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LinkedIn employees use forum about diversity to defend racism

entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,164
www.theverge.com

LinkedIn employees use forum about diversity to defend racism

As protests over the police killing of George Floyd continue to spread across the country, LinkedIn employees came together to discuss diversity and inclusion.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

On Wednesday, LinkedIn hosted a town hall about racial justice in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. The forum was supposed to be an opportunity for employees to come together and discuss how they could support one another. Instead, the conversation turned suddenly hostile, as people used the video chat's anonymous commenting feature to defend racist sentiments and question the efficacy of the protests. The comments were first reported by The Daily Beast; The Verge has independently confirmed them....

Some of the comments also seemed to undermine the actual conversation many employees were trying to have — one centered on the epidemic of police violence against black people. "I believe giving any racial group privileges over others is a zero sum game. Any thoughts on hurting others while giving privileges with the rose name called diversity?" one employee asked.

"It's no surprise that there are racist people at a company that's 48 percent white," a current employee told The Verge. "But the point that was most troubling for me was that this was an event in response to the protests, co-sponsored by our black employee resource group. So for them to insert those comments here was so insensitive.
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screencaps in the original article.

edit: I hit enter by mistake. Title should be the article title.
 
Seesaw15

Seesaw15

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,819
Woof. That tri racial (dude?) pulling out the classic 'but what about black on black crime?'
200.gif
 
Steven

Steven

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,175
Shows ya that racists are hiding on every corner of the earth, just sitting there waiting to spout their absolute nonsense.
 
Viewt

Viewt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,807
Chicago, IL
The tech industry is staggeringly racist. These kinds of opinions exist, even if unsaid, across the board. I've seen it in every company I've ever worked for.
 
Septimus Prime

Septimus Prime

EA
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
8,500
Yeah, our company turned off anonymous questions to presumably avoid shit like this. At least stand by your bullshit.
 
Nome

Nome

Designer / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,312
NYC
Completely unsurprising. Big tech wears a mask.
That mask is a hood.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,906
here
lol, it was that CEO's third day on the job

got broke-in right away
 
BloodHound

BloodHound

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,008
Not surprised at all. I live in the bay and interviewed for linkedin and got to the final round onsite. I kid you not, I have never seen so many white women working for a company in my entire life. Not a single black spec in that entire company as I walked around, which was a first. I usually see atleast 1.
 

Deleted member 2652

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,434
linkedin has been facebook 2.0: racist business edition for awhile now. its not just the employees, its the users too.
 
OP
OP
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,164
BloodHound said:
Not surprised at all. I live in the bay and interviewed for linkedin and got to the final round onsite. I kid you not, I have never seen so many white women working for a company in my entire life. Not a single black spec in that entire company as I walked around, which was a first. I usually see atleast 1.
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I interviewed with them, but never got to the onsite stage. The product is decent for job searching, but it's full of so much fake ppl on it. It's always a performance and being on "brand".
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,150
Damn one was from Fiji? How can you be that racist in paradise?
 
FaceHugger

FaceHugger

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,949
USA
It seems that for every tech company that seems to largely "get it", at least within the rank and file if not the top leadership, there's another like LinkedIn that comes along and reminds everyone that asking a mostly white workforce, who were fortunate enough to be able to comfortably study STEM, earning tech industry type money, living in a silicon valley type environment, aren't the best group to ask about diversity, equality, and social justice in the country at large.

Also:

Mark Zuckerberg as he read those comments:

LKjm62F.png
 
Viewt

Viewt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,807
Chicago, IL
Kernel said:
Must depend on where you are.

I'm in Canada and I'm the only white guy on the team.
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I'm envious if you're lucky to work for one of the few exceptions, but I'm curious, beyond your team, how much of the management is non-white?

Not trying to "gotcha" you or anything, but management diversity is just as important as the overall breakdown, so I'm wondering.
 
Mortemis

Mortemis

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,416
Viewt said:
The tech industry is staggeringly racist. These kinds of opinions exist, even if unsaid, across the board. I've seen it in every company I've ever worked for.
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It's yet another reason why more white folks in tech especially need to stand up against racism and be outwardly anti-racist. Being just "not racist" is not enough. If you don't verbalize and shout out your stance against racism, you blend in with the crowd, and no one can know if you're just silent or a racist. It's the same thing really, they might say it's unfair to put them in the same group with racists, but it's even more so to me not knowing who's on my side and who's out to get me just for the color of my skin, at a workplace no less.

These tech companies go on and on about diversity yet none of them feel welcoming to me as a member of the black community. Have more anti-racists representing your company, promote anti-racist thought, and encourage your workers to do the same.
 

Deleted member 6582

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,789
Viewt said:
I'm envious if you're lucky to work for one of the few exceptions, but I'm curious, beyond your team, how much of the management is non-white?

Not trying to "gotcha" you or anything, but management diversity is just as important as the overall breakdown, so I'm wondering.
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Diversity in tech is actually more nuanced than most think. There's a lot of whites, especially in some parts of the country but there's also a ton of people from Asia, India and the Middle East. It's not that they aren't diversely non-white even up the the C-level but that they lack certain groups, specifically black and specifically women.
 
