7 ms·
I'm a white guy. I'm a software engineer. I'm totally cool with hiring people who aren't white guys (assuming they can do the job.) It seems that Denise Youn
by cgore 9y ago
I'm a white guy. I'm a software engineer. I'm totally cool with hiring people who aren't white guys (assuming they can do the job.) It seems that Denise Young Smith understands that, but there's a weird fringe of the extreme left that only sees headcounts by color and gender, and only sees me as "a white guy", and only sees others as "an <enthnicity> <gender>", and it's sad that a black woman got fired for being reasonable instead of having a specific and idiotic political agenda.
- Overtonwindow 9y agoThe left, outside of Silicon Valley, sees you as the enemy, the instigator of racism, sexism, and any other isms they can apply. They want you replaced with people of color and women as fast as possible. Inside of Silicon Valley, you're seen as this benevolent majority, surely appreciative of diversity, eager to break up the white privilege, and promote justice for those left behind....someday, but not today. There's tremendous hypocrisy on the left both in and out of Silicon Valley.
- omegaworks 9y ago>They want you replaced with people of color and women as fast as possible. Stop spreading this white supremacist garbage. There is no "conspiracy to replace white people."
- sctb 9y agoYou can keep your moniker, but we ban accounts that use Hacker News primarily for ideological and political battle—regardless of which ideology. Please change this now. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- whichdan 9y ago"people who aren't white guys (assuming they can do the job.)" This sort of language is problematic and harmful in that it implies that "white guys" (not even white people, just men) by default can always "do the job," and that anyone outside of that group must be judged to some sort of different standard. It makes it challenging to talk about diversity when statements start off with racist and sexist undertones.
- fosk 9y agoOh come on, you know what he meant. This is getting to a point that even genuinely talking about it, and rightly so, risks backfiring at you because there’s always somebody willing to make 10 extra mental steps to find it offensive.
- ksk 9y agoIts really frustrating that peoples innocent statements are purposely twisted like this to suit personal agendas.
- whichdan 9y agoThey could have easily omitted the "assuming they can do the job" part without affecting the statement. There's a reason that it was added.
- tga 9y agoExactly, and the reason is the implied risk of unchecked "diversity" leading to hiring underqualified people just for the sake of boosting quotas.
- ksk 9y agoYour statements are needlessly accusatory, and increase rather than decrease friction. You could have said something like "Hey, I know you probably didn't mean it this way, but some people might read this into your statement. Do you see that too? What do you think?"
- jasode 9y agoTo use the fired Apple employees idea that diversity is multidimensional, you might have the following situations: Group 1: 1) white man (Democrat Stanford grad) 2) white woman (Democrat Stanford grad) 3) black man (Democrat Stanford grad) Group 2: 1) white man (Democrat Stanford grad) 2) white man (Libertarian Kansas kid self-taught) 3) white man (South Africa bootcamp grad) Depending on what's important, Group 2 would be seen as "more diverse and representative" even though the skin color is all the same. In that case, diversity of thought is valued more than diversity of skin color. If that was the idea that Denise Young Smith was trying to get across, that nuance got lost in the backlash.
- napa15 9y agoI honestly dont think anybody didnt understand what she meant, it's quite obvious. It's just that people are openly racist nowadays, looking only at skin color.
- omegaworks 9y ago* Why assume Group 2 has, or can produce, higher-valued thoughts? * Why are there only three seats at the table? Diversity and inclusion is about analyzing and addressing systemic assumptions and the arbitrary, exclusionary constraints we put on ourselves as an industry. Contrived hypothetical scenarios fail to frame the real problem because those contrived scenarios are exactly what good policies push back against.
- dictum 9y agoI don't see where the parent comment implies Group 2 is expected to produce "higher-valued" thoughts. Neither more diversity of thought between members of a group OR a single leaning, shared by all members of a group imply higher value.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- omegaworks 9y ago
- LordKano 9y agoI'm a black guy in tech. I have never had a problem in the industry solely because of my race. I have had personality conflicts that may have been exacerbated because of culture differences but it was the personality conflicts that were the root. Now, even I am being painted as "Not diverse enough" for the contingent of which you speak. Recently, I read this and it sums up where it's all heading next. https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/straight-black-men-are-the-white-people-of-black-people-1814157214 https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/straight-black-men-are-...
- bertomartin 9y agoI guess we all have different experiences
- dmschulman 9y agoapt point
- rocmcd 9y agoThanks for the link. That was an eye-opening read.