
Racism at a gaming company - plinkplonk
http://qu33riousity.tumblr.com/post/32659337104/racist-moments-of-2012-pt-1-the-workplace
======
cstross
"We don’t even tolerate people brining up concerns of racism here."
Translation: "we don't want to admit that we have a toxic, racist corporate
culture so we're going to blame the messenger."

The emphasis here is on racism, but there's a ton of casual sexism -- and I'd
be surprised if ageism wasn't present, too.

This is, at best, a company where HR have taken their eye off the ball. More
likely, there are serious institutional failings (and probable harrassment
lawsuits coming down the pipe in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... if they don't do something
about the corporate culture _fast_ ).

Note: this is me trying to stay dispassionate and non-angry. If I was the
author of this piece I'd be incandescent. Props to him for staying calm and
documenting this stuff rather than simply walking out. Or exploding.

~~~
humean
From the OP:

 _Also, at some point after this conversation took place, one of the women
looked at my prized necklace and said “Hey, that looks like a calculator, is
that a calculator?”_

 _I said “um no, it’s a necklace, it’s African, from Nairobi.”_

 _And she replies “Oh, huh…..well, it looks like a calculator.”_

 _Dumbwhite------_

If this is an accurate recollection, the author is a seriously disturbed
person _who should not be in this or any other workplace_. If this is not an
accurate recollection... I'm not sure the conclusion is any different.

Certainly there are workplace shootings where the perpetrator appears to have
a very similar attitude - the Omar Thornton case, for instance:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_Distributors_shooting>

Kixeye is obviously a company with a corporate culture in which people
vigorously insult each other in a typical young male style. A similar
institution is the US military - at least at the enlisted level. Race
relations in the military are and always have been excellent, so perhaps the
hypothesis that coarse humor is the cause of racial hostility could use a
little more exploring.

I wouldn't want to work at a company like Kixeye, though. It's obviously an
even worse fit for the OP. And that's not even to mention that this kind of
office culture is actually illegal in our great nation, land of the free and
home of the brave. This is irresponsible toward the investors, at least...

~~~
nollidge
> If this is an accurate recollection, the author is a seriously disturbed
> person

So you're saying that an overly defensive reaction to someone misunderstanding
a fashion object means he's likely to shoot the place up? That a guy gets
systematically discriminated against at the workplace, and you're worried he's
too angry about it? And that he might get violent about it because _one
single_ other person one time did? And that the U.S. military, which features
numerous official directives against racial discrimination, is an aptly
analogous institution?

------
tptacek
Decoder ring for nerds who are unable to read past words like "neoliberal
colonizer" without racing to the nearest TEXTAREA:

* A black coworker is singled out by another (non-black) coworker with "watch out for that guy, he’s trouble, he talks a lot of shit"

* Referring to a latino coworker, that same coworker suggests jokes: "Like ‘you’re a mexican whore’ or like ‘your mother’s a Mexican whore?"

* The black coworker is given a dictionary and told "I got this for you cause I know you speak ebonics."

* The latino coworker is then told "I would have gotten you one too but they didn’t have wetback to english"

* The author, who is black, is then told "Hey he’s dressed like Run DMC, does he know how to rap?" (The author is wearing a Pitchfork Media-compatible outfit including skinny jeans and a long-sleeved print t-shirt)

* The black coworker later informs the author that "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". "Steve" is the previously-mentioned white guy, and also apparently a manager.

* After telling that coworker that he is considering telling HR about racism in his group, "Steve" 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's complaints, "Steve" says, "Whoa whoa whoa, those comments you’re hearing aren’t racist; they’re jokes", and then "The problem is that you’re too sensitive. You need to check all that at the door before you come here to work", and finally "We don’t even tolerate people brining up concerns of racism here.".

* Later, a women asks whether the pendant the author is wearing, which is from Nairobi, is "a calculator".

* "Steve" later informs the author, "it’s ok to make jokes about slavery because that’s over". Then, "Also, you should be grateful that your ancestors went through slavery."

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.

Apart from the comment about the pendant, any one of the comments listed above
would be a firing offense here.

~~~
JPKab
Brilliant analysis.

I am one of the readers who had deep concern for the truthfulness of these
observations. If they are true, then he got screwed, royally, and should sue.

Except for the pendant comment. That's just a case of taking yourself too
seriously. Yet another nail in the coffin of his credibility.

~~~
tptacek
The things you think sap his credibility add to his credibility for me; if he
was making things up, it would have been easy for him to leave his own
politics and sensitivities out of the post to make it more painful for his ex-
employer. To me, it reads like he's just venting to his peers. We're the ones
making a big deal out of it.

~~~
strlen
Yes: if his "plan" was to defame an employer, he'd want to conceal his views
(which, again, are completely irrelevant here) as opposed to express them in a
transparent fashion (which he does).

Finally, you have to wonder, how much of abuse the employer had to dish out to
turn (judging from the picture) an apolitical gamer-hipster-nerd into an anti-
colonial radical. I don't want to make this story about me, but as a secular
Jew who immigrated from former USSR as a teen, I can say that experiencing
racism firsthand tends to change your perspective.

------
drats
"Dumbblack __ __ __ __ __"

"then proceeds to do what black men always can’t help but do"

"black men always telling which way is up because they feel they are the
“authority” when it comes to any and everything, most often when they don’t
know shit about shit"

" I know when black people start to speak down to me from their pedatsol which
is white privilege, they aren’t listening, nor will they"

"I cannot afford to take black people’s shit anymore."

Those are all quotes from the article, except I put 'black' where the author
put 'white', both sets are clearly an unacceptable way to speak. While I am
sure this guy has faced real disadvantage from some bigoted people, this post
is laced with racism against white people and ridiculously over-the-top
statements about colonialism and "neoliberal white supremacy".

~~~
king_jester
This is the equivalent of saying the author of this post is a reverse racist.
When was the last time a white person was killed for being white? When was the
last time someone came up to a white person and said they should be grateful
that their ancestors were slaves? When was the last time the government
systematically dismantled the white community in order to enforce racist class
oppression?

Repeat after me: WHITE PEOPLE DO NOT SUFFER FROM RACISM. Even if an individual
was prejudiced against someone because they are white, they would not be
affected outside of that one interaction. White folks' social standing and
ability to survive are not attacked daily on the basis of their skin.

EDIT: This is in context for the United States based on the blog author being
in SF.

~~~
JPKab
Take a walk through half of Baltimore, friend, and you will discover that you
will get the shit kicked out of you for being white. Murdered? Hopefully not,
but I can assure you that, while the old, racist, static power structures of
the USA are oppressive towards non-whites, power is not a static thing. It
shifts depending on where you are. When you are taking said walk in Baltimore,
and become surrounded by people who don't like you because of your skin color,
you don't have power anymore. They do. I know this first hand. When I was 16,
I took a short cut through a neighborhood that I shouldn't have. I was chased,
cornered, and beaten by 5 young men. They were black, and they were yelling
white slurs as they beat me and then branded the back of my neck with a
lighter. I still have that little smiley on the back of my neck to this day.
They didn't rob me by the way. NONE of my money was taken. They didn't even
touch my wallet. They didn't want a white person in their neighborhood. Your
theory holds up because you, clearly, have never lived in a majority black
neighborhood in your entire life. It's obvious by your stupid statement. And
no, I'm not a racist. Most of the black folks I grew up with would never have
tolerated such a thing. They would have stopped it if they had seen it, but
they weren't there.

