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My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and runni

My dad literally went from putting the chips in the boxes when he was 23 years old, to overseeing the construction of a brand new manufacturing plant (and running it), to managing scores of plants at HQ in his 40's. Frito-Lay however, is not immune from boneheaded decisions. After 20someodd years of employment, and a trophy case full of awards, he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of creating a more 'diverse' management roster. Lacking the experience of those whose positions they took, performance tanked with the new management team, and the person who set it all in motion was fired. At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender.

tylerhou 7y ago
> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender. Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people. EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.
- throwawaycanuck 7y ago
  >Latinx There is no faster way to discredit your argument than using absurd language like latinx. I've yet to meet a latino person who referred to themselves as anything else.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    I find the obsession with nitpicking language on part of the ideological spectrum to be a little absurd too, but FWIW I've met quite a few latino/latinx people who identify as Latinx. Though that probably has to do with the extent that I've been steeped in a pretty intense ideological bubble for a very long time at this point (I moved to the Bay in college, before these kind of Bay Area norms around language started to spread so widely)
  - uponcoffee 7y ago
    You seem to be the one that is out of touch: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinx https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinx
    - RandomBacon 7y ago
      I think this arguement about words is stupid. It doesn't matter which one of you is right or wrong. For what it's worth, I live in Houston (4th largest US city that has an enormous Latin American representation), and I have never heard the term "Latinx" before. Though now if I do, I now know what it means thanks to Hacker News.
    - AbrahamParangi 7y ago
      Cursory look at google trends suggest that latinx is a relatively uncommon term and that the term latino is approx. 30x more popular (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=latino,latinx https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=latino,lat...).
      - lanewinfield 7y ago
        Do you want to compare other words that used to be popular but are now offensive? Not to say "Latino" is offensive, but your argument doesn't really hold water.
        AbrahamParangi 7y ago
        I'm supplying facts which support the view of reality in which "latino" is common and "latinx" is uncommon, not making an argument that people should act one way or another.
    - notatoad 7y ago
      "The term is a neologism that has gained traction among advocacy groups intersectionally combining the identity politics of race and gender" I'm not quite sure that being not being up-to-date on the terminology favoured by advocacy groups intersectionally combining the identity politics of race and gender counts as "out of touch"
  - g_sch 7y ago
    I'm interested (and somewhat taken aback) by the intensity of the reactions to this term. Maybe it's a generational/political thing? For my part, I know significantly more people who refer to themselves as "Latinx" than "Latino".
    - malvosenior 7y ago
      People don't like it because it's a political term that doesn't exist for any reason other than to make a political statement. It's a modification of language around the core identity of a group of people, people who did not advocate for the term's usage and still resist it.
    - eloff 7y ago
      Fwiw I lived ten years in Latin America, married a Latina, and have never even heard the term Latinx before. It's probably not common in Latin America.
      - friedman23 7y ago
        The term was created by white people.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
        ribosometronome 7y ago
        Interesting! What were their names? Were those white people also of Latin American origin?
    - eindiran 7y ago
      "Latinx" is more-or-less a rounding error compared to "Latino"/"Latina"[1], so having people insist that the far more common terms are incorrect (for a political reason) is what is driving the intensity of the reaction. I'm not saying the reaction is right or wrong, but afaict that's the reason people respond the way they do. If you know significantly more people who refer to themselves as "Latinx", I'd wager that you probably live in the ideological bubble surrounding a fairly liberal American city, but there is certainly a generational component: the term is much more commonly used by American Millenials than by anyone else. [1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=latinx,latino,latina https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=latinx,latino,lat...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    I have only ever heard the term Latinx used in the context of the Latino/Latina LGBT community. Vida, (a show about gentrification and lesbians in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of LA) markets itself as a Latinx show, not as a Hispanic show, though the showrunner identifies as Latina...
  - mlevental 7y ago
    "I've never seen it therefore it must be fake" rolls eyes https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/latinx?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/latinx?lang=en
    - bussierem 7y ago
      The top 2 tweets as of my comment are tweets that say "Latinx" and link to sources that say "Latino". I feel like maybe the points above that mention how "latinx" is the correct term according to people that _aren't_ Latino are probably correct.
      - mlevental 7y ago
        The top tweet is from a Hispanic woman, third is from a Latin American organization, so is the fourth. Keep scrolling and there are even more Hispanic people using it. Maybe discovering the answer to this question requires more than just one screen's worth of research
  - coupdejarnac 7y ago
    Is this a West coast thing? I have never heard latinx, and I spend a significant amount of time with my Latino soccer buddies. Perhaps it's because they are all first generation and not super interested in being PC.
- rosterface 7y ago
  My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.
  - mandelbrotwurst 7y ago
    why is it considered racist? I can think of some arguments against the term but am having a hard time figuring that one out. Maybe because they perceive it as having been coined by people from outside their group and/or changing the topic to focus on gender > racial justice?
    - rosterface 7y ago
      Yes, that’s why they consider it racist. For the most part it’s a term from white academia. I don’t think anyone really wants to be told that the words they’ve used to describe themselves for generations must be changed, especially by people from another ethnicity all together.
      - keerthiko 7y ago
        Thanks for this interesting data point. Would you/they prefer to just be called latino? Is this common sentiment among Mexicans outside of your family? I can see latinx only being preferred by non-gender-conforming individuals to whom it applies, as opposed to when referring to individuals rather than to communities (families, neighborhoods, food, etc).
        rosterface 7y ago
        I think more specific is always better. I’m of Mexican descent, I prefer to keep that identity. I’ve actually noticed people in the US sometimes struggle to say that as if being “Mexican” is a bad thing; it’s not, don’t be afraid of the term. Latino and Latina are also fine. Hispanic as well although that has a slightly different meaning. I think it’s best to call people by the terms that they use themselves. Foisting a new term on someone to describe their ethnicity doesn’t seem like it would ever be a good idea.
- dmix 7y ago
  What does firing people for being white and male have to do with Mexican janitors becoming inventors?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- manigandham 7y ago
  Diversity of what exactly? None of those physical qualities have anything to do with your talents, motivations, passions, interests, and ability to actually do the job. A wide range of backgrounds, opinions, and thought processes is good and what everyone wants, but forcing diversity based on people's unchangeable physical attributes is nothing but injustice masquerading as morality.
toiletfuneral 7y ago
How come you conclude the issue was inexperience & bad management but made sure to frame it as women & poc vs. white men? Not a super cool way to add to discourse.
bduerst 7y ago
> he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of creating a more 'diverse' management roster. No disrespect is intended with this question, but are you sure that was the real reason? I've seen people get laid off before search for reasons why they specifically were singled out, and come up with some pretty biased excuses for themselves when it was really something fairly mundane. Even when their replacements turned out to be incompetent.
- cycrutchfield 7y ago
  It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.
  - mruts 7y ago
    You actually think that’s how the world works?
  - vageli 7y ago
    > It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Does that mean that people who don't report abuse aren't victims? I struggle to see the logic behind this statement.
  - shearskill 7y ago
    This post about Cheetos seems to have attracted a lot of complaints about imaginary leftists and ideological bubbles. Very odd.
    - rchaud 7y ago
      Not odd so much as remarkable. How does a story about a minority janitor who started at the literal bottom, get turned into a grievance thread about the damage done by "diversity hiring" policies?
paulcole 7y ago
Maybe your dad just wasn’t as good at his job anymore and wanted to blame minorities for it? Probably unlikely because I don’t think anything like this has ever happened in America before, but I guess it is a remote possibility.

