5 ms·

Don't try to justify racism. The slides literally told employees to "be less white".

sokoloff 6y ago
If that instruction was contextually intended to support non-white employees who felt like they had to "play white" in order to succeed, I think the advice is generally good ("be yourself"). If that was contextually directed primarily towards white employees, it's offensive and inherently racist. I didn't (and now can't) see the context, but context matters. "White before black" is offensive/racist in many contexts, but not in the rules of chess.
- chroem- 6y ago
  Can you even imagine what the fallout would be if they started telling employees to "be less black"?
  - sn_master 6y ago
    Exactly. If the video was about inventory shrinkage and was titled "Be Less Black" they would have (rightfully so) been sued out of existence. Racists exists in every human group, and they're predominately non-white outside the West. e.g Groups like Boku Haram are anti-White racists in Africa.
    - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
      Can you cite that? Boko Haram is an Islamist movement, so I would expect them to recognize fellow Islamists anywhere of any race, and indeed Wikipedia notes they are allied with Islamic State in the Levant and Iraq. There are many Islamists who absolutely anyone would recognize as white, just look at some of the people from the Balkans or Chechnya who have gone to fight for ISIS. There have been recent movements in Nigeria that specifically opposed whites in general, but they have generally been from an Afrocentrism perspective and often were just as mistrustful of Islam as Christianity, arguing for a return to indigenous African spirituality instead.
- gthtjtkt 6y ago
  Funny how people are jumping out of the woodwork to defend racism. There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK. When did we go back to the 1950s? I sure hope you don't feel comfortable being this racist in real life.
  - seneca 6y ago
    > There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK. Strongly disagree. Talking about likelihood of having sickle cell anemia without talking about race would be absurd. This probably sounds pedantic, but my point is that we should stop all of these emotionally charged over reactions, on both sides. Saying "attributing any characteristic based on skin color is racist" is almost as absurd as what you're arguing against. There has to be room for nuance.
    - gthtjtkt 6y ago
      > This probably sounds pedantic It doesn't just sound pedantic, it is pedantic. The topic is clearly about personality traits not medical conditions.
      - seneca 6y ago
        > The topic is clearly about personality traits not medical conditions. Contextualizing it would make sense if you had not said "literally no context". This is my point, black and white language like this repels nuance.
        Nacdor 6y ago
        You're changing the subject. This topic is about personality traits, not medical conditions. This statement is still true: "There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK." You wanted to be pedantic, so you ignored the context in which that statement was made. If you hadn't ignored the context, you would've known the statement was about personality traits and not medical conditions.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- nailer 6y ago
  > If that was contextually directed primarily towards white employees, it's offensive and inherently racist. Yes, and you can confirm it yourself: https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1362774562769879044?s=20 https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1362774562769879044?s=2...
- zozbot234 6y ago
  > If that instruction was contextually intended to support non-white employees who felt like they had to "play white" in order to succeed, I think the advice is generally good. That's far from obvious to me. Implicitly equating success with "acting white" is just as toxic as stereotyping all white people as arrogant, ignorant and defensive. These attitudes are the opposite of genuine inclusiveness.
- Shorel 6y ago
  Context is for kings. Captain Lorca taught me that.

If that instruction was contextually intended to support non-white employees who felt like they had to "play white" in order to succeed, I think the advice is generally good ("be yourself"). If that was contextually directed primarily towards white employees, it's offensive and inherently racist. I didn't (and now can't) see the context, but context matters. "White before black" is offensive/racist in many contexts, but not in the rules of chess.

chroem- 6y ago
Can you even imagine what the fallout would be if they started telling employees to "be less black"?
- sn_master 6y ago
  Exactly. If the video was about inventory shrinkage and was titled "Be Less Black" they would have (rightfully so) been sued out of existence. Racists exists in every human group, and they're predominately non-white outside the West. e.g Groups like Boku Haram are anti-White racists in Africa.
  - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
    Can you cite that? Boko Haram is an Islamist movement, so I would expect them to recognize fellow Islamists anywhere of any race, and indeed Wikipedia notes they are allied with Islamic State in the Levant and Iraq. There are many Islamists who absolutely anyone would recognize as white, just look at some of the people from the Balkans or Chechnya who have gone to fight for ISIS. There have been recent movements in Nigeria that specifically opposed whites in general, but they have generally been from an Afrocentrism perspective and often were just as mistrustful of Islam as Christianity, arguing for a return to indigenous African spirituality instead.
gthtjtkt 6y ago
Funny how people are jumping out of the woodwork to defend racism. There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK. When did we go back to the 1950s? I sure hope you don't feel comfortable being this racist in real life.
- seneca 6y ago
  > There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK. Strongly disagree. Talking about likelihood of having sickle cell anemia without talking about race would be absurd. This probably sounds pedantic, but my point is that we should stop all of these emotionally charged over reactions, on both sides. Saying "attributing any characteristic based on skin color is racist" is almost as absurd as what you're arguing against. There has to be room for nuance.
  - gthtjtkt 6y ago
    > This probably sounds pedantic It doesn't just sound pedantic, it is pedantic. The topic is clearly about personality traits not medical conditions.
    - seneca 6y ago
      > The topic is clearly about personality traits not medical conditions. Contextualizing it would make sense if you had not said "literally no context". This is my point, black and white language like this repels nuance.
      - Nacdor 6y ago
        You're changing the subject. This topic is about personality traits, not medical conditions. This statement is still true: "There's literally no context where attributing qualities to people based on their skin color is OK." You wanted to be pedantic, so you ignored the context in which that statement was made. If you hadn't ignored the context, you would've known the statement was about personality traits and not medical conditions.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
nailer 6y ago
> If that was contextually directed primarily towards white employees, it's offensive and inherently racist. Yes, and you can confirm it yourself: https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1362774562769879044?s=20 https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1362774562769879044?s=2...
zozbot234 6y ago
> If that instruction was contextually intended to support non-white employees who felt like they had to "play white" in order to succeed, I think the advice is generally good. That's far from obvious to me. Implicitly equating success with "acting white" is just as toxic as stereotyping all white people as arrogant, ignorant and defensive. These attitudes are the opposite of genuine inclusiveness.
Shorel 6y ago
Context is for kings. Captain Lorca taught me that.