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Let's just keep it real... In a practical, engineering environment, the talk of race and status has no place. If you want to code for a living, write good code,

Let's just keep it real... In a practical, engineering environment, the talk of race and status has no place. If you want to code for a living, write good code, and do your best to find somewhere that will pay you adequately for your skillset. Once you're there, improvise and collaborate with your coworkers and use the resources at your disposal to get tasks/tickets done to the best of your ability. Nobody on earth can rightfully ask for any more of you than that. The more time you spend talking to your employer about your skin color, the less work is getting done, and in the long run that equates 1:1 to money. Do the work, take the money, and keep it simple. I think people need better mentors. They don't need diversity pledges and social justice initiatives in the workplace, I think they just need people to guide them along their path to becoming the best X that they can be, without judgment. That way the relationship is collaborative and nurturing, rather than threatening and adversarial like with these diversity movements. Keeping it skill-based is better for everyone.

paulryanrogers 4y ago
This assumes everyone is starting from the same place. And that tribalism isn't an inherent human trait, or is so mild it needs no conscious effort to counteract. Some of us are born into privilege, and those who aren't do need some help to level the playing field. And that's likely at every stage of life, from forced integration of schools to extra grace for oppressed groups in the workplace.
- adenozine 4y ago
  I agree with most of this, however in practice, it doesn’t really go down this way. These large corporations often turn diversity goals into pseudo-business number games. To put it bluntly, they’ll hire a certain number of brown folks and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. I’m all for extra grace. I really, truly am. I don’t talk about this much, but my grandfather was murdered by a burglar many years ago. My dad visited that man over a dozen times that I can remember when I was growing up, and there’s a lot of other details and lessons surrounding this, but my point is that I understand what I believe to be the true nature of grace. Giving someone a job they don’t deserve because of their skin color is not grace, it’s tokenizing and patronizing, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the power structures that create the situation in the first place. No, a person should be given a job they don’t deserve because of the belief that they will be grateful to learn to do it well, and led to do so by a competent and compassionate mentor. It’s this weird quantification that holds back people’s understanding when it comes to race and status in the workplace. It’s about people, and it can’t be captured or comprehended by any form of spreadsheet or business initiative. If we want the situation for our neighbors to improve, we need to be good neighbors and help them, rather than saying “oh, well we should find sixteen more black neighbors to make our diversity quota.” If you’re one of those future neighbors, you suddenly realize that all you are is just some black person to fill a space, for numerical purposes.

paulryanrogers 4y ago

This assumes everyone is starting from the same place. And that tribalism isn't an inherent human trait, or is so mild it needs no conscious effort to counteract. Some of us are born into privilege, and those who aren't do need some help to level the playing field. And that's likely at every stage of life, from forced integration of schools to extra grace for oppressed groups in the workplace.

adenozine 4y ago
I agree with most of this, however in practice, it doesn’t really go down this way. These large corporations often turn diversity goals into pseudo-business number games. To put it bluntly, they’ll hire a certain number of brown folks and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. I’m all for extra grace. I really, truly am. I don’t talk about this much, but my grandfather was murdered by a burglar many years ago. My dad visited that man over a dozen times that I can remember when I was growing up, and there’s a lot of other details and lessons surrounding this, but my point is that I understand what I believe to be the true nature of grace. Giving someone a job they don’t deserve because of their skin color is not grace, it’s tokenizing and patronizing, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the power structures that create the situation in the first place. No, a person should be given a job they don’t deserve because of the belief that they will be grateful to learn to do it well, and led to do so by a competent and compassionate mentor. It’s this weird quantification that holds back people’s understanding when it comes to race and status in the workplace. It’s about people, and it can’t be captured or comprehended by any form of spreadsheet or business initiative. If we want the situation for our neighbors to improve, we need to be good neighbors and help them, rather than saying “oh, well we should find sixteen more black neighbors to make our diversity quota.” If you’re one of those future neighbors, you suddenly realize that all you are is just some black person to fill a space, for numerical purposes.