4 ms·

In this day and age, who thinks that "homos" is a good label to use? And this is at Google, holy crap. How does a place that I'd expect to be filled to the brim

In this day and age, who thinks that "homos" is a good label to use? And this is at Google, holy crap. How does a place that I'd expect to be filled to the brim with forward thinking techies even hire a person who thought this was a good idea?

whatshisface 7y ago
Also, how would they know who to put in the "homo room?" How were people assigned? Did a senior executive walk up and down the hall, looking in offices, and going "gay, black, gay, gay, asian..." Something has to have been left out of the story, this is way too crazy to ever happen.
- asdf21 7y ago
  I mean, the article author is openly partnered and in a same-sex marriage... I'd assume members of the policy group he leads know he's gay.
  - Buge 7y ago
    That doesn't tell us how he was assigned to that group. It might have been a dice roll. Or maybe he chose to be in that group.
    - drewbug01 7y ago
      To some extent... it doesn’t matter. I’m gay: and if you randomly assigned me to a group that has to listen to gay stereotypes, it would still be wrong. Even though the method of assignment is technically okay. Why it’s wrong is debatable. But at least for me it’d be wrong because honestly... that would drag up a lot of psychological trauma for me. Like “I need to take some time off work” bad. Even if you can predict who that will happen to.. and you try to account for it.. there is no margin of error here that’s acceptable, especially when the material in question could be completed another way. So yeah. This is a really, really bad look for the Googs here. :(
      - Buge 7y ago
        Yeah, I agree. I think it would disturb a lot of people, including me.
- ethbro 7y ago
  The intent was probably to expose people to prejudices they don't usually experience with their cis/white/male/wealthy selves. In which case one would have wanted to have those people roleplay as minority identities. The writeup's phrasing is definitely weird, if accurate. Not sure why people of color would need to be exposed to what it's like to be treated as "brown people"? Then again... given the logic behind most HR training, I'd be unsurprised if someone misunderstood diversity training guidelines and instead tried to put people in "their groups." facepalm
  - Izkata 7y ago
    "People of color" is the modern "black" (African heritage), and excludes dark skin colors from other locales. "Brown people", weird as it sounds as a phrase, is broader and includes dark-skinned groups like Middle-Eastern, but I think arbitrarily excludes Asian.
    - ethbro 7y ago
      Really? I'm not sure that narrow of a definition is the commonly used one. Wikipedia has it as even broader than my use: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color I've generally heard it as either "non-white", "non-white, with emphasis on 'brown' skin tones", or "non-white and not covered by a more specific group" in common real world use, depending on the context.
- emmelaich 7y ago
  My suspicion is that the exercise is to allocate people randomly to these groups. Not based on their actual ethnicity / inclinations. This article doesn't actually contradict that, since random selection will put some in their "appropriate" category. So, either that, or the person conducting the exercise totally misunderstood it.
rolltiide 7y ago
> How does a place that I'd expect to be filled to the brim with forward thinking techies even hire a person who thought this was a good idea? If you spend 10 seconds on Blind you'll find the most out of touch thought processes with regard to race, religion and sexuality from employees at big Silicon Valley tech companies. Very different from the general population, not forward thinking.
- shantly 7y ago
  > Very different from the general population, not forward thinking. IDK about SV tech companies, but I don't think it's accurate to characterize the general population as "forward thinking" on those issues.
  - rolltiide 7y ago
    My point should have been clear that its less forward thinking than the general population And you could extrapolate that I’m also referring to the bay area
    - shantly 7y ago
      Ah, that the companies in SV are less forward thinking than the population of, specifically, SV. That could be.
    - username90 7y ago
      Every unmoderated forum looks roughly like Blind or worse, so you can't draw any conclusions from it except that such people exists in tech as well.

whatshisface 7y ago

Also, how would they know who to put in the "homo room?" How were people assigned? Did a senior executive walk up and down the hall, looking in offices, and going "gay, black, gay, gay, asian..." Something has to have been left out of the story, this is way too crazy to ever happen.

asdf21 7y ago
I mean, the article author is openly partnered and in a same-sex marriage... I'd assume members of the policy group he leads know he's gay.
- Buge 7y ago
  That doesn't tell us how he was assigned to that group. It might have been a dice roll. Or maybe he chose to be in that group.
  - drewbug01 7y ago
    To some extent... it doesn’t matter. I’m gay: and if you randomly assigned me to a group that has to listen to gay stereotypes, it would still be wrong. Even though the method of assignment is technically okay. Why it’s wrong is debatable. But at least for me it’d be wrong because honestly... that would drag up a lot of psychological trauma for me. Like “I need to take some time off work” bad. Even if you can predict who that will happen to.. and you try to account for it.. there is no margin of error here that’s acceptable, especially when the material in question could be completed another way. So yeah. This is a really, really bad look for the Googs here. :(
    - Buge 7y ago
      Yeah, I agree. I think it would disturb a lot of people, including me.
ethbro 7y ago
The intent was probably to expose people to prejudices they don't usually experience with their cis/white/male/wealthy selves. In which case one would have wanted to have those people roleplay as minority identities. The writeup's phrasing is definitely weird, if accurate. Not sure why people of color would need to be exposed to what it's like to be treated as "brown people"? Then again... given the logic behind most HR training, I'd be unsurprised if someone misunderstood diversity training guidelines and instead tried to put people in "their groups." facepalm
- Izkata 7y ago
  "People of color" is the modern "black" (African heritage), and excludes dark skin colors from other locales. "Brown people", weird as it sounds as a phrase, is broader and includes dark-skinned groups like Middle-Eastern, but I think arbitrarily excludes Asian.
  - ethbro 7y ago
    Really? I'm not sure that narrow of a definition is the commonly used one. Wikipedia has it as even broader than my use: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_color I've generally heard it as either "non-white", "non-white, with emphasis on 'brown' skin tones", or "non-white and not covered by a more specific group" in common real world use, depending on the context.
emmelaich 7y ago
My suspicion is that the exercise is to allocate people randomly to these groups. Not based on their actual ethnicity / inclinations. This article doesn't actually contradict that, since random selection will put some in their "appropriate" category. So, either that, or the person conducting the exercise totally misunderstood it.

rolltiide 7y ago

> How does a place that I'd expect to be filled to the brim with forward thinking techies even hire a person who thought this was a good idea? If you spend 10 seconds on Blind you'll find the most out of touch thought processes with regard to race, religion and sexuality from employees at big Silicon Valley tech companies. Very different from the general population, not forward thinking.

shantly 7y ago
> Very different from the general population, not forward thinking. IDK about SV tech companies, but I don't think it's accurate to characterize the general population as "forward thinking" on those issues.
- rolltiide 7y ago
  My point should have been clear that its less forward thinking than the general population And you could extrapolate that I’m also referring to the bay area
  - shantly 7y ago
    Ah, that the companies in SV are less forward thinking than the population of, specifically, SV. That could be.
  - username90 7y ago
    Every unmoderated forum looks roughly like Blind or worse, so you can't draw any conclusions from it except that such people exists in tech as well.