‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase • Hacker News Board

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

#451

Post by tptacek » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:29 AM UTC

throwaway201103 wrote: post #413

tptacek wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several centuries worth of deeply ingrained racism?

OK but why is it perpetuated today? My contention would be that it is mostly popular entertainment, movies, music, and media that perpetuates this view of the aggressive black male. I have had little exposure to black people in my life. The few that I have encountered in school or professionally have not demonstrated any aggressive nature. I have no first-hand experience of aggression by any black man. My parents did…

You are making my point so well that I'm worried people are going to think you're a sockpuppet.

Obviously, my neighbor should not be called on to answer whatever sins you think the culture has incurred.

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

#452

Post by xikrib » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:30 AM UTC

kaitai wrote: post #322

blub wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When accusations of racism are being thrown around carelessly and people are having their reputations destroyed and lives turned upside down because of a single thing they (allegedly) said, the potential future targets of these accusations realize that the stakes just became much higher for them. So why would they support and enable those that might come for their own heads next? It's rational to be antagonistic in s…

I understand that people feel threatened by accusations of racism, but we should subject those feelings to the same scrutiny that fear of vaccines, fear of blood transfusions, fears of child kidnapping, fear of having our child trafficked for sex, and various fears of violence are subjected to. If we look at data, we find that many of our fears are not calibrated to probability of occurrence or even to the expected v…

I think you could have saved yourself some breath and shown a little sympathy for those who are getting hurt by racism. You can do better. We all can do better.

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

#453

Post by tptacek » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:30 AM UTC

eric_b wrote: post #415

tptacek wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same! For instance, it never occurred to me that Black men have to be especially careful about expressing frustration, because white coworkers find any expression of anger from a Black man threatening. But that's what my neighbor, who also works in tech, told me: that he's basically never allowed to object as forcefully as white coworkers, because otherwise he'll get HR complaints. There's probably a whole lot of shi…

The general thesis of the diversity trainings I've attended is that white men believe they are superior to black men (sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously, depending on the fervor of the trainer). White men are racist just by existing - being part of the "white patriarchy" gives them a sense of entitlement and many advantages, whether they are aware or not. So let's say for the sake of argument all that is…

If you're just going to say "you're a liar", why waste so many words?

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

#454

Post by enumjorge » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:30 AM UTC

bra-ket wrote: post #421

sonotathrowaway wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

Neither the parent nor the GP said anything about Coinbase violating laws. I’m not sure how the legality of their actions is relevant to the discussion.

I don’t think employees recounting their personal experiences while at the company is rumors or hearsay. And the article mentioned many of them had to sign an NDA in exchange for a severance package so I don’t think “reparations” are the goal.

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

#455

Post by bleepblorp » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:31 AM UTC

throwaway201103 wrote: post #363

tptacek wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same! For instance, it never occurred to me that Black men have to be especially careful about expressing frustration, because white coworkers find any expression of anger from a Black man threatening. But that's what my neighbor, who also works in tech, told me: that he's basically never allowed to object as forcefully as white coworkers, because otherwise he'll get HR complaints. There's probably a whole lot of shi…

And why does this stereotype of aggressive black men persist? Who promotes it?

News media. See e.g.:

https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/news-media/r...

for more information.

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

#456

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:31 AM UTC

CryptoPunk wrote: post #450

i-write-comment wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

"The Hennepin County medical examiner said that Floyd bloodwork showed a “fatal level of fentanyl,” according to court documents, but he didn’t say this killed him." Seems a bit pedantic and disingenuous to say that the examiner didn't attribute the death to an overdose, without providing the above context. I'm not here to defend the knee-on-the-neck arrest of a handcuffed suspect, but the evidence as it stands holds…

[deleted]

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

#457

Post by xrd » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:33 AM UTC

After reading this, I then wanted to reread the response from Coinbase.

It feels very unfortunate that Coinbase's response on Medium has turned off commenting. There is no way to ask questions such as what is the third party firm that investigated and are those results public.

It is funny that Coinbase says we talked to our ColorBlock ERG (the internal diversity group) to hear their comments and questions. Then, the very next sentence says Brian told them what he thinks, but nothing about what they think or had questions about.

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

#458

Post by CryptoPunk » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:33 AM UTC

username90 wrote: post #164

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…

The cynical view is that you can either kick out your racists or those who complains about racists. And given how "diverse" tech is I wouldn't be surprised if the company would have a bigger problem if the racists left instead of the black people.

Tech is incredibly diverse.. The racial representation in tech is roughly proportional to the racial representation in Computer Science. i.e. it's not racism that is keeping black Americans out of tech, and suggesting otherwise with zero evidence beyond the observed racial disparity is extremely irresponsible.

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

#459

Post by bra-ket » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:33 AM UTC

enumjorge wrote: post #454

bra-ket wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

Neither the parent nor the GP said anything about Coinbase violating laws. I’m not sure how the legality of their actions is relevant to the discussion. I don’t think employees recounting their personal experiences while at the company is rumors or hearsay. And the article mentioned many of them had to sign an NDA in exchange for a severance package so I don’t think “reparations” are the goal.

if the legality is not questioned so what are we talking about?

Public shaming? Making the world a better place via baseless accusations and media witch-hunt?

Coinbase is pre-IPO, considering early 2021 public debut.

This case stinks of extortion of settlement money via very well timed smear campaign.

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

#460

Post by i-write-comment » Sat, Nov 28, 2020, 4:34 AM UTC

CryptoPunk wrote: post #450

i-write-comment wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

"The Hennepin County medical examiner said that Floyd bloodwork showed a “fatal level of fentanyl,” according to court documents, but he didn’t say this killed him." Seems a bit pedantic and disingenuous to say that the examiner didn't attribute the death to an overdose, without providing the above context. I'm not here to defend the knee-on-the-neck arrest of a handcuffed suspect, but the evidence as it stands holds…

Actually I think what the other poster did is disingenuous, which was to repeat a (false) claim that Floyd died from an OD, and not mention the fact that the medical examiner conclusively ruled he died from a heart attack caused by suffocation, and ruled the manner of death a homicide.