. E.g., a hypothetical racist might be comfortable around Asians because he thinks they're subservient and weak, whereas he might be uncomfortable around black people because he thinks they're angry and violent. If this hypothetical racist ran a company, it's plausible he'd hire Asians, but not hire black people at all.

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

#427

Post by commandlinefan »

adjkant wrote: post #258
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there other non-crypto political stances Coinbase has taken? It seems to me that this was just the first time they needed such a policy. I certainly wouldn't have anticipated the possibility of a new political slogan that almost every major company is forced to chant.

Many companies regularly work within mainstream political action such as LGTBQ+ rights, data privacy, homelessness, local housing or public works, and children's orgs such as Big Brother Big Sister. While these vary in controversiality, relevancy, and apolitical nature, it's not at all uncommon to see companies working in these areas (and others unlisted). Often companies grow into them along with size and profits, s…

> you couldn't avoid taking a side on.

Pretty sure there’s only one “side” anybody’s actually ever taken there.

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

#428

Post by tetrometal »

jasonhansel wrote: post #225
roenxi wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The NYT has long been complicit in promoting the divisive and racist woke/CRT cult. I can't imagine either side of this genuinely believes they are an impartial party.

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

#429

Post by unityByFreedom »

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?

A number of details were missing, including,

> 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 accumulation of incidents, they said, led to the wave of departures.

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

#430

Post by i-write-comment »

2-tpg wrote: post #408
i-write-comment wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very odd how people who openly express deeply-racist sentiments (as your previous comment repeating lies about George Floyd does) get so offended when accused of being racist.

What lies? > Floyd was a career criminal unworthy of sainthood or role modeling. Floyd was arrested for a home invasion, where a 1-year-old baby was present, and he threatened a woman to tell her where the money and drugs was hidden, by pressing a gun to her stomach. After that he was arrested and processed 8 times for crimes related to drugs and theft. The day of his arrest he tried to pay with a counterfeit bill. A…

> At least give me a "fair" trial: Show me where I lied

Just one example: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/25/blog-posti...

> As evidence, it cites comments from Andrew Baker, the chief medical examiner in Hennepin County, who performed an autopsy on Floyd. But Baker didn’t say that Floyd died of a drug overdose.

> The medical examiner’s office ruled that the manner of Floyd’s death was homicide.

> The cause of death, according to the medical examiner, was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression."

You realize that his murder was caught on video right? Tens of millions of people saw it. And for the crime of trying to pass a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. If you've ever exceeded the speeding limit while driving, you have performed an act which posed more of a threat to society and danger to others than the act of passing a counterfeit bill.

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