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>but creating townhall meetings and parading your black/brown employees around like show ponies is nothing short of corporate virtue signaling. It doesn't just

>but creating townhall meetings and parading your black/brown employees around like show ponies is nothing short of corporate virtue signaling. It doesn't just undermine the self-esteem of a PoC, it undermines the self-esteem of white folks, too. Hiring or promoting people due to their skin color is just wrong, no matter what skin color that is. As a white dude, seeing my PoC teammates in the past celebrated not for their accomplishments, but for something they had no control over (their skin color) is sad. "John in Engineering is really talented, and works his tail off daily. He has come up with some really ingenious solutions to tough problems that have allowed us to grow as a company....but we're celebrating him because he's black, not because he's a kickass engineer". Seen things like this before, which make no sense. Celebrating an employee who is awesome at their job for being awesome at their job is great. You're a company, after all, not a social club. The goal is to grow and make money. Celebrate anyone who can do help with that, regardless if they are black, white, yellow, orange, green, pink, whatever. Diversity is cool, but when it's put into practice and not shouted from the rooftops, it's even better.

zozbot234 4y ago
> He has come up with some really ingenious solutions to tough problems that have allowed us to grow as a company....but we're celebrating him because he's black, not because he's a kickass engineer The soft bigotry of low expectations.
- godshatter 4y ago
  Why are you making the assumption that they added a silent "for a PoC" on the end of the first statement?
version_five 4y ago
> PoC > White folks I just want to mention that one of the worst aspects of all this is trying to sort people according to (here apparently a binary) label. There is not really such thing as either of these categories - it's stereotyping of the worst kind, and takes us back many generations
- Swizec 4y ago
  I’ll never forget a coworker explaining to me that in America she’s PoC, but back home she’s white. That really blew my mind.
  - consumer451 4y ago
    > I’ll never forget a coworker explaining to me that in America she’s PoC, but back home she’s white. That really blew my mind. I think that's a huge and extremely valuable lesson. That's because there is no such thing as "white" ethnicity. It is a word used to categorize us vs other. This is not my theory, afaik it's a fact. A fact which seems to upset a lot people. Based on previous conversations, it appears to be the most controversial knowledge which I posses. The generally accepted "white" ethnic groups have changed over time. Irish people were once not "white" in the USA. Neither were Slavic people. These two groups have the some of the lightest colored skin known to man. No one is white. Some people pass for white.
    - Swizec 4y ago
      On that topic, there’s a fascinating essay by Benjamin Franklin explaining how Germans aren’t sufficiently white* and shouldn’t be allowed in America in such vast numbers. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=85&smtID=3 https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=85&... > What is perhaps most striking about Franklin's essay today is his sophisticated use of "social science" data to convince the British ministry to alter its colonial policies. Particularly jarring, however, is Franklin's plea that America be maintained as an entirely Anglo-Saxon society. *This was probably a few centuries before one would use the word “white” in this context. Too many pale folk who don’t qualify. It was more about calling out ethnicities directly as people still do in Europe.
- oh_sigh 4y ago
  It gets even worse, where people are pushing for BIPoC instead of just people of color, indicating that black and indigenous are of primary import, and the rest of the non whites are relegated to "other people of color"

zozbot234 4y ago

> He has come up with some really ingenious solutions to tough problems that have allowed us to grow as a company....but we're celebrating him because he's black, not because he's a kickass engineer The soft bigotry of low expectations.

godshatter 4y ago
Why are you making the assumption that they added a silent "for a PoC" on the end of the first statement?

version_five 4y ago

> PoC > White folks I just want to mention that one of the worst aspects of all this is trying to sort people according to (here apparently a binary) label. There is not really such thing as either of these categories - it's stereotyping of the worst kind, and takes us back many generations

Swizec 4y ago
I’ll never forget a coworker explaining to me that in America she’s PoC, but back home she’s white. That really blew my mind.
- consumer451 4y ago
  > I’ll never forget a coworker explaining to me that in America she’s PoC, but back home she’s white. That really blew my mind. I think that's a huge and extremely valuable lesson. That's because there is no such thing as "white" ethnicity. It is a word used to categorize us vs other. This is not my theory, afaik it's a fact. A fact which seems to upset a lot people. Based on previous conversations, it appears to be the most controversial knowledge which I posses. The generally accepted "white" ethnic groups have changed over time. Irish people were once not "white" in the USA. Neither were Slavic people. These two groups have the some of the lightest colored skin known to man. No one is white. Some people pass for white.
  - Swizec 4y ago
    On that topic, there’s a fascinating essay by Benjamin Franklin explaining how Germans aren’t sufficiently white* and shouldn’t be allowed in America in such vast numbers. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=85&smtID=3 https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=85&... > What is perhaps most striking about Franklin's essay today is his sophisticated use of "social science" data to convince the British ministry to alter its colonial policies. Particularly jarring, however, is Franklin's plea that America be maintained as an entirely Anglo-Saxon society. *This was probably a few centuries before one would use the word “white” in this context. Too many pale folk who don’t qualify. It was more about calling out ethnicities directly as people still do in Europe.
oh_sigh 4y ago
It gets even worse, where people are pushing for BIPoC instead of just people of color, indicating that black and indigenous are of primary import, and the rest of the non whites are relegated to "other people of color"