5 ms·

> Medium said that 52% of departures were white, and that one third of the company is non-white and non-Asian. As an European reader, it's incredible to read s

> Medium said that 52% of departures were white, and that one third of the company is non-white and non-Asian. As an European reader, it's incredible to read such a statement. USA has a skin colour / racism problem.

enw 5y ago
Honestly I don’t understand what the whole point of that statement is, apart from fueling racist woke rhetoric and contributing to divide.
diamondhandle 5y ago
As a European who doesn’t think Europe has an ongoing skin color / racism problem, you’re signaling that you’ve never really thought about the proceeds of slavery and colonialism to finance, well, almost everything we associate with modern Europe. Especially ignorant if you’re French, British, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, and probably a few other extreme oppressors left off that list. America has a lot of problems, but we TALK about them. Europe is at least 20 years behind the curve. You guys would be happy with pedophile priests if we hadn’t exposed them.
- speedgoose 5y ago
  I didn't want to start a comment war of Europe against USA. I'm saying that from my outsider point of view, with an European education that taught me about slavery, colonialism, and a little of finance, USA has an obvious ingoing problem with skin colours and racism. I don't really think us European are behind the curve, we are just on another line. We are not perfect too, and we haven't been in the past. You mention slavery and colonialism I will add the too many genocides. We can take, and we do take lessons from USA, sometimes a bit late yes. USA could also take lessons from Europe, we have some experience about what not to do.
- yreg 5y ago
  Nice, blame today's europeans for the horrors of collonialism. How dare they not base their identities around talking about it.
- Veen 5y ago
  > Europe is at least 20 years behind the curve. I fear you are correct. If current political trends continue, in 20 years race relations in Europe will be as harmonious as they are in America today.
- secondcoming 5y ago
  > You guys would be happy with pedophile priests if we hadn’t exposed them. Educate yourself; Stay in your lane; etc https://youtu.be/2dKdBlKgquw https://youtu.be/2dKdBlKgquw
  - diamondhandle 5y ago
    That’s a pop star you ran out of town. The BBC or Der Spiegel weren’t falling all over themselves to be first to let everyone know that the Catholic Church had a giant problem. There’s a reason Spotlight was an important movie.
    - secondcoming 5y ago
      An Irish pop-star... Ireland has known about paedo-priests long before Hollywood. And the pop-star above performed that piece on SNL. It ended her in the US. I'm not American, by the way.
- emptyfile 5y ago
  Recording people's skin colour in a file sounds like a literal dystopia. Keep on convincing yourself its normal.
alpaca128 5y ago
Definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. They might have been more honest than they planned when they indirectly admitted they're proud to have an above-average ratio of a specific skin color in their company.
ping_pong 5y ago
It's funny how Americans think that you can only combat racism by being hyper-focused on everyone's race.
- KMag 5y ago
  > It's funny how Americans think that "It's funny how [a tiny percentage of very vocal] Americans think that"
- seoaeu 5y ago
  There's a real balance though. There's a contingent on the right who think "people who talk about racism are the real racists".
- aeoleonn 5y ago
  Not all Americans. Just a mentally unstable, vocal minority.
Rompect 5y ago
Oh, they only went through each employee, assessed their specific race and entered it into a spreadsheet. What is the problem?
kharak 5y ago
I've heard, that people from the USA understand the term 'race' differently than Germans. A direct translation into German would be 'Rasse', a term reserved for dog breeds and history lessons. From how I see the word 'race' being used in the USA, I can't see the difference to the German word 'Rasse'. For me, the racism in the USA begins with the insistence of separating people according to their 'race' and this race based thinking has permeated their entire culture. Doesn't matter where you look, old school liberals vs woke, republicans or democrats, they all divide people according to their race. It's even on their ID card. And yet some claim 'race' is a totally different concept compared to 'Rasse'. I don't buy it, not one bit. The USA will never overcome racism, until they stop thinking in races.
- seoaeu 5y ago
  > The USA will never overcome racism, until they stop thinking in races. That is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You also have to (a) somehow stop the people who like discriminating based on race ("racists"), and (b) do something about the systems that were intentionally setup to discriminate based on race ("systematic racism"). Since you say you're not from the USA, I'll give you some context which is that your talking point is frequently used by people here to argue against addressing (a) and (b). And often it is particularly brought up by people accused of discriminating based on people's race, as though pointing out that someone is being racist is worse than actually being racist.
  - kharak 5y ago
    > That is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You also have to (a) somehow stop the people who like discriminating based on race ("racists"), and (b) do something about the systems that were intentionally setup to discriminate based on race ("systematic racism"). Agreed. I don't believe you can achieve that continuing to use race as concept. The important divide is between socioeconomic classes. Identify people in need of support, help them. People in poor neighborhoods will receive the same help, no matter their skin color. With that, you'll have widespread support for the measures, at least as far as that is possible for such measure in the USA. Bring race into the mix and you introduce another point of division, as neighbors with the same socioeconomic class would be treated differently for racist reasons. Abandon race as concept, identify people in need of help by socioeconomic metrics and provide support to them.