~~~
anthonyb
And now imagine the entire country was like that half of Baltimore? How would
you feel then? You can at least avoid that area - they can't.

~~~
ctdonath
The entire country ISN'T like that half of Baltimore.

Most of the country doesn't give a shit what color you are so long as you
don't start with a presumptive "you're a fucking racist!" attitude.

------
JPKab
I'm sorry, but this kind of whining is what I've heard from professional
victims my entire life. Talking about gentrifiers as invaders discredits the
rest of the story in my eyes. As a former trailer park country boy who grew up
in a mostly black county, I can attest to how blatantly (and without even
realizing it) racist and insensitive whites who grew up in affluent suburbs
can be. My best friend (since age 11) is a black male who dominates at his
company. He has told me dozens of stories of dealing with these kinds of white
boys. All the stories end the same way: He tells them, directly, in the same
manner as if he were talking to a drunken buddy making an ass of himself at a
bar, "what you just said was offensive/racist/etc. I'm gonna assume that you
didn't realize it, but now you do. Cool?" He told me this has resulted in all
of them apologizing with minimal awkwardness afterwards. Racism/racial
insensitivity isn't an incurable disease. It's the result of attitudes and
ignorance. If people would, instead of isolating people displaying these
behaviors, instead approach them and talk to them and continue to treat them
as friends, it would go a long way towards fixing things.

~~~
potatolicious
> _"He tells them, directly, in the same manner as if he were talking to a
> drunken buddy making an ass of himself at a bar, "what you just said was
> offensive/racist/etc. I'm gonna assume that you didn't realize it, but now
> you do. Cool?" He told me this has resulted in all of them apologizing with
> minimal awkwardness afterwards."_

Your world of rainbows and unicorns sounds amazing, where all racism comes
from under-informed people who can then be rightly fixed by prompt education!

Clearly, oppressively racist institutions where people are powerless to
correct the situation don't exist. Where they _appear_ to exist, the victims
just didn't assert themselves strongly enough. If they just calmly told their
oppressors that they were being racist and offensive, they would stop!

This totally explains away the entirety of slavery and apartheid. I'm just
shocked that no one over hundreds of years just nicely stopped someone,
explained how what they were doing is wrong, and had them stop!

</snark>

Seriously though, I'm glad that your experiences have been exclusively in
places where people actually respond to criticism and education. And I mean
that - facing the sort of horrific, powerless racism that many people do every
day is terrible, and no one deserves to experience it from either end of the
stick. Your experience is not generalizable to all instances of racism - it's
not even generalizable to a minority of it.

~~~
saraid216
And really, the only reason you aren't a Baptist is because you haven't given
the Bible a real chance! All you have to do is read God's Word and let him
into your heart and of _course_ you'll believe exactly the same things I do to
the letter even if they aren't actually found literally stated anywhere in the
Bible.

------
oinksoft
I'm sadly not in the least bit surprised by the comments here, actually
accusing _the author_ of being the racist, professional victim, all of that
horse-shit. I am a white man, but the author's points really hit home for me,
not because I've myself been treated this way, but because I have had to
tolerate conduct like this for pretty much my entire life, just not directed
at me. I can't tell you the number of times I've come to the defense of
minority views over the years, and I've basically given up on it because the
racists just turn their anger on me:

 _"Hey, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but you're not black."_ (laughs all
around...)

 _"You know you're white, right?"_

 _"Slavery ended a long time ago, blacks have nobody to blame but themselves
by now"_ (roughly paraphrased)

 _"I've got plenty of black friends. They agree with me on [fucked up view]."_

I'm a human being and I've seen black Americans treated more like shit than
anybody else, by far, throughout my life. Usually it's the side-swiping stuff
the author talks about, but sometimes it's right in my face, usually when
discussing politics and social issues with my peers.

Ultimately, I end up doing what most everybody else does in my situation: I
withdraw. I don't debate anymore. I don't grin, but I bear it. I help people
where I can, silently.

I know I really only make technical posts on this website, but shit, sometimes
you've gotta vent.

~~~
droithomme
I agree with what you have said, and yes, anyone speaking truth about
institutional racism and white privilege gets downvoted. Since discussion of
the reality is not permitted, I find it helpful to keep for my personal
records names and company affiliations of people defending white privilege.

~~~
whyaduck
Relevant: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY>

------
jason_slack
Kixeye should be ashamed. Hopefully enough bad press and folks commenting will
get them to take a look how they operate and what they tolerate and change it.

Maybe they should actually try and focus as a company.

1\. insist the programmers work. There games are not that great.

2\. insist their website get up to 2012 standards. I would assume they were
not a serious company based upon their all Flash website.

3\. Look at Chick-Fil-A and the onslaught of people pissed off at their stance
on gay's in the workplace. We should be equally pissed at Kixeye and boycott
them too.

4\. There are standard stereotypical jokes and then there are blatant racist
comments.

Example Joke: Asians have a lot of trouble parking and stopping at stop signs.

Blatant racism: "Hey Joe, I mean Ying, to use your real name, nice 30 point
parallel park this morning, you really are Asian."

There is a difference. I am white and I live in a very predominantly Asian
area of Cupertino and the joke would be funny to a lot of Asians. The racism,
no.

Kudos to the OP for writing this.

We can all tell he is upset at what he experienced. Some of this shows through
but boil this down to the essence and we have a company that is openly
encouraging a racist environment and in 2012 nobody should have to worry about
being black, white, purple, gay, straight, trans-gender, dress like a thug,
cross-dress, etc...

Edit: Thinking about this more, the OP gets irritated when the company served
a lunch of "Fried Chicken and Waffles". He implies indirectly to Black folk
this is an insult. However, look at the menu of "Waffle House" and it is an
item on the menu. There wasn't anything really wrong with the lunch they
served. It is one of those lunch combinations that people just know about and
associate with Blacks.

Example: Fried Chicken and Watermelon - Black

Corn Beef and Cabbage - Irish

Tea and Cucumbers - WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)

Mac and Cheese with Hot Dogs - White

Racist company and an OP that is coming down to their level more often than he
should. Let the water roll off a ducks back...

~~~
kevingadd
Look, I'm not a fan of Kixeye's games either but I think we should be able to
agree that the quality of their website is not really a consideration when it
comes to the topic of discussion here. What does Flash have to do with this?

~~~
jason_slack
You are right, it has no factor.

------
ctide
This really isn't that surprising to me. Game testers are the same young kids
who are running around xbox games going out of their way to be as offensive as
possible to everyone. It should come as no shock that they act the same way at
work when work is just an extension of their regular gaming life. I'm not
defending it, mind you, since Kixeye is going way too far with it, but the
'culture' he speaks of is the online gaming culture.