tylerhou 7y ago

> At the end of the day, revenue-per-share is pretty indifferent to age, race, or gender. Except, as the article shows, diversity often does increase revenue share. Flamin' hot cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant who realized that Frito-Lay didn't have any products which appealed to Latino people. EDIT: Changed Latinx to Latino.

throwawaycanuck 7y ago
>Latinx There is no faster way to discredit your argument than using absurd language like latinx. I've yet to meet a latino person who referred to themselves as anything else.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  I find the obsession with nitpicking language on part of the ideological spectrum to be a little absurd too, but FWIW I've met quite a few latino/latinx people who identify as Latinx. Though that probably has to do with the extent that I've been steeped in a pretty intense ideological bubble for a very long time at this point (I moved to the Bay in college, before these kind of Bay Area norms around language started to spread so widely)
- uponcoffee 7y ago
  You seem to be the one that is out of touch: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinx https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latinx
  - RandomBacon 7y ago
    I think this arguement about words is stupid. It doesn't matter which one of you is right or wrong. For what it's worth, I live in Houston (4th largest US city that has an enormous Latin American representation), and I have never heard the term "Latinx" before. Though now if I do, I now know what it means thanks to Hacker News.
  - AbrahamParangi 7y ago
    Cursory look at google trends suggest that latinx is a relatively uncommon term and that the term latino is approx. 30x more popular (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=latino,latinx https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=latino,lat...).
    - lanewinfield 7y ago
      Do you want to compare other words that used to be popular but are now offensive? Not to say "Latino" is offensive, but your argument doesn't really hold water.
      - AbrahamParangi 7y ago
        I'm supplying facts which support the view of reality in which "latino" is common and "latinx" is uncommon, not making an argument that people should act one way or another.
  - notatoad 7y ago
    "The term is a neologism that has gained traction among advocacy groups intersectionally combining the identity politics of race and gender" I'm not quite sure that being not being up-to-date on the terminology favoured by advocacy groups intersectionally combining the identity politics of race and gender counts as "out of touch"
- g_sch 7y ago
  I'm interested (and somewhat taken aback) by the intensity of the reactions to this term. Maybe it's a generational/political thing? For my part, I know significantly more people who refer to themselves as "Latinx" than "Latino".
  - malvosenior 7y ago
    People don't like it because it's a political term that doesn't exist for any reason other than to make a political statement. It's a modification of language around the core identity of a group of people, people who did not advocate for the term's usage and still resist it.
  - eloff 7y ago
    Fwiw I lived ten years in Latin America, married a Latina, and have never even heard the term Latinx before. It's probably not common in Latin America.
    - friedman23 7y ago
      The term was created by white people.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - ribosometronome 7y ago
        Interesting! What were their names? Were those white people also of Latin American origin?
  - eindiran 7y ago
    "Latinx" is more-or-less a rounding error compared to "Latino"/"Latina"[1], so having people insist that the far more common terms are incorrect (for a political reason) is what is driving the intensity of the reaction. I'm not saying the reaction is right or wrong, but afaict that's the reason people respond the way they do. If you know significantly more people who refer to themselves as "Latinx", I'd wager that you probably live in the ideological bubble surrounding a fairly liberal American city, but there is certainly a generational component: the term is much more commonly used by American Millenials than by anyone else. [1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=latinx,latino,latina https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=latinx,latino,lat...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- gamblor956 7y ago
  I have only ever heard the term Latinx used in the context of the Latino/Latina LGBT community. Vida, (a show about gentrification and lesbians in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of LA) markets itself as a Latinx show, not as a Hispanic show, though the showrunner identifies as Latina...
- mlevental 7y ago
  "I've never seen it therefore it must be fake" rolls eyes https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/latinx?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/latinx?lang=en
