

Racism in talk about outsourcing - kranner
http://blog.codeboff.in/2010/06/15/racism-in-talk-about-outsourcing/

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kls
_In the end, we went with the Indian company

You asked what you did wrong. I present to you what you did wrong_

could someone explain to me, where the racism lies in the above sentence?
Seriously, it may not be a well thought out response that highlights the
perils of outsourcing, but it is well know that outsourcing increases risk.

India, being one of the largest software outsourcing recipients, just bear the
brunt of this well know reality. I have rescued many projects from "India" and
not one of them has been because of some genetic inferiority of "Indians",
rather there are real logistical and cultural issues that many people are not
aware of when they sink into the lowest bidder trap.

Unfortunate, individuals that make comments like the quoted one have seen this
far too many times and instead of offering constructive dialog, tend to take
an I told you so attitude without offering a explanation as to why. Meanwhile
the overly sensitive politically correct immediately jump to the racist white
guy explanation for criticism.

The fact of the matter is that outsourcing to India or anywhere else is
fraught with risk, more project fail than succeed. It is not racist to be a
realist and to deflect from the issue by crying racism does not fix the
underlining issue, which is really that people need to be educated on how to
outsource successfully.

~~~
kranner
In retrospect I agree that this quote isn't particularly racist by itself. But
it at least represents a discriminatory attitude towards Indians-as-
programmers, which the count of net up-votes suggests is happily endorsed by
people in general, presumably many of whom do work in the field and do
propagate this attitude in real life, even if silently.

I also agree that the race card is overused and in general any assertions made
under it are not falsifiable. But the flip side is that real racism is easy to
qualify with a rote disclaimer ("I know many smart Indian programmers
personally"). That doesn't decrease the sting of the isolated snide remark
which was almost but not quite racist.

I believe that the number of outsourcing successes is not as low as is
portrayed in online forums, perhaps because those involved tend to be less
vocal about it.

My point is related to what you seem to say in the last line: people need to
be able to discuss outsourcing or anything else without some being able to get
away with saying 'Indians suck at programming'.

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bediger
It's awfully hard to talk about the problems (and they're HUGE) of outsourcing
(really, "offshoring") to India without sounding racist, even if you don't
intend to.

In the USA at least, since the early 80s, "Human Resources" departments have
trained managers, directors and up to think of employees as coming in "plug-
compatible" categories. Naturally, management has extended this incorrect
mindset to offshored workers. The vast cultural differences between USA and
India cause a lot of problems, as does the time difference.

But nobody can say anything because of the danger of inadvertantly sounding
racist.

~~~
kranner
People _should_ complain about problems. But it is entirely possible to do so
without being derogatory about Indians _as a class_.

The cultural differences between anywhere and anywhere else may be vast but I
don't think they are unbridgeable, provided that both sides first agree to co-
operate.