~~~
MartinCron
It should come as a shock when they act the same way at work. Why? Because
we're trying to be a civilized society and that kind of bullshit is expressly
illegal.

You can't (and shouldn't) regulate online gaming culture, which isn't tragic
because you can opt out of it (I don't play Xbox games online for that very
reason) but you can't expect a person to _opt out of the workplace_.

------
rbellio
"Dumbwhite __ __ __ __ __"

"Oh..hell..no.."

I had to remind myself that this was a blog post. That it wasn't a literary
article or technical diagram. I look for unbiased, factual reporting that is
meant to educate and improve awareness. This is not one of those things. It's
an inflammatory post where an individual is airing his grievances. I feel
sorry that someone can be treated so poorly in a workplace, but at the same
time, the author damages his point by using equally vitriolic and occasionally
stereotypical phrases.

I hope the author is able to find a work environment that is more progressive
and that is more respectful of all genders, creeds and sexual orientations.

------
hugh4life
I quit reading once I realized I was reading a gay man denouncing gentrifiers
as being "neoliberal colonizers". Ugh... he may have experienced racism but
he's also suffering from self delusion.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator>

~~~
citricsquid
I dunno if he's just angry, I guess it makes sense, but I agree that some of
his comments seem off, like he has "problems" beyond the situation, these are
just as racist:

    
    
        Also, at some point after this conversation took 
        place, one of the women looked at my prized necklace 
        and said “Hey, that looks like a calculator, is that a calculator?” 
    
        I said “um no, it’s a necklace, it’s African, from Nairobi.”
    
        And she replies “Oh, huh…..well, it looks like a calculator.” 
    
        Dumbwhite**********
    

and then:

    
    
         do what white men always can’t help but do: “educate.”
    

I get that he had a bad experience, but it seems he's descending into
pointless casual racism too.

edit: this too

    
    
          I cannot afford to take white people’s shit anymore.

~~~
ChuckMcM
In my experience once people get to the point where they want to shout out
their hurt/anger to the world they have gone past the 'civil' stage. This
person has a pretty much slam dunk case for a hostile work environment, the
lawsuit would wake up management to that fact.

Now it may be true that work was just the part that took them over the top,
but I am not going to dismiss his clearly painful experience because of that.

~~~
citricsquid
I didn't mean to imply his experience should be dismissed or considered any
less "real", just that his own issues seem to extend beyond this situation. I
think this post would do much better if he were to remove all his own racism,
because it devalues his point.

I can't relate to his experience (middle class, white, male) but what I can do
is read what he wrote and what jumps out most at me is his own racism. I think
that for a post like this to truly _achieve_ anything (as in, explain the
issue to those that have no way to understand or relate) it needs to be
without any sort of... I guess distraction.

It reflects poorly on me and everyone else that is unable to separate what is
ultimately meaningless (his own racism) from the general point (kixeye has bad
employees / management) and I think your point about his level of anger could
be the reason why this actually has value (shows he is so angry / upset he
lets himself become racist) to the post.

I want to care about his problem but I can't relate so I'm stuck trying to
take value from what he has said and I can't do that without being overwhelmed
by his own racism. I think what tptacek said above is right though, he doesn't
matter, the post isn't about him, it's about the people at kixeye.

I'll leave my comment just for the sake of not destroying the conversation,
but I no longer think it has value here.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I think your comment does have value, its why I responded to it, to add
context.

Racism and all *ism has an interesting (as in sociological) property that like
electric charge is simulates the opposite charge on the other side of the
dielectric. I happen to fall into the last unprotected class on the planet
(old fat white guys :-) but having worked with and at times managed a very
diverse set of folks my entire life it became clear there are people who are
racists by 'choice' and people who are reflexively racist.

Lets postulate for the sake of example that racism had a measurable quantity,
from 1.0 which is some sort of 'my race is the only one worth anything' to the
0.0 which is complete blindness to race in thought, speech, or action.

The perception of racism or sexism for people whom have discussed the
experience with me was that one person could exhibit say 0.5 units of bias,
and they they fall into a thought process that everyone is 0.5 racist. It very
much shares a sort of 'herd immunity' reflex. If 90% percent of the folks in
the group are blind to race issues then the 10% who aren't will stick out.
What percentage of people have to be tolerably racist before its toxic? Does
it matter? Why would anyone tolerate any sort racism in the work place?

So if person A is racist by choice, which is to say they have done some sort
of evaluation and decided that race has an effect which transcends environment
or skills, their actions and comments will create in people of that 'other'
race a reflexive alter-racism (and always people are not perfect reflectors,
for some it bounces off, for others it gets amplified). Now you get something
like racism amplification by stimulated emission of insults [1} or something.
That sort of situation is, painful, toxic to morale, and legally actionable.

The critical point though is we have to see this sort of missive not as
'professional victims' (although there are such people, painting any
individual into that group without first hand knowledge is probably wrong) but
as a signal that you have a problem. And getting everyone to buy into the
notion that we're all individuals and not everyone finds ethnic jokes or sex
jokes funny, is one of the more important jobs for management. As an
individual you're best off trying not to be part of the problem.

[1] RASEI? The effect is remarkably similar

------
3minus1
Interesting read. The number of times the author mentions "white men" honestly
made me uncomfortable. How is a statement like "Steve then proceeds to do what
white men always can’t help but do: “educate.”" not racist in and of itself?

~~~
lowboy
Without a doubt it's racist. But if you consider power structures and
privilege, not all racism is equally bad. As a white male, I'd rather he not
have that opinion of me based solely on my race, but I'm willing to give him
some leeway due to his experiences.

~~~
cowsaysoink
Meh that is bullshit. What makes that more acceptable than calling someones
dress thuggish because it appears similar to what all the gang members you
went to school with wore?

Experience doesn't get to dictate racism.

~~~
aidenn0
I think if he were wearing baggy jeans and gold-chains, the thuggish comment
would have made more sense. His dress is more reminiscent of a gay san
franciscan than a gang-banging Angeleno.

On the other hand, he's black and he's dressing different from other people at
the office, so it's "thuggish"

------
kevingadd
In my experience, game development is stressful enough as a white,
biologically male young adult. I can only imagine what kind of a personal hell
it must be to work in an environment like the one described by the OP.

I've ranted and raved before about how despicable I consider some of the HR
practices common in the games industry, how how in particular I feel that
certain companies treat their employees as disposable and prioritize the
success of individual products over the health of the team and the health of
the company culture.

This, however, is on an entirely separate level: The company management itself
being complicit in the abuse of employees, and taking actions that not only
damage the team & culture but actually jeopardize the success of products by
seeding anger and distrust between team members. That even a single person in
a management position would allow this kind of shit to go on is disgusting.

