3 ms·

Is there any evidence of discrimination in this story? While it's certainly tragic, I think it's very hard to separate what is sexist (or, aside from the one co

by joelg 11y ago

Is there any evidence of discrimination in this story? While it's certainly tragic, I think it's very hard to separate what is sexist (or, aside from the one comment, racist) from what is just people being generally terrible. It seemed only implicit that the author's gender or race had anything to do with her treatment at work. Or maybe I'm missing something. How was this discrimination?

noobermin 11y ago
I think that's the main issue here. One plausible explanation for how little of opportunity was afforded her is that she just really wasn't that good of a supervisor (which begs the question, why didn't they fire her?). Still, what here is "discrimination" and what is people just not liking her perhaps? It's very hard to tell. Regardless of whether racism plays a roll, squarespace doesn't sound like a fun place to work as a supervisor.
slantedview 11y ago
"aside from the one comment" "How was this discrimination?" You mean, aside from the discrimination, how was this discrimination?
- cpncrunch 11y ago
  I'm not sure how commenting on the colour of a person's skin is discrimination. Perhaps unwise to say someone "blends in with the chair", but I don't think it was racism and more than saying "when I was driving I didn't see you because you were wearing a dark jacket and it was dark outside". The issue is that Amelie interpreted the comment as "you're black, and therefore you're worthless/invisible". That's not an unreasonable assumption. The main problem IMO seems to be that Kelly is a bit of an asshole/bitch, with zero empathy. Any reasonable person either would have thought twice about making that comment, or would have apologised and explained that she didn't mean that. It just looks like a typical company with dysfunctional management/HR rather than any kind of discrimination.

3 ms·

Is there any evidence of discrimination in this story? While it's certainly tragic, I think it's very hard to separate what is sexist (or, aside from the one co

by joelg 11y ago

noobermin 11y ago
I think that's the main issue here. One plausible explanation for how little of opportunity was afforded her is that she just really wasn't that good of a supervisor (which begs the question, why didn't they fire her?). Still, what here is "discrimination" and what is people just not liking her perhaps? It's very hard to tell. Regardless of whether racism plays a roll, squarespace doesn't sound like a fun place to work as a supervisor.
slantedview 11y ago
"aside from the one comment" "How was this discrimination?" You mean, aside from the discrimination, how was this discrimination?
- cpncrunch 11y ago
  I'm not sure how commenting on the colour of a person's skin is discrimination. Perhaps unwise to say someone "blends in with the chair", but I don't think it was racism and more than saying "when I was driving I didn't see you because you were wearing a dark jacket and it was dark outside". The issue is that Amelie interpreted the comment as "you're black, and therefore you're worthless/invisible". That's not an unreasonable assumption. The main problem IMO seems to be that Kelly is a bit of an asshole/bitch, with zero empathy. Any reasonable person either would have thought twice about making that comment, or would have apologised and explained that she didn't mean that. It just looks like a typical company with dysfunctional management/HR rather than any kind of discrimination.