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‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

nytimes.com

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

#701

Post by RestlessMind »

whymauri wrote: post #592
RestlessMind wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not if they're black or brown, apparently. You are wrong, apparently. 4 out of 7 members of the exec team have last names indicating they are people of color. Check yourself: https://www.coinbase.com/about If the head of product and the head of engineering are brown people, I am very confident that CB is a great place to join for brown nerds since culture flows from the top.

Really missing the forests for the trees, here. It's clear that there are under-represented groups at CoinBase that are routinely discriminated. It is unthinkable to me for HN readers to defend that, but here we are regardless. Maybe I should have used the term 'under-represented minorities,' because I don't see a single black or latino person (admittedly, this is what I meant as 'brown' since I'm Hispanic).

> It is unthinkable to me for HN readers to defend that

> admittedly, this is what I meant as 'brown'

I mean, if you are going to use 'brown' to exclusively refer to latinos when half the world (or more?) is brown, then obviously you are going to sow confusion on forums like HN with participants across the globe.

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

#702

Post by LunaSea »

dragonwriter wrote: post #671
LunaSea wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, the company should investigate and have evidence, one way or the other, beyond just the complaint before any kind of final action, though there are some interim precautionary mitigations that are might be appropriate, often. No, the company isn't equipped for this and this is the role of the police and judicial system. > “Innocent until proven guilty” is a maxim of criminal law; a company treating potential har…

> No, the company isn't equipped for this and this is the role of the police and judicial system. It's literally not; sexual harassment is a civil, not criminal, offense. The police have no concern with it at all , except that some sexual harassment is also a crime (e.g., rape, solicitation of prostitution, etc.) But employers have legal liability for sexual harassment, which only gets more severe as it continues and…

> It's literally not; sexual harassment is a civil, not criminal, offense.

That's why I included the judicial system.

> But employers have legal liability for sexual harassment, which only gets more severe as it continues and they fail to act, whether or not there is a crime involved.

It happening is required to be based on a suite or investigation. Again, a company isn't equipped to proceed with such an investigation on it's own.

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

#703

Post by joijoiwejrr »

franga2000 wrote: post #692
joijoiwejrr wrote: post #687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> culture is strongly connected to race. In another context this statement would be seen as overtly racist.

See, that's the kind of thing I've never understood - how could it not be connected? Race has been historically mostly a geographic thing. You'd see Asian people in Asia, African people in Africa, etc. Anyone else had to have immigrated, or is the child of an immigrant however many generations ago. Culture is also very geographic. Immigrants tend to bring their culture with them (which is a good thing!) and parents u…

Eh, I'm not sure what point I was trying to make, and to be clear I don't think your comment was racist.

Culture is obviously correlated with race in some respects. It's when you start talking about the reason behind some of those correlations that you risk (rightly or wrongly) being called a racist.

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

#704

Post by [deleted] »

piva00 wrote: post #693
nickpp wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your comments keep repeating about stances of "no-politics", why does that attract you so much? Why is the status quo of politics so good that being apolitical looks to be something you prize?

[deleted]

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

#705

Post by o-__-o »

jonfromsf wrote: post #625
o-__-o wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an imposter! But friendly reminder that police are not your friends and you should not talk to the police unless it is absolutely necessary and even then stay tight lipped. Figure I’ll add a story about being black and driving a nice car. One day I had a flat tire and pulled into a gas station after hours to change the tire. I didn’t have a lug wrench and the kid working in the store didn’t have one either. So…

Hey sorry to derail from the larger point but I am super curious. Can you explain the registration thing to me? How does it help to be driving a car registered to someone else? I feel like that would make a cop more suspicious / be harder to explain.

It makes the cop look bad in court if you have to go to court. A cop should not pull you over just because you do not look like the owner of the car. Friends and family drive other people’s car all the time. But you are right that with a different name you are sometimes scrutinized by some cops.

In my case, my car is registered to a business. No one knows who is actually driving and it makes fishing for drivers much harder from the police perspective. Combine with a dark tint and you have some sense of privacy (even if it’s a false sense of security because cops can pull you over for something they thought happened)

I have stopping thinking of it as driving as a black man, but driving as someone who wants privacy (when I tinted my wife’s car first I felt like a celebrity because no one could tell who was in the car nor who I was :D )

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

#706

Post by o-__-o »

secondcoming wrote: post #472
o-__-o wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an imposter! But friendly reminder that police are not your friends and you should not talk to the police unless it is absolutely necessary and even then stay tight lipped. Figure I’ll add a story about being black and driving a nice car. One day I had a flat tire and pulled into a gas station after hours to change the tire. I didn’t have a lug wrench and the kid working in the store didn’t have one either. So…

So the white guy also had bad encounters with the police? Maybe they're just dicks to everyone?

Maybe! But intimidating me because you want to run my license is a shitty move regardless of race.

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

#707

Post by wpietri »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #683
wpietri wrote: post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well since you believe you understand what I'm saying better than I do, it seems like I'm not needed in this conversation. Have fun arguing with your straw man.

That's a pretty immature response, but I guess that's not surprising.

Well since you believe you understand what I'm saying better than I do, it seems like I'm not needed in this conversation. Have fun arguing with your straw man.

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

#708

Post by JacobSuperslav »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #458
username90 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

if you look at smaller companies, not Google, tech is incredibly not-diverse. especially when it comes to gender

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

#709

Post by JacobSuperslav »

heavyset_go wrote: post #422
xvector wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

people get very defensive when others say their opinion isn't valid.

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

#710

Post by loco5niner »

ALittleLight wrote: post #500
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.

Along with their co-workers wondering the same thing.
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