enw 5y ago

Honestly I don’t understand what the whole point of that statement is, apart from fueling racist woke rhetoric and contributing to divide.

diamondhandle 5y ago

As a European who doesn’t think Europe has an ongoing skin color / racism problem, you’re signaling that you’ve never really thought about the proceeds of slavery and colonialism to finance, well, almost everything we associate with modern Europe. Especially ignorant if you’re French, British, Dutch, Belgian, Italian, and probably a few other extreme oppressors left off that list. America has a lot of problems, but we TALK about them. Europe is at least 20 years behind the curve. You guys would be happy with pedophile priests if we hadn’t exposed them.

speedgoose 5y ago
I didn't want to start a comment war of Europe against USA. I'm saying that from my outsider point of view, with an European education that taught me about slavery, colonialism, and a little of finance, USA has an obvious ingoing problem with skin colours and racism. I don't really think us European are behind the curve, we are just on another line. We are not perfect too, and we haven't been in the past. You mention slavery and colonialism I will add the too many genocides. We can take, and we do take lessons from USA, sometimes a bit late yes. USA could also take lessons from Europe, we have some experience about what not to do.
yreg 5y ago
Nice, blame today's europeans for the horrors of collonialism. How dare they not base their identities around talking about it.
Veen 5y ago
> Europe is at least 20 years behind the curve. I fear you are correct. If current political trends continue, in 20 years race relations in Europe will be as harmonious as they are in America today.
secondcoming 5y ago
> You guys would be happy with pedophile priests if we hadn’t exposed them. Educate yourself; Stay in your lane; etc https://youtu.be/2dKdBlKgquw https://youtu.be/2dKdBlKgquw
- diamondhandle 5y ago
  That’s a pop star you ran out of town. The BBC or Der Spiegel weren’t falling all over themselves to be first to let everyone know that the Catholic Church had a giant problem. There’s a reason Spotlight was an important movie.
  - secondcoming 5y ago
    An Irish pop-star... Ireland has known about paedo-priests long before Hollywood. And the pop-star above performed that piece on SNL. It ended her in the US. I'm not American, by the way.
emptyfile 5y ago
Recording people's skin colour in a file sounds like a literal dystopia. Keep on convincing yourself its normal.

alpaca128 5y ago

Definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. They might have been more honest than they planned when they indirectly admitted they're proud to have an above-average ratio of a specific skin color in their company.

ping_pong 5y ago

It's funny how Americans think that you can only combat racism by being hyper-focused on everyone's race.

KMag 5y ago
> It's funny how Americans think that "It's funny how [a tiny percentage of very vocal] Americans think that"
seoaeu 5y ago
There's a real balance though. There's a contingent on the right who think "people who talk about racism are the real racists".
aeoleonn 5y ago
Not all Americans. Just a mentally unstable, vocal minority.

Rompect 5y ago

Oh, they only went through each employee, assessed their specific race and entered it into a spreadsheet. What is the problem?

kharak 5y ago

I've heard, that people from the USA understand the term 'race' differently than Germans. A direct translation into German would be 'Rasse', a term reserved for dog breeds and history lessons. From how I see the word 'race' being used in the USA, I can't see the difference to the German word 'Rasse'. For me, the racism in the USA begins with the insistence of separating people according to their 'race' and this race based thinking has permeated their entire culture. Doesn't matter where you look, old school liberals vs woke, republicans or democrats, they all divide people according to their race. It's even on their ID card. And yet some claim 'race' is a totally different concept compared to 'Rasse'. I don't buy it, not one bit. The USA will never overcome racism, until they stop thinking in races.

seoaeu 5y ago
> The USA will never overcome racism, until they stop thinking in races. That is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You also have to (a) somehow stop the people who like discriminating based on race ("racists"), and (b) do something about the systems that were intentionally setup to discriminate based on race ("systematic racism"). Since you say you're not from the USA, I'll give you some context which is that your talking point is frequently used by people here to argue against addressing (a) and (b). And often it is particularly brought up by people accused of discriminating based on people's race, as though pointing out that someone is being racist is worse than actually being racist.
- kharak 5y ago
  > That is a necessary but not sufficient condition. You also have to (a) somehow stop the people who like discriminating based on race ("racists"), and (b) do something about the systems that were intentionally setup to discriminate based on race ("systematic racism"). Agreed. I don't believe you can achieve that continuing to use race as concept. The important divide is between socioeconomic classes. Identify people in need of support, help them. People in poor neighborhoods will receive the same help, no matter their skin color. With that, you'll have widespread support for the measures, at least as far as that is possible for such measure in the USA. Bring race into the mix and you introduce another point of division, as neighbors with the same socioeconomic class would be treated differently for racist reasons. Abandon race as concept, identify people in need of help by socioeconomic metrics and provide support to them.