When Harbin (Kixeye's CEO) quoted Conan the Barbarian in their tasteless
recruitment video ('What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them
driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.') my
instinctual response was negative. To me, even for a company that intends to
appeal to the hardcore male gamer audience, using that kind of language -
language of oppression and sexism and violence - when talking about making
social games felt unnecessary and excessive. It made me wonder if perhaps the
company's CEO actually shared the perspective espoused by the fictional
character of Conan - but that couldn't possibly be true, could it? Could
someone actually feel that way about others so strongly that he'd be willing
to say so, unabstracted, in a video designed to present his company to the
rest of the world and excite prospective employees? Of course not, right?

I also find it extremely interesting to contrast-and-compare Kixeye's
depictions of Zynga/Mark Pincus, and Kixeye, in their recruitment video [1]
with my personal experiences with both companies. I almost feel as if the
staff behind that video were projecting their own fears and insecurities onto
their competitors.

[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5l-nnR4Bx0>

------
r00fus
I know another dev who used to work for another small gaming company in SF. He
was non-chinese asian, and the management was mostly Han-Chinese and he also
got a lot of vaguely racial comments and despite being a rather productive
employee, quit a few months later in disgust at disrespect.

I can only imagine this kind of attitude can be go unchecked in an insular
frat-boy-ish culture where strong ties and long hours are valued more than
respect and work output.

Definitely something to watch out for - even if you're in the in-group and not
being harassed, it's not fun witnessing this kind of petty abuse.

------
prayag
Can we please not try to attack the credibility and language of the OP here?
Can we please not question his language? He is venting. That's the language
you would expect from someone who is extremely frustrated with the harassment
he has experienced in the workplace. Can we stick to the point that a tech
executive was able to get away with something that would have been
unacceptable in almost any other industry.

Even if this IS exaggerated the allegations are still very serious. Times like
these are a reminder that the tech industry is still living in the dark ages
where sexism and racism is rampant at worst and disconcerting at best. WE will
not get past this problem if we keep questioning everyone who raises the
issue. We need to be more accepting of the issues that exist instead of
attacking the messenger.

I wouldn't say I am disappointed by the discussion here because the HN crowd
is generally sheltered from the problems of prejudice(consisting mainly of
straight, white, men) but unless we as an industry start accepting this issue
we will continue to languish as a one of the most gender and racially lopsided
industries in the world.

------
praptak
_"The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue,
probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of
experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated
against - or so they claim. [...] Yet all of a sudden something happens to put
a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable
capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. It’s someone who belongs
to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you.
Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about
that. [...]

Don’t worry though! There IS something you can do to nip this potentially
awkward and embarrassing situation in the bud. By simply derailing the
conversation, dismissing their opinion as false and ridiculing their
experience you can be sure that they continue to be marginalised and unheard
and you can continue to look like the expert you know you really are, deep
down inside! "_

The more you know: <http://www.derailingfordummies.com/complete.html>

------
languagehacker
Thanks for submitting this, and having the courage to speak out about a really
awful corporate culture. I had a feeling they were like this from their
horrible, obnoxious recruiting billboards, and it's kind of sad vindication to
see how terrible they truly are in practice. I hope the author finds a nice
job that fits with his moral compass and treats him (and everyone else) with
the respect he deserves.

------
bking
I agree with taking up a lawsuit. He is a racist dick.

On that same note, don't bring yourself to his level and start throwing out
racist slurs too. Your words are public domain now, and if they get a lawyer
with any sense, they might find a defense in your offense.

kick his teeth in in court though! (figuratively of course)

------
eridius
I thought their ads were bad enough. Assuming this story is true, it sounds
like Kixeye is the absolute epitome of the worst that our profession has to
offer.

------
DanBC
There is overt racism. It's disappointing that no-one else stood up against
the blatant examples given in this article. I agree with CStross, that company
is ignoring serious problems and leaving themselves wide open to big lawsuits.

There is covert racism. That's harder to stop, but a good way to start ending
it is to accept that _in the workplace_ you might want to restrict the "jokes"
that you tell.

And then there's all the sub-conscious prejudice that's so hard to eliminate.

------
btilly
He "won't name the company." But searching on the text of the picture finds
<http://www.meh.ro/2012/06/07/rule-the-interwebz/> which tells me that it is
Kixeye. And then <https://www.google.com/search?q=kixeye.com+racism> turns up
lots of other stuff including people on the forums complaining that they don't
police racist comments in game,
<http://www.theatlanticwire.com/topics/kixeye/#> complaining about the sexism
there, and so on. If you search this forum you'll find other links supporting
their bad corporate culture.

He certainly didn't hide the company very well. However knowing the company
makes his allegations much more plausible.

------
anigbrowl
This doesn't surprise me too much; a company whose advertising is straight
outta 4chan is probably going to have an internal culture like that of 4chan
(hyper-adolescent, ignorant, and frequently toxic) but without the benefits of
4chan (total anonymity, non-persistence).

There are upsides to such an anything-goes environment as well (creativity,
originality), but it's clear that in this case, anything goes to the extent
that you're white and male. I'm not wholly in sympathy with the author (that
necklace _does_ kinda look like a pocket calculator, and the inquiry didn't
seem malicious), but think he is right to seek redress. That said, it would be
a good idea to consult an attorney about how much to say in public; showing an
advert for your employer that will be recognizable to many other people in the
locality may be a bad idea.

------
columbo
> calculator

Was that inherently a racist thing to say? Because looking at it... it does
look like something electronic.

There's no question that the workplace was hostile, but there are too many
side quests in this article. I'm not sure what Jose's marriage or the
Dumbwhite-comment has to do with it. Maybe I'm missing something.

~~~
king_jester
In the context of the preceding few minutes of conversation the author had
with this manager, the only way the necklace question can be taken is as a
racist comment.

~~~
columbo
Huh...

>Also, at some point after this conversation took place, one of the women
looked at my prized necklace and said “Hey, that looks like a calculator, is
that a calculator?”

I didn't really read that as immediately after, more along the lines of
"sometime later that day someone walked up and asked if my necklace was a
calculator"... the sentence doesn't give a good grasp on timing.

~~~
king_jester
Ah sorry, I didn't really explain myself clearly. I mean to say that after
being the subject of some really stressful and severe racial harassment, I
don't think it would have been possible to take that comment as anything other
than racist. In hostile work environments, it is really hard to take comments
and questions in a straight-forward manner. This is how toxic cultures poison
the ability of people to work together, by undermining the mental and
emotional health of the staff.

------
kespindler
<http://www.crunchbase.com/company/kixeye-2>

Note who has given them funding. Send this blog post to the VC companies that
have given them funding. Should hit them where it hurts.

And yes, take legal action. (Although seek legal council to ensure first bit
isn't considered slander or what have you. Be in best possible position for a
legal battle.) Companies like this give the profession a bad name.

~~~
danielweber
I'm really hating Kixeye right now, but can we hold off on the guilt-by-
association for a bit?

