<story><title>Racism at a gaming company</title><url>http://qu33riousity.tumblr.com/post/32659337104/racist-moments-of-2012-pt-1-the-workplace</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lukeas14</author><text>Regardless of how pissed off he may have been, you don&apos;t fight racism with more racism. All that does is exacerbate the situation and hurt your credibility. Calling someone a dumbwhite&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;* might feel good but does nothing for your cause.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve always believed the correct response to racism is to educate. Educate his coworkers on the origin and significance of his necklace and why they shouldn&apos;t equate the way he dresses with being a thug. And in this case, where it is systemic and tolerated, appeal to a higher authority such as HR and the court system.</text></item><item><author>to_jon</author><text>&quot;I agree, but some of his content will be a barrier for some people. I&apos;m sure if the tone of the post was milder, most of the comments here would be supportive.&quot;&lt;p&gt;-- too typical a response&lt;p&gt;&quot;Peppered throughout the post are cultural signs and signifiers that mark the author as an advocate for a fairly specific set of political and social beliefs.&quot;&lt;p&gt;-- completely irrelevant to assessing the facts of the case&lt;p&gt;As a white male, I&apos;m very disappointed by how many in the HN community have responded to this story.  The victim- and let me emphasize, this individual is a victim- has every right to feel and express any number of hostile feelings toward the perps involved and, furthermore, has the right to express his frustration at how racist behavior was openly exhibited in front of so many employees, with no consequences whatsoever. In fact, you have to wonder why none of his white colleagues stood up and objected to some of the more colorful remarks made in the presence of others. Is it really that difficult to understand why he might perceive all the whites in his office as a$$holes? His story isn&apos;t merely an indictment of a few managers, but of a culture (and yes, a white culture) that absolutely tolerated racism both at an individual and collective level. These incidents didn&apos;t only occur behind a closed door. Is or was this culture present in only one SF company?  
After what this individual was subjected to, you have to be incredibly small minded to feel offended by the fact that his language reveals frustration or antagonism toward whites.&lt;p&gt;By the way, I&apos;ve also seen racism exhibited toward Asian immigrants- not the rockstar programmers matriculated in the US- but recent immigrants holding lower level positions. Let&apos;s not pretend that racism doesn&apos;t exist in SF by brushing off depictions of racism as a consequence of intrinsic racism on the part of the accuser.</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Decoder ring for nerds who are unable to read past words like &quot;neoliberal colonizer&quot; without racing to the nearest TEXTAREA:&lt;p&gt;* A black coworker is singled out by another (non-black) coworker with &quot;watch out for that guy, he’s trouble, he talks a lot of shit&quot;&lt;p&gt;* Referring to a latino coworker, that same coworker suggests jokes: &quot;Like ‘you’re a mexican whore’ or like ‘your mother’s a Mexican whore?&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The black coworker is given a dictionary and told &quot;I got this for you cause I know you speak ebonics.&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The latino coworker is then told &quot;I would have gotten you one too but they didn’t have wetback to english&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The author, who is black, is then told &quot;Hey he’s dressed like Run DMC, does he know how to rap?&quot; (The author is wearing a Pitchfork Media-compatible outfit including skinny jeans and a long-sleeved print t-shirt)&lt;p&gt;* The black coworker later informs the author that &quot;Steve wanted me to let you know that we’re dressing too thuggish in the office and we need to dress in a way that reflects the company better&quot;. &quot;Steve&quot; is the previously-mentioned white guy, and also apparently a manager.&lt;p&gt;* After telling that coworker that he is considering telling HR about racism in his group, &quot;Steve&quot; takes him aside for a 1-1 meeting. The author is informed that any attire is acceptable except for baggy jeans. After hearing the author&apos;s complaints, &quot;Steve&quot; says, &quot;Whoa whoa whoa, those comments you’re hearing aren’t racist; they’re jokes&quot;, and then &quot;The problem is that you’re too sensitive.  You need to check all that at the door before you come here to work&quot;, and finally &quot;We don’t even tolerate people brining up concerns of racism here.&quot;.&lt;p&gt;* Later, a women asks whether the pendant the author is wearing, which is from Nairobi, is &quot;a calculator&quot;.&lt;p&gt;* &quot;Steve&quot; later informs the author, &quot;it’s ok to make jokes about slavery because that’s over&quot;. Then, &quot;Also, you should be grateful that your ancestors went through slavery.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Peppered throughout the post are cultural signs and signifiers that mark the author as an advocate for a fairly specific set of political and social beliefs. A reader could be excused for having concerns that the author was not an objective witness. On the other hand, those signifiers are so obvious that you could also question whether someone who had set out to unfairly tar the company would put them into the post.&lt;p&gt;Apart from the comment about the pendant, any one of the comments listed above would be a firing offense here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vacri</author><text>A significant part of what you&apos;re missing is that the function of the actions of the racist manager is to rob the author of political power. Racism works in some pretty subtle subtle ways - by painting the author as &apos;that aggressive black guy&apos;, the manager has already clipped his wings.&lt;p&gt;You may have also missed this line: &lt;i&gt;After years of arguments with white men (and white women), watching white men (and white women) move away from me when I start to talk about oppression (i.e. what life as a poor black queer is like), I know when to pick and chose my battles&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can you not see just how exhausting it would be to have to constantly explain and justify yourself?</text></comment>
