
Here's the Memo About the Burden of Being Black at Google - jkuria
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/zmjvy3/heres-the-memo-about-the-burden-of-being-black-at-google
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cristinabunea
You can listen to this article here:

[https://www.listle.io/#/article/1537279741](https://www.listle.io/#/article/1537279741)

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joe223
"My teammates always had something to say about everything. but when it came
to the violent policing of black bodies, they were silent."

My guess is that they were afraid of retaliation and wisely chose to keep
mouth shut. PC now is the new religion, especially in big companies. A few
centuries ago, when religion was strong, engaging in a debate with strangers
about whether the god exists would be a suicide: unless you say something
along the few pre-approved lines, you would be reported and retaliated
against.

It's a curious situation when black and white people see each other
privileged: whites are privileged because "white privilege" and blacks are
privileged because they receive special catering and are immune from many
things that would get a white guy fired on the spot.

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mcv
Read the memo. It's quite the opposite. The person who spoke up complained
about how the protests the killing of an unarmed black man would impact
traffic, and found the protests 'ridiculous'. Everybody else nodded.

This caused the black team member to feel unsafe and made him afraid to speak
up or even mention that he was going to join the protests.

I wonder what special catering you think the black guy received in this
situation.

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joe223
Let's say you're an HR in this situation. What would you do?

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mcv
Figure out a way to fix the culture so minorities can feel safe and others
learn to be more aware of such issues.

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Causality1
>Provide additional mental health support for Googlers of color - especially
following critical moments impacting their communities

This was a fascinating look into an entire different world, thank you. To work
for a company that actually provides mental healthcare and then demand it
proactively monitor the media for possible sources of stress on particular
employees is a position of such _breathtaking_ privilege I had to read it
twice before it sunk in. Has this person ever worked somewhere half his
coworkers are living paycheck to paycheck? Has he ever had a _bad_ job in his
life?

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byoung2
_demand it proactively monitor the media for possible sources of stress on
particular employees_

It's Google...a simple Google News alert would be easy to set up, and having a
counselor would be no more unreasonable to have than the massage therapists
and barbers they currently have on site.

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Causality1
Indeed. I'm not saying it isn't inconvenient when the wheel breaks off your
golden chariot, just that I'm surprised you have one at all. "Barbers and
massage therapists on-site" Holy moley these people work in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

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curtisblaine
How can we know this is true? I mean, this is a memo providing anecdotal
evidence.

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Pavarotti
How can you know anything is true? By the nature of the text(a memo) it is was
always going to be anecdotal. What a ridiculous comment to make simply because
you were confronted with a differing perspective on the world.