  - bussierem 7y ago
    The top 2 tweets as of my comment are tweets that say "Latinx" and link to sources that say "Latino". I feel like maybe the points above that mention how "latinx" is the correct term according to people that _aren't_ Latino are probably correct.
    - mlevental 7y ago
      The top tweet is from a Hispanic woman, third is from a Latin American organization, so is the fourth. Keep scrolling and there are even more Hispanic people using it. Maybe discovering the answer to this question requires more than just one screen's worth of research
- coupdejarnac 7y ago
  Is this a West coast thing? I have never heard latinx, and I spend a significant amount of time with my Latino soccer buddies. Perhaps it's because they are all first generation and not super interested in being PC.
rosterface 7y ago
My Mexican family loves Flamin’ Hot Cheetos (for real) and hates the term “latinx”. Just fyi but it’s considered racist in a lot of Mexican communities.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y ago
  why is it considered racist? I can think of some arguments against the term but am having a hard time figuring that one out. Maybe because they perceive it as having been coined by people from outside their group and/or changing the topic to focus on gender > racial justice?
  - rosterface 7y ago
    Yes, that’s why they consider it racist. For the most part it’s a term from white academia. I don’t think anyone really wants to be told that the words they’ve used to describe themselves for generations must be changed, especially by people from another ethnicity all together.
    - keerthiko 7y ago
      Thanks for this interesting data point. Would you/they prefer to just be called latino? Is this common sentiment among Mexicans outside of your family? I can see latinx only being preferred by non-gender-conforming individuals to whom it applies, as opposed to when referring to individuals rather than to communities (families, neighborhoods, food, etc).
      - rosterface 7y ago
        I think more specific is always better. I’m of Mexican descent, I prefer to keep that identity. I’ve actually noticed people in the US sometimes struggle to say that as if being “Mexican” is a bad thing; it’s not, don’t be afraid of the term. Latino and Latina are also fine. Hispanic as well although that has a slightly different meaning. I think it’s best to call people by the terms that they use themselves. Foisting a new term on someone to describe their ethnicity doesn’t seem like it would ever be a good idea.
dmix 7y ago
What does firing people for being white and male have to do with Mexican janitors becoming inventors?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
manigandham 7y ago
Diversity of what exactly? None of those physical qualities have anything to do with your talents, motivations, passions, interests, and ability to actually do the job. A wide range of backgrounds, opinions, and thought processes is good and what everyone wants, but forcing diversity based on people's unchangeable physical attributes is nothing but injustice masquerading as morality.

toiletfuneral 7y ago

How come you conclude the issue was inexperience & bad management but made sure to frame it as women & poc vs. white men? Not a super cool way to add to discourse.

bduerst 7y ago

> he and some of his [white male] colleagues were laid off in favor of creating a more 'diverse' management roster. No disrespect is intended with this question, but are you sure that was the real reason? I've seen people get laid off before search for reasons why they specifically were singled out, and come up with some pretty biased excuses for themselves when it was really something fairly mundane. Even when their replacements turned out to be incompetent.

cycrutchfield 7y ago
It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination.
- mruts 7y ago
  You actually think that’s how the world works?
- vageli 7y ago
  > It’s either sour grapes post-hoc rationalization or it’s just alt-right fanfic. If it were actually real, he would have filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Does that mean that people who don't report abuse aren't victims? I struggle to see the logic behind this statement.
- shearskill 7y ago
  This post about Cheetos seems to have attracted a lot of complaints about imaginary leftists and ideological bubbles. Very odd.
  - rchaud 7y ago
    Not odd so much as remarkable. How does a story about a minority janitor who started at the literal bottom, get turned into a grievance thread about the damage done by "diversity hiring" policies?

paulcole 7y ago

Maybe your dad just wasn’t as good at his job anymore and wanted to blame minorities for it? Probably unlikely because I don’t think anything like this has ever happened in America before, but I guess it is a remote possibility.