<story><title>Racism at a gaming company</title><url>http://qu33riousity.tumblr.com/post/32659337104/racist-moments-of-2012-pt-1-the-workplace</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lukeas14</author><text>Regardless of how pissed off he may have been, you don&apos;t fight racism with more racism. All that does is exacerbate the situation and hurt your credibility. Calling someone a dumbwhite&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;* might feel good but does nothing for your cause.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve always believed the correct response to racism is to educate. Educate his coworkers on the origin and significance of his necklace and why they shouldn&apos;t equate the way he dresses with being a thug. And in this case, where it is systemic and tolerated, appeal to a higher authority such as HR and the court system.</text></item><item><author>to_jon</author><text>&quot;I agree, but some of his content will be a barrier for some people. I&apos;m sure if the tone of the post was milder, most of the comments here would be supportive.&quot;&lt;p&gt;-- too typical a response&lt;p&gt;&quot;Peppered throughout the post are cultural signs and signifiers that mark the author as an advocate for a fairly specific set of political and social beliefs.&quot;&lt;p&gt;-- completely irrelevant to assessing the facts of the case&lt;p&gt;As a white male, I&apos;m very disappointed by how many in the HN community have responded to this story.  The victim- and let me emphasize, this individual is a victim- has every right to feel and express any number of hostile feelings toward the perps involved and, furthermore, has the right to express his frustration at how racist behavior was openly exhibited in front of so many employees, with no consequences whatsoever. In fact, you have to wonder why none of his white colleagues stood up and objected to some of the more colorful remarks made in the presence of others. Is it really that difficult to understand why he might perceive all the whites in his office as a$$holes? His story isn&apos;t merely an indictment of a few managers, but of a culture (and yes, a white culture) that absolutely tolerated racism both at an individual and collective level. These incidents didn&apos;t only occur behind a closed door. Is or was this culture present in only one SF company?  
After what this individual was subjected to, you have to be incredibly small minded to feel offended by the fact that his language reveals frustration or antagonism toward whites.&lt;p&gt;By the way, I&apos;ve also seen racism exhibited toward Asian immigrants- not the rockstar programmers matriculated in the US- but recent immigrants holding lower level positions. Let&apos;s not pretend that racism doesn&apos;t exist in SF by brushing off depictions of racism as a consequence of intrinsic racism on the part of the accuser.</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>Decoder ring for nerds who are unable to read past words like &quot;neoliberal colonizer&quot; without racing to the nearest TEXTAREA:&lt;p&gt;* A black coworker is singled out by another (non-black) coworker with &quot;watch out for that guy, he’s trouble, he talks a lot of shit&quot;&lt;p&gt;* Referring to a latino coworker, that same coworker suggests jokes: &quot;Like ‘you’re a mexican whore’ or like ‘your mother’s a Mexican whore?&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The black coworker is given a dictionary and told &quot;I got this for you cause I know you speak ebonics.&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The latino coworker is then told &quot;I would have gotten you one too but they didn’t have wetback to english&quot;&lt;p&gt;* The author, who is black, is then told &quot;Hey he’s dressed like Run DMC, does he know how to rap?&quot; (The author is wearing a Pitchfork Media-compatible outfit including skinny jeans and a long-sleeved print t-shirt)&lt;p&gt;* The black coworker later informs the author that &quot;Steve wanted me to let you know that we’re dressing too thuggish in the office and we need to dress in a way that reflects the company better&quot;. &quot;Steve&quot; is the previously-mentioned white guy, and also apparently a manager.&lt;p&gt;* After telling that coworker that he is considering telling HR about racism in his group, &quot;Steve&quot; takes him aside for a 1-1 meeting. The author is informed that any attire is acceptable except for baggy jeans. After hearing the author&apos;s complaints, &quot;Steve&quot; says, &quot;Whoa whoa whoa, those comments you’re hearing aren’t racist; they’re jokes&quot;, and then &quot;The problem is that you’re too sensitive.  You need to check all that at the door before you come here to work&quot;, and finally &quot;We don’t even tolerate people brining up concerns of racism here.&quot;.&lt;p&gt;* Later, a women asks whether the pendant the author is wearing, which is from Nairobi, is &quot;a calculator&quot;.&lt;p&gt;* &quot;Steve&quot; later informs the author, &quot;it’s ok to make jokes about slavery because that’s over&quot;. Then, &quot;Also, you should be grateful that your ancestors went through slavery.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Peppered throughout the post are cultural signs and signifiers that mark the author as an advocate for a fairly specific set of political and social beliefs. A reader could be excused for having concerns that the author was not an objective witness. On the other hand, those signifiers are so obvious that you could also question whether someone who had set out to unfairly tar the company would put them into the post.&lt;p&gt;Apart from the comment about the pendant, any one of the comments listed above would be a firing offense here.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sadface</author><text>It&apos;s not his responsibility to &quot;fight racism&quot;, it&apos;s the responsibility of his employers to provide a non-racist workplace.  Your &quot;correct response&quot; is of course ideal, but imagine how draining it would be for someone to attempt to change an corporate culture 200+ people.  It&apos;s unfair to expect that from an someone whose only wants to not have to endure severe racism at their 9-5.</text></comment>