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For those wanting more context, here is the post that got him fired: https://kriegman.substack.com/p/post-leading-to-termination-blm-falsehoods https://kriegman
by awb 5y ago
For those wanting more context, here is the post that got him fired: https://kriegman.substack.com/p/post-leading-to-termination-blm-falsehoods https://kriegman.substack.com/p/post-leading-to-termination-...
> Unfortunately, over the past few years I have grown more and more concerned about the damage that the movement is doing to many low income black communities. I have avidly followed the research on the movement and its impacts, which has led me, inexorably, to the conclusion that the claim at the heart of the movement, that police more readily shoot black people, is false and likely responsible for thousands of black people being murdered in the most disadvantaged communities in the country.
If you really care about minority communities but are not a part of that community, might want to throw us a few lines about what you’ve been doing outside of criticizing BLM to support these communities. History is filled with outsiders trying to “help” minorities and in tragically misguided ways. As any data scientist should know, communities, culture and data are complex. You can have theories, but to be so confident in something that you haven’t lived or experienced first hand raises a few flags. Naïve, but not fireable IMO.
> Unfortunately, in both our internal discussion and external coverage there seems to be a nearly absolute failure to examine the scholarly research, coming out of the most respected institutions in our country, which demonstrates the acute damage that the BLM movement is doing to many black communities, and the possibility that structural and systemic patterns in our society which have historically disenfranchised blacks are propelling the movement’s whirlwind rise.
A fireable offense. You can’t internally condemn the company you work for and expect to retain your job. The framing is harsh, judgmental and targets any employee who has participated in the coverage. It’s fine if you’re management, but as a data scientist that’s not your role. The world is more complex than the data you’re getting with can be inherently biased, underreported, etc. To think you have the correct answer based on numbers alone is pretty arrogant and not someone who I’d want on my team. It’s fine to scream “The data is showing ____”, but the lived experiences of people might be different and that’s why these conversations are complex and not as simple as 1+1=2.
> there is a substantial body of evidence establishing that members of different racial groups resist arrest at very different rates. Because the vast majority of potentially dangerous encounters happen when a suspect resists arrest, a greater rate of resisting arrest will be expected to increase the number of police shootings, even if police have absolutely no bias when deciding when to shoot.
Very narrow-sighted. Maybe groups that receive harsher sentences resist arrest more? And maybe resisting arrest shouldn’t be a lethal proposition? This is an incomplete look at a complex issue, which again posed with such conviction when a data scientist should know better is fireable IMO. I’d want my team to think a little deeper than this.
> The best explanation I can come up with for why a person (white, black or any other race) would support the BLM movement, is ignorance of even the most rudimentary facts.
Intellectually lazy. Even with the harshest view of BLM, you might assume that people join and support groups for personal / community reasons just as they do with any religion or sports team. Anyway, if you think anyone who supports BLM is dumb, you’re too biased to be in a reputable news organization IMO and firing is reasonable. Even if you don’t like BLM, think the data is clearly showing X while they’re saying Y, you can leave it at that without judging any labeling the supporters en mass.
> the BLM movement’s anti-police rhetoric and propaganda found a receptive audience
More judgement and labeling.
The article goes on, but it’s a rant and not worth debating point by point as it’s goes about 6” deep on an issue that’s close to 6’ deep. The length of the post itself is concerning, especially as others pointed out writing BLM essays on the internal message board wasn’t part of his job.
You might think his analysis is true, you might not, but at the end of the day I wouldn’t want any one of my employees posting something like this to an internal message board. It’s antagonist, judgmental, close-minded and absolutist. Not qualities I’d want in a data scientist at a news organization. Not to mention criticizing his colleagues and superiors publicly.
This wreaks of someone going out in a ball of flames rather than some innocent guy fired for having alternate beliefs.
Sorry to everyone who got excited by the title and thought the woke mob fired someone again. Turns out a data scientist went outside of his job description to publish a massive rant with poor conclusions and harsh criticism and got fired for it. As far as SJWs going too far, this one isn’t it.
- awb 5y agoAnd the Email he sent: https://kriegman.substack.com/p/email-for-which-i-was-fired https://kriegman.substack.com/p/email-for-which-i-was-fired > Action became more urgent when Thomson Reuters began to inject pro-BLM political propaganda into the workplace through a series of official company events that invited BLM activists to the company, where they proceeded to spread some of the very falsehoods that have so devastated disadvantaged black communities. Yeah, sending an unsolicited mass Email accusing co-workers of promoting propaganda is not going to go over well. Harsh, abrasive language targeting co-workers and management is a 100% fireable offense. > Almost immediately, my post started to receive a barrage of bizarre, hateful, abusive, and ultimately extremely racist comments from Thomson Reuters employees. > For example, one commenter condemned the stats that I presented in my post (which were taken directly from official government sources) as “inaccurate”, “false and/or fraudulent” That doesn’t sound hatful, abusive or extremely racist. But publicly condemning your colleagues without any reasonable evidence is a pretty sure fire way to get fired. > Fully 13 Thomson Reuters employees expressed their approval of condemning my post based on this race fantasy by publicly "liking" it and attaching their names to it. If it were only a single disturbed individual it would be easier to ignore his troubling condemnation. However, with 13 people publicly expressing their agreement, it began to feel like there was some kind of group harassment going on. Yikes, this again shows absolutely no rational thought process. And yeah calling your colleagues “disturbed individuals” means you’re going to get fired. I didn’t read the rest, it’s just more ranting, name calling and whining. Either this guy is one of the most clueless people I’ve ever met on how to communicate and behave in a workplace environment or this was a largely intentional act to get fired in a blaze of virtue signaling to the right. It’s fine if you want to die on a hill, but at least come prepared for the consequences. To write that post and unsolicited follow up Email berating his colleagues and bosses and be surprised at the consequences strikes me as one of the most naïve things I’ve ever seen or heard about in the workplace. I hope his ideology is more important to him than his career because that’s the signal he’s broadcasting loud and clear. And there is some virtue in that, but then at least go work for someone who celebrates your ideology, don’t try to slam your ideology down people’s throats with a massive essay (with shaky conclusions) and then criticize them publicly in a mass Email when they’re offended by you. Not everyone is going to agree with you and that’s pretty important to understand working at a traditional news agency. With the “silence is violence” quip, this guy sounds like a pissed off conservative who tried to “own the libs”, but instead just disrespected his employer, bosses and colleagues and got fired for it. Hopefully he has a career in data science for conservatives because it’s pretty clear he has no respect for those that disagree with him.