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‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

nytimes.com

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

#491

Post by [deleted] »

baryphonic wrote: post #488
tptacek wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you show me this list of racists you're referring to, with regards to this HN thread and the dangers of disputing the racism of Coinbase's management?

This is an odd sort of response. Shouldn't the people claiming that HN is chock full of racism be the ones enumerating exactly which users are engaging in racism and exactly what behaviors they're doing that promote racism? All I see are exceedingly vague accusations, most of which seem to operate from particularly uncharitable assumptions that equate any disagreement as another manifestation of racism. Ironically, t…

[deleted]

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

#492

Post by joshuamorton »

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…

Engaging with this as though it were made in good faith:

A white man might be threatened by a black man expressing their opinion for two reasons. First, the audacity of someone "inferior" daring to express their opinion assertively. That could be seen as threatening. Secondly (and probably more likely) the social conditioning that black people, but especially men, acting with anger are naturally dangerous. That is, someone may feel vastly more physically intimidated by a black man expressing the same opinion, with the same words, at the same volume level than a white woman.

Would a person complain to HR about that? Absolutely. Would HR respond? Depends on the company and the people.

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

#493

Post by tomjen3 »

klyrs wrote: post #439
commandlinefan wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you couldn't avoid taking a side on. Pretty sure there’s only one “side” anybody’s actually ever taken there.

You can't be saying that the country is completely unified over this issue... what do you mean by this?

Because everyone from the left to the Heritage Foundation condemned the murder.

What most don't condone is burning down buildings and attacking and harassing diners.

BLM is the ultimate motte and bailey.

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

#494

Post by throw98721 »

Racism won’t be a problem once color of the skin is no longer a point of the argument.

As long as people demand x/y hires to be of a certain race or color, the companies will have to continue hiring for diversity, and not for the best qualified candidates.

Stop counting who is who, and the market will take of itself.

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

#495

Post by glaive123 »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #447
wpietri wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Racism is endemic in the US. It was founded with the notion that black people were basically livestock. We've slowly and fitfully moved away from that, but the problem is far from over. With any company we should assume that both personal and systemic bias are present. Which is why well-run companies work to counter that.

Completely absurd. There is absolutely no evidence that "racism is endemic in the US". These kinds of blanket characterizations, are baseless fearmongering, and are incredibly irresponsible.

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

#496

Post by joshuamorton »

0xy wrote: post #396
jasonhansel wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone at Coinbase opposes racism. That is clearly false, given the evidence collected by the Times, which shows an extensive pattern of racist conduct.

Do you think 11 instances in a company of 1,394 employees shows an "extensive pattern"? We also don't know how many of those were even accurate or corroborated.

When it's 50% of the black employees, yeah. When discussing issues in crosstabs, you can't use the overall number as the denominator. That's bad statistics.

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

#497

Post by [deleted] »

nickpp wrote: post #463
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…

Let’s not forget that Coinbase took that no-politics stance while NYT is a company thriving on politics drama. Also, legacy media companies have an axe to grind with the high tech industry which lately is their direct competitor for ad money. Bottom line, New York Times is heavily biased and has zero credibility when it comes to their coverage of the high tech industry. This is a hit piece.

[deleted]

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

#498

Post by tomjen3 »

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…

This needs a name, but when you have a very small minority in a much larger group (women who are software engineers, black people in a white company or guys who work as childcare workers) you can see insane levels of hated against members of that group, even if most of the larger group goes out of their way to be friendly with the minority, because even a very small percent of the larger group that hates the minority can still be numerically larger than the entire group. Not to mention that one bad manager can cause trouble for numerous employees.

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

#499

Post by _iyig »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #157
goatinaboat wrote: post #108

“Most people of color working in tech know that there’s a diversity problem,” Interesting. Are Asians or Indians not “people” or “of color” in this worldview?

Newspeak makes a distinction between "poc" and "non black poc"

A new term I've seen used is "black & indigenous people of color" (BIPOC), which conspicuously leaves out Asians and is fuzzy on Hispanics.

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

#500

Post by ALittleLight »

bArray wrote: post #448

I've spoken to multiple people employed at tech companies that believe they were 'token' hires, I can summarize their thoughts as thinking the situation was "awful". Biased hiring practices are in quite a few cases hurting the people they aim to help.

I think that's one downside of targeting increased diversity. Diverse employees might wonder if they were hired for talent or for their identity.
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