[tryitnow]

I honestly don't understand your comment.

It's pretty clear that the author is bringing these issues up precisely because other employees at Google did not heed the advice you give: "“Over the last 5 years I’ve heard co-workers spew hateful words about immigrants, boast unabashedly about gentrifying neighborhoods, mockingly imitate people who speak different languages, reject candidates of color without evidence because of ‘fit’ and so much more,”"

In other words, there were many Googlers who did in fact discuss these issues at work.

Sure, it's nice to say, "I would prefer...", but honestly, we would all prefer things to be different than they are. But they're not.

And this is where I really don't understand your comment. Your comment seems to totally ignore the very issue that is explicitly mentioned sub-headline of the article: Apparently, some people at Google not only felt free to discuss these issues in the work place, they did so in a profoundly unprofessional manner thereby creating a hostile workplace.

So stating that "I would prefer...not discussing these things..." doesn't really address the issue that these things were in fact discussed.

That's sort of like saying, "I would really prefer it if my code always worked the way I wanted it to..."

or.."I'd really prefer not to procrastinate so much on HN..."

Don't we all? Alas, that's not the world we live in. The crux of life is what do we do when things happen that we prefer would not happen?

Controversial issues were discussed at work, the author of the memo highlighted the problem and gave solutions, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't, but I think it's important to move beyond just stating our preferences.

[JPKab]

I grew up in a mostly black county, and attended predominantly black schools my entire childhood. Something that the typical person on HN doesn't understand is how implicitly absurd, and accidentally racist