------
iandanforth
A couple other commenters have mentioned this but in case the author is
reading I want to emphasize the importance of winning the rhetorical war
before you proceed to fight the fight you actually care about.

As with any story a reader wants to like the characters they are reading
about. It's hard to like someone who is constantly angry, depressed,
sarcastic, and bitter. You, as a person may feel these things, and be
completely correct to feel them, however you make it hard to read your story
without a contrast. For example, "I love games" or "I love the way I feel in
Oakland" or "I am so proud of my necklace I don't care what others think."
People can empathize with pain, but they also need joy, hope, and a reason to
like you.

Another way to win the rhetorical battle is to use humor. Your reactions to
the abuse are shock, horror, rage, and sarcasm. Feel free to interject a joke
or two. In ten years you _will_ be telling jokes about these ignorant people.
Make them into caricatures, lampoon them, exaggerate their folly so that
people will not just be angry at them on your behalf but seem them as an
absurd throwback to a time you wish had passed.

Tell a story that demonstrates the moral high ground. What I remember from
your post is that you tried to say something, gave up, then went home, got
high and watched Netflix. People want to be inspired to take action, and if
you have a story, even if it means talking to HR, that is incredibly powerful.
How does your behavior model an appropriate response for others who might be
in your shoes? A lawsuit may be appropriate, but from reading your story it
seems like a dramatic escalation, you need to lead people into it.

I can't say I understand what you're going through, but I do support your
effort and I'm disgusted on behalf of white-straight-geeks everywhere. If an
apology means anything I'm sorry you are going through this.

~~~
nollidge
Speak for yourself. I want to hear his pain and frustration. I want to
identify with his despair in the face of a type of idiocy I will never
personally experience as a straight white cis male. I want to hear the shrill,
flawed voice of melancholy.

He's not MLK, Jr. He's a guy telling a personal story. The world needs a
plurality of voices to advance; the despondent and downtrodden remind us where
we are, and the transcendent and hopeful show us a way out.

------
cmwelsh
At various points in the article, the author uses terminology that stoops to
the level of the people he's railing against.

Don't let racists bring you down to their level.

------
pja
Just as an exercise, I went and collected all the responses here that matched
entries in Derailing for Dummies (<http://derailingfordummies.com>).

We have at least: "You're too hostile", with a side order of "You're being
Overemotional" and "You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry" plus a few
"But that Happens to Me Too!" and plenty of "But I'm Not Like That - Stop
Stereotying!". Any more?

(I could link to the guilty parties, but they'd probably only start arguing
the toss.)

~~~
cantastoria
I love how someone always hauls out that set of speech codes every time
there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum, as if there's a "correct
way" to participate in these discussions. You're not our proctor. If you want
to let that absurd list of rules dictate how you discuss these issues then go
ahead but please don't expect the rest us to follow suit. Hopefully the rest
of HN doesn't subscribe to that kind of self-censorship.

~~~
erikpukinskis
If I am having a conversation with my friend about struggles he's having with
his boss, and you come in and start talking about how difficult is is to hire
good people, you're being an asshole. It's not wrong to talk about hiring, but
you're a jerk if you insist on derailing our conversation.

Now being a jerk isn't so awful. But we could just walk away and have our
conversation in private, right? It's a free country after all.

But when this kind of derailment happens over and over again to the point that
no matter when or where you bring it up, SOMEONE finds a way to derail the
conversation, it starts to become oppressive. At that point the community is
conspiring to prevent people from discussing racism.

And so we implore you to decide, FOR YOURSELF, that you would like to join us
in making space for real talk about racism. The notion of "self-censorship" is
nonsense. We all have free will and and we can decide what to speak about. I'm
not going to get the government to silence you, I'm asking you to understand
the effects of your words and to take responsibility for them.

------
bdr
The company is Kixeye.

~~~
lazugod
That's quite an ad-copy filled Wikipedia page they have (and an even weirder
website).

Not that this says whether Kixeye is the company described by OP.

~~~
bking
If the poster is of that company, you can do a quick google search for "rule
the interwebz" and it shows the web address at the bottom of the poster.

------
lnanek2
He writes Dumbwhite __ __ __ __ __a lot in his blog, but he wasn't willing to
say it back in person? He should have just said it instead of going home and
feeling hurt. I think they'd respect him more if he gave as good as he got in
a frat boy environment like that with everyone talking shit. I've been on
sports teams like that, lol.

~~~
bmalee
Yes, I can't imagine why a lone gay black man in an office full of straight
white guys might not feel comfortable confronting people.

------
tsahyt
Uh, well. I don't know where to start really. On the one hand, this article is
about racism and other forms of hatred at a large company, which is obviously
wrong. It is about a personal experience. Every sentence written tells about
what OP endured emotionally. I understand that this sort of discrimination is
emotionally crippling and that it affects him _deeply_.

But this wouldn't be my comment if I agreed with everything. Then I'd just
have upvoted the post further. The problem here is, that this article also
paints a picture about the author and it doesn't paint a very welcoming one to
me. The article itself is littered with racism and typical "anti-hate"
buzzwords. The kind of words I usually hear from people filled with lots and
lots of hate themselves.

 _That_ is definitely not the answer to _any_ of the problems OP has faced. Is
it understandable? Yes. Does it help? Not at all. Don't get me wrong: It's
important that people get the word out to fight racism, because it's still
prevalent all over the world but fighting fire with fire never helped and
calling a racist any racist slurs only makes things worse.

Then there are some things I personally disagree with in general. PC speech is
incredibly bad (and ineffective anyway) I think. Not only does it just shift
the problem to a different domain, it also attacks free speech. Being pretty
fundamentalist about free speech I can't find any good about trying to make a
language "politically correct". After all, the problem aren't the words. The
problem are the values different people assign to them. What we need to do
isn't "banning bad words", we need to make people more open-minded. If this
isn't accomplish, banning words won't help anyway, because one day the
"politically correct" word will have the exact same value attached to them as
- say, for example - "nigger" has today. Language isn't written in stone. It
always moves and evolves and after all it's a reflection of culture and
society.

Besides - not really related to the article - I don't believe in never
offending anyone. In fact, I think I offend people on a daily basis just by
stating my opinions and seriously, I couldn't care less. Obviously, racism is
a bit more than just offending.

Oh yeah and by the way, last time I checked, neoliberalism was a school of
economic thought.

------
juridatenshi
I want to create physical copies of Derailing for Dummies just so I can throw
them at most of the commenters in here. You are hitting so many of the points.
:(

<http://derailingfordummies.com/complete.html>

------
thebigshane
I have such mixed feelings about this being on HN. Yes, I think we should read
it and learn from it. I absolutely agree with the author. It's one of those
things I wish everyone knew but for some reason there are still people who
don't, so maybe showing up on the front page every once and a while is a good
reminder.

But the comments should be turned off. This is such a heated topic and are
there aren't any right answers to this problem besides "keep it in mind, don't
do what they did". What can possibly be discussed here besides emotional
bickering from both sides. It does not seem productive and is not interesting
conversation.

(I posted this exact same comment on another thread on HN today, about the
sexism at a tech conference... <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4602688>)

~~~
MartinCron
The fact that there is such a ...passionate... discussion about it, from "this
is terrible" to "this guy is just being too sensitive" or "OMG, the OP is
racist as well!" shows that there isn't a consensus opinion about this kind of
behavior in the workplace for our industry.

This, along with sexism, is difficult to talk about well, but I don't know if
that means we need to stop talking.

~~~
thebigshane
Do we need a "consensus opinion"? Does it need to happen here?

My point is that discussing controversial social issues is generally
unproductive. Worth thinking about, but unless PG devotes his next essay to
this topic, I don't think anyone is going to be changing their minds here.

For what it's worth I agree with most of your comments on this thread, and the
backlash you are getting has really lowered my average opinion of this
community. It's disgusting.

~~~
MartinCron
I totally see where you're coming from, and I don't think that we need a
consensus opinion on everything. I'm just really disturbed that "don't be a
sexist asshole" and "don't be a racist asshole" are still actual controversial
positions in a community I care so much about.

I don't know if talking about it will make anything any better, but I have a
hard time with the idea of _not_ talking about it as a way to improve things.

------
chromaticorb
as horrible as it is for him, and as vile as his colleagues were, i really
don't care his writing style. it reads like a bad fan fiction half the time.

plus the run dmc segue into the 'what i wore today' image was a bit gratuitous

------
victorhn
Warning - This post contains pornographic content (at the bottom of the page).

~~~
andrew_wc_brown
Unfortunately confirmed. If your at work don't scroll all the way down.

------
jamesmiller5
If you replace the instances of "white men" with "mainstream white culture"
his arguments are much stronger and I believe to be his original intent.

"And it’s not a matter of generalizing white people, rather it’s being real
about the culture San Francisco creates."

The author is angry that white culture perpetuates racism and privilege, which
himself and other cultural minorities are now forced to tolerate at their
workplace. His choice of words was obviously inappropriate and while I'm not
excusing how his point was said I don't believe it was his intention to make
his point using racist statements.

This is a classic example of "What you said was racist VS. You are a racist":
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc>

------
mratzloff
He would have been better off filing the lawsuit and keeping the story off his
blog. The guy's got a big chip on his shoulder--but he's not wrong. Apparently
the working environment at Kixeye clearly crosses the line from "all in good
fun" to "insulting and humiliating".

------
fixermark
" I was approached by a person who runs a contracting “company,” hiring video
game testers to work at various game companies."

... which is where the story starts to go bad. Videogame testing is a
notoriously terrible space with incredibly unacceptable behaviors (see
<http://trenchescomic.com/tales> for a selection of them). Which is not
something I note to imply that our blogger should have known better; it's
something I want to hilite to raise consciousness about it.

I'm glad this author is taking action and hope he gets all the support he can
from his communities (including this one). This stuff is poisonous,
unacceptable, and right under the noses of a lot of tech companies. It needs
to stop.

------
ender7
All right, so _yes_ , the author is responding to some clearly racist behavior
with some nasty and racist/prejudiced words of his own. Such behavior is
understandable, but it still weakens his piece.

That said...there is a difference between some guy ranting on a blog and a
200+ company with what appears to be institutionalized problems of sexism and
racism ingrained into their culture. In a respectable tech company, any one of
the alleged comments made by Steve would have landed him in a hotseat meeting
with HR but-quick. The fact that he still works there at all is troubling to
say the least.

Put another way, if any of this is even remotely true then you couldn't pay me
enough to work there.

------
S4M
Above everything else in that story, I am most shocked by the fact that the
guy Steve said to the OP something in the lines of "you should consider
yourself lucky your ancestors have been slaves, so that you can work in this
company". I find this statement really, really shocking, and I think the OP
should have reacted strongly and put this guy to his place. It was a private
meeting so there were no witnesses, but he should have done _something_. Take
Steve out of the conference room and say "can you please repeat in front of
everyone what you just said to me?".

I mean, you should be able to sue people for saying enormities like that!

------
run4yourlives
Ridiculous and juvenile corporate culture aside, the irony of the author's
narrative is slapping the reader right in the face. Hard. So hard it hurts.

If you are going to take exception to racist, sexist and stereotypical joking
- which is most certainly your right in a professional work environment, you
may want to re-evaluate your own notions of "the evil white oppressor" and
recognize it for the racism that _it_ is.

I wish I could take this tale at face value, but the author is clearly looking
for oppression whether it exists or not. I'm not sure at this point one could
expect that this telling is even remotely close to accurate.

~~~
MartinCron
_clearly looking for oppression whether it exists or not_

Is there an explanation for the events in the story that aren't clear examples
of oppression? I can't find one.

~~~
dmorgan
> _Is there an explanation for the events in the story that aren't clear
> examples of oppression? I can't find one._

Really? How about some guys talking BS and making irreverent jokes?

You keep using this word "oppression". I don't think it means what you think
it means.

~~~
MartinCron
I think the word "oppression" perfectly applies to multiple unwelcome
instances of strong verbal abuse coming from someone in a privileged class
directed at someone in a non-privileged class. If there's a better word, I
haven't found it yet.

Even if we take the most charitable interpretation possible, that this wasn't
anything more than "talking BS" and "irreverent jokes" and that the person
making jokes was just clueless and not trying to be deliberately hurtful, that
still doesn't make this kind of behavior OK. Ignorance of common decency is no
excuse not to be decent.

~~~
dmorgan
> _I think the word "oppression" perfectly applies to multiple unwelcome
> instances of strong verbal abuse coming from someone in a privileged class
> directed at someone in a non-privileged class. If there's a better word, I
> haven't found it yet._

Are white people supposed to be privileged in a company and black people non-
privileged? Was he denied changes to get a promotion, or had he to make do
with less wage? What was his "under-privileged" status?

If two white guys, say an Irish and a Southern, exchange Irish and Redneck
jokes at one another, does that count as "verbal abuse" too? Or is it only
verbal abuse when they turn and address similar stuff to a black co-worker?

~~~
MartinCron
Are you seriously asking these questions? Do you realize that you're coming
across as defending deplorable behavior? Do you care? Would you say these
sorts of things to the author's face?

There's a large sea of historical context that we're all swimming in. You can
pretend it doesn't exist and make your cute little conjectures about Irish and
Redneck jokes.

~~~
dmorgan
> _Are you seriously asking these questions? Do you realize that you're coming
> across as defending deplorable behavior? Do you care? Would you say these
> sorts of things to the author's face?_

I sure would. He comes off as a judgemental, reverse-racist (I lost count of
the "anti-white-in-general" references), and unable to take a joke guy with an
axe to grind.

I care far more for actual cases of racism, like an over-representation of the
black population being in prison, or the government (and the country) pissing
all over native american rights, that for some guy crying over some jokes said
in his office without any links to actual facts of racism (like, I was paid
less because I was black, I was not promoted because I was black, etc).

> _There's a large sea of historical context that we're all swimming in. You
> can pretend it doesn't exist and make your cute little conjectures about
> Irish and Redneck jokes._

YOU might be swimming in. This is the internet, it's global. My country didn't
trade in black slaves, so I could care less for that hypocritical "after the
fact" guilt.

~~~
MartinCron
I see where you're coming from. I guess I should have said "there's a large
sea of historical context that _the OP was swimming in_ "

It feels you're setting up a false dichotomy between "actual" racism that
involves things like incarceration rates and workplace discrimination and
"fake" racism that involves things like hostile workplaces and harassment. It
_is_ possible to care about both.

And maybe _you_ wouldn't cry over jokes like that, but it doesn't mean that
it's wrong for someone else to have a different response.

------
flipstewart
A NSFW alert in the title would really help seeing as there are two sets of
erect male genitalia at the bottom of the page.

------
justinhj
The unfortunate thing is about this is that I don't think the employees see
themselves as racist or prejudicial at all. They think they are just cool,
edgy and funny. When people get to positions of authority before they have
grown up then you see this kind of shit. I think the OP will harm any tribunal
or legal action he takes here because of the public racist comments he himself
has made, but at least the company's culture has been outed, and hopefully
there is at least one adult at the organization that can step in and stop it.

------
minouye
If you had any doubts about Kixeye before this, their hiring video should seal
it.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5l-nnR4Bx0> (probably NSFW)

------
beatpanda
I don't doubt for two seconds anything the author wrote. I wanted nothing to
do with Kixeye after seeing their ads, and I'm not at all surprised.

But this dude's attitude is fucked up. It's statements like OP's that keep me
from engaging in any meaningful way with organizing against racism and
gentrification.

If you're a white cis male, even one that acknowledges and tries to check his
privilege, who thinks poor people shouldn't be displaced on account of Twitter
moving to the Tenderloin, a whole lot of people in the anti-gentrification
movement think the only appropriate thing for you to do is move out of the
city yourself, because you being white and male and having gainful employment
is part of the problem.

I went to one meeting where one black speaker insinuated that white people
"don't have a right" to move to Oakland, whether or not they're moving for
economic reasons.

That's _racist_. Straight up. Nobody should make excuses for that kind of
language, regardless of the extreme privilege historically enjoyed by white
men in this country.

Just because I'm white doesn't mean I'm a colonizer, or fetishizing poverty,
or anything else, and the knee-jerk bigotry expressed by the original poster
needs to be addressed by people in activist circles who just let stuff like
that go unchallenged.

------
DigitalJack
I guess I'm very naive, because I found this shocking. I hear about racism,
but I guess I often think that things must be blown out of proportion. I mean,
how can there still be such racist people out there? What kind of mental
malfunction allows that kind of thinking?

This blog post has been a very sad reality check for me.

------
cmcavoy
Really good to read this...sad, disturbing, but a good reminder that company
culture can be _wrong_. I know that I'm guilty of pushing jokes too far, to
the point where they're objectively wrong, inappropriate, wildly
unprofessional. At some point it starts to feel wrong, but you shake it off,
because everyone is laughing, and it feels like you're in some special place
where you're beyond racism or sexism or culturalism, but you're wrong. You're
never beyond those things, you have to realize that they're things that
shouldn't be dismissed as light office banter, there's too much history to
them. This post is a reminder that of that, I'm really glad to read it. These
kinds of stories should be required reading in any company, much more
effective than canned videotaped play acting in HR videos.

------
jere
I can't even imagine this kind of shit in a professional environment and for
some naive reason figured it never happened in a place like SF (I live in a
rural North Carolina town).

Maybe this is a dumb response, but I'm immediately led to wonder if this has
anything to do with it being in QA. I have a friend who worked in QA at a game
company and, while he never mentioned witnessing such racism, he did describe
a shocking amount of disrespect and hostility _and_ a widespread attitude that
HR would do absolutely nothing to deal with it. Again perhaps it's a silly
thought, but maybe when your barriers to entry are "hey do you play
videogames" and you're picking up anybody off the street, you aren't going to
create the best team.

------
mkramlich
Last week I was called "white fuck" by a Hispanic teenage invididual hanging
out with a large group of his friends, while walking through a public park.
Yet you don't see me crying about it on the web or expecting to see it
discussed on _Hacker_ News. In fact, I've been harassed many times by Hispanic
and black individuals over the last 10 years, as an adult, and almost every
one of those times my race, white, was explicitly cited as an epithet. But
again, I just suck it up and attribute it to low-class, ignorant, immature
people. Not to some grand conspiracy to oppress. There's a heck of a lot of
sucky people in this world. And a heck of a lot of decent ones too, of all
races, genders, ages. Deal with it.

------
egypturnash
Holy crap. What backwoods Alabama town did this Steve crawl out of? I'm a
white person from the South and I want to punch this dumbass cracker.

I will be sure to avoid Kixeye's games (Battle Pirates, Backyard Monsters, War
Commanders), and hope to hear of them going under soon.

------
Tichy
I wonder if that main character is really racist, or if he is "merely" trying
to intimidate his colleagues to be the boss, and racism is simply the easiest
route to intimidation.

While it might sound as if in effect there is no difference, I think there
might be: one variant makes the victim think "whoa, the world is full of
racists out to get me", the other is "just another asshole boss".

I mean the latter case would be somebody looking for weaknesses in his
opponents. If the other person is a white guy, he would probably find
something else, joke about is weight, being poor or whatever applies.

That's of course no excuse, it just seems easier to remove yourself from the
affects of one bad boss/colleague than from racism.

------
TheMagicHorsey
This is one side of the story. Just because the author is a minority doesn't
make this a true story. Its possible that the story is true, but I find it
highly improbable in SF where juries are HIGHLY favorable towards plaintiffs
in civil rights based actions, and where HR departments are trained to follow
specific procedures to prevent lawsuits. This reads like a document
constructed to support a litigation. I highly doubt any organization with an
HR department is going to fail this colossally today.

------
FireBeyond
Huh, what?

I find it hard to take seriously a rant on racism in the work place where, on
not just one but several occasions, refer to someone who is being ignorant as
a "dumbwhitemotherfucker".

Yeah, not buying it.

------
davidw
"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to
be sure."

Between the racist PoS featured in the story, and the author's various nasties
about "white neoliberal imperialist blah blah blah", the above quote is my
take on things.

I'll also add that articles meant to elicit rage are usually not great;
they're often intended to shut down one's thinking processes, and lead to
heated discussions.

------
robododo
But... it does kind of look like a calculator.

------
wtvanhest
Just a side question. I lived in Santa Clara for a summer and spent basically
all my nights out with a black coworker including going to SF multiple times
and never saw any racism whatsoever.

The author seems to imply that SF is really racist. Is there any truth to that
or did I just not notice while I was there?

------
jjwiseman
Slate article about Kixeye's brogrammer culture:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/brogrammers_wanted_kixeye_s_hiring_strategy_caters_to_male_fantasies_.2.html)

------
jeffreybaird
I don't know if the OP is reading this but he should probably be a little
careful. I found it incredibly easy to track down "Steve's" Linkedin profile.
While what he went through was awful, fighting a libel suit would only make
this worse even if he eventually won.

------
twism
Hmm... 153 points in 1 hour and this is dropping off the front page rather
rapidly.

~~~
Uhhrrr
Indeed - I guess there are some things people don't want to hear.

------
anuraj
The fact is this type of talk in an office is simply inappropriate and cannot
be tolerated. I have only sympathy for people who are trying to defend here.
Just proves America would need another 100 years to be civilised.

------
whiterabbit2
To those who keep arguing whether the complains were valid. There is just one
thing that makes it racist - referring to "culture fit" and then letting this
guy go wasn't a "joke". This is discrimination.

------
caycep
If its really that terrible, he ought to quit and find a new job. Don't bother
w/ legal action, as that will just expend precious time and money that he
could apply to a much more productive pursuit...

------
xyentific
Can't fight racism with racism.

Backwards racism at it's finest.

~~~
ultramundane8
I'm always a big fan of terms like "backwards racism" and "reverse
discrimination."

~~~
tene
Fascinating. Personally, I'm a "reverse fan" of those terms.

------
herval
I'm genuinely curious about one thing: is the person that asked about the
calculator (necklace) also being racist?

------
fractalcat
I get a 404. Anyone have a copy of the original text? Google doesn't seem to
have cached it.

------
asdfprou
Thank you tldr.io bookmarklet.

------
mekoka
As people from various backgrounds get the opportunity to mingle, some
obviously have a hard time with how to handle these encounters. They harbour
an uneasiness when faced with the differences based on some false assumptions
that they've made, maybe due to misinformation or (often inaccurate) cultural
stereotypes. e.g. _when a black person meets a white person, that black person
is particularly concerned if the white person is racist_. So they decide to
bring forth what they perceive to be the elephant in the room, by preemptively
expressing that they themselves are very open to cultural differences. Now,
the way this is done takes some interesting forms, from the more subtle:

 _I have a friend from [insert some exotic country here]._ _I love [insert
some singer from some minority group here]_

To the more awkward:

 _What's up bro!_ _[insert awkward racial remark of your liking here]_

It comes to no surprise that some would even choose to compensate by
exhibiting a bold racist behaviour that, they think, should be received with
some reverse psychology acrobatics: _I'm preemptively making racist jokes,
because I want to show you that I'm not actually racist and rather open. (I'm
also kinda covering my ass now, in case I do happen to trip over my tongue
later and say something really out of place)_.

Sadly, an increasing amount of people who behave like this also think that
it's ok and that racism is now in the eye of the beholder. So they will tell
their jokes to Kevin, who they've just barely met and if Kevin takes offence,
then it's Kevin who's too sensitive about that kind of humour. So they will
apologize by saying something like _relax bro, I didn't mean it in a racist
way. I have many black friends. Racism doesn't exist anymore. Chill, have a
sense of humour._ They never stop to wonder, did Kevin, who is from Ghana,
connect with their African American stereotyped jokes? Do his black friends
actually even call him "bro"? Does he or the people he associates with
actually use the n word?

Do they actually acknowledge that this behaviour isn't acceptable? The way
they reason is, _I'm not racist, so I can just keep calling my black friends
n_ __ _, as long as I don't mean it in a negative way._ So it's not surprising
that later they'll try the exact same jokes on Robert, thinking he might be of
the "more open minded inclination".

My tip when it comes to befriend minorities (this is going to be a let down):
They're just people, get to know them like you would anybody else. Don't
attempt any "hacks", don't play games, don't test them thinking that the
outcome should be different from any other human being. Take the time to know
the person, don't assume that you've figured them out based on their gender,
orientation or physical appearance.

------
dos1
>I cannot afford to take white people’s shit anymore. That’s been my mantra
this year, and I’m still on it, even if that means getting the law involved.

From the comment above (and several other parts of his article) he certainly
appears to be just as racist as the people he's trying to demonize. Not to
mention there's a crazy amount of self entitlement going on.

>I had a whole month of potential creative and community building energy
stripped from me for the sake of this company’s profits. That shit ain’t cool.

A "whole" month of your "potential creative and community building energy"?
Really? I have LOTS of months where I don't get to focus ANY time on any sort
of creative or community building endeavors because I have other things that
need to be taken care of.

I do not condone what he experienced at his workplace and that's terrible that
it happened. However, his tone in the article and apparent prejudice towards
white people makes it difficult for me to summon a lot of nice things to say.

~~~
danielweber
It's not illegal for the author to be racist.

It's rather illegal for an employer to be racist in their workplace.

Yes, I'd rather there were a better whistleblower than this guy. You seldom
get things to align perfectly.

~~~
dos1
Imagine you hear a story about a guy whose house gets burned to the ground.
All of his possessions are destroyed. My thought is that you'd naturally feel
sympathy for the victim.

Now say you found out the victim was himself a serial arsonist who had burned
down other houses. Do you still feel as bad for him?

In my opinion there is no difference between that story and this one. A racist
man is angry that another racist man made racist comments toward him.

~~~
Apocryphon
The analogy doesn't hold up unless he actually expressed racist views in the
workplace. He's not a serial arsonist, he's just a guy who builds bonfires in
the privacy of his home.

------
anu_gupta
I'm surprisingly shocked at how inherently racist so many of you are.

Instead of jumping on what the guy with no power did wrong, why not focus on
the utterly despicable way in which he's been treated? If that's not your
first and most urgent concern, then you really need to ask yourself why it
isn't.

------
ucee054
When I was in high school, if a guy called me "raghead", I'd call him "white
trash" back.

I didn't see it as me being racist, just as retaliation.

But then again, I didn't see the other guy as racist, just as an asshole.

I was eccentric and the mean kids wanted to pick on me.

I assumed that their basic motivation was malice, so had I been white (so they
couldn't use mild racial slurs against me) they'd just have found something
else nasty to say.

I put that into a separate category than _racist_ , which to me meant
something like the members of the KKK or the Nazi party.

Is this a false distinction?

I get the same vibe about the mentioned workplace, like it's a bunch of jock
assholes (and definitely meets the definitions of "hostility" and
"harassment", for what it's worth).

------
boboblong
I am racist and sexist and I'm very confident in the quality of my
understanding of the world compared to that of egalitarians. I strongly
believe that the present received wisdom in the West regarding race and sex
will be viewed in the future as some sort of mass delusion, or possibly a kind
of atheistic Christianity-substitute heavy on self-flagellation.

------
angry-hacker
Considering his racist remarks against white people he found a perfect place
to work at - a full place of racists?!