Viewt

Viewt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,807
Chicago, IL
Mortemis said:
It's yet another reason why more white folks in tech especially need to stand up against racism and be outwardly anti-racist. Being just "not racist" is not enough. If you don't verbalize and shout out your stance against racism, you blend in with the crowd, and no one can know if you're just silent or a racist. It's the same thing really, they might say it's unfair to put them in the same group with racists, but it's even more so to me not knowing who's on my side and who's out to get me just for the color of my skin, at a workplace no less.

These tech companies go on and on about diversity yet none of them feel welcoming to me as a member of the black community. Have more anti-racists representing your company, promote anti-racist thought, and encourage your workers to do the same.
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Agreed 1000%. The company I'm at now is improving, but I've had more than a few very awkward encounters with people who think they can just let some bullshit rip because they think they're in a safe space. Real "plague of the white man" garbage.
 
KG

KG

Banned
Oct 12, 2018
1,598
Racists hide behind anonymity. What else is new. Weak ass people who can't even come out and say what they really mean.
 
kiaaa

kiaaa

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,849
Doesn't surprise me. Seems like every other tech/STEM guy is a piece of garbage.
 
Alucrid

Alucrid

Chicken Photographer
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Oct 25, 2017
11,434
i love the moaning about diversity hiring which has culminated in an entire 3.5% of their workforce being black
 
hateradio

hateradio

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,755
welcome, nowhere
Alucrid said:
i love the moaning about diversity hiring which has culminated in an entire 3.5% of their workforce being black
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Not to mention that it has 0% to do with the violence of policing . . . Other than the workforce not being representative of the population, which is a failing of the USA on its POC.

BloodHound said:
Not surprised at all. I live in the bay and interviewed for linkedin and got to the final round onsite. I kid you not, I have never seen so many white women working for a company in my entire life. Not a single black spec in that entire company as I walked around, which was a first. I usually see atleast 1.
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My dislike of the Bay Area also extends to the fact that there are virtually no black people that live in the peninsula or the south bay. It's basically all white, Asian, a few pockets of latinos (who are not in tech), and then the cliff. There are more socioeconomically diverse areas in the East Bay, but everyone tells you not to go to the East Bay . . . I wonder why 👀

I shudder to think of what the redlining maps looked like, and it's pretty obvious what virtual redlining (in terms of houses and apartments being basically unaffordable) exists today.
 
sabertoothzombie

sabertoothzombie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,709
to be fair, this isn't just a LinkedIn thing. My software company had a company meeting today and the CEO went over the company's response to the protests, and comments were chaotic due to people anonymously fighting with each other over who should be given bias training (white people vs everyone) and why can't we focus only on merit instead of also diversity. It was disgusting
 
hateradio

hateradio

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,755
welcome, nowhere
sabertoothzombie said:
to be fair, this isn't just a LinkedIn thing. My software company had a company meeting today and the CEO went over the company's response to the protests, and comments were chaotic due to people anonymously fighting with each other over who should be given bias training (white people vs everyone) and why can't we focus only on merit instead of also diversity. It was disgusting
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Privileged people can't look beyond themselves. The myopicity is real.

Affirmative action isn't a thing. It was overturned. They're just flooding the conversation with racist nonsense. <-- that's the kind of message I'd like to see a CEO say, so that it clears the room for real discussion, only to see some other red (or in this case black) robin pop up.
 

ScampyDamp

Banned
May 8, 2020
234
Tangentially related but I know many, many minorities in my area that have had to either alter their LinkedIn or just not use it all together because a lot of workplaces in my field would actively avoid those LinkedIn profiles or if they did get to an interview they'd get the usual "Not a culture fit" line. Tech/Game Dev in CA is a shit show for minorities.
 
captive

captive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,999
Houston
Steven said:
Shows ya that racists are hiding on every corner of the earth, just sitting there waiting to spout their absolute nonsense.
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Yup. They're everywhere. It's like some people don't understand how fox news is so popular.

Especially in Tech/IT it's a field dominated by white men. White men that continue to be further and further radicalized by Fox News, rush, conservative news etc.
 

Interested Observer

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,654
So, I just heard about this today. I used to work for LinkedIn (I do not anymore so I wasn't on this call, haven't heard or spoken to any current employees who were either) and I am absolutely shocked by this I have to say. The office I worked in was super-diverse, there was something like 50-60 different nationalities from every corner of the world and I never saw or heard a hint of this sort of stuff when I was there. Guess given the chance with anonymity people showed their true colours. My manager while I worked there was black, really shit to think of her sitting through this rubbish.
 
TarpitCarnivore

TarpitCarnivore

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,229
Mortemis said:
It's yet another reason why more white folks in tech especially need to stand up against racism and be outwardly anti-racist. Being just "not racist" is not enough. If you don't verbalize and shout out your stance against racism, you blend in with the crowd, and no one can know if you're just silent or a racist. It's the same thing really, they might say it's unfair to put them in the same group with racists, but it's even more so to me not knowing who's on my side and who's out to get me just for the color of my skin, at a workplace no less.

These tech companies go on and on about diversity yet none of them feel welcoming to me as a member of the black community. Have more anti-racists representing your company, promote anti-racist thought, and encourage your workers to do the same.
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My previous company held a town hall about banning Alex Jones and some guy, a Rogan fan, dug in heels on "Free speech" shit
They had a head of diversity whom left and the just replaced them a few months ago (it was like 2 years so )
They had a 'pants suit nation' group during 2016 and youd be shocked to know it was predominately white women, if there were any POC at all involved

Most of these companies are on the side of performative but their action is often minimal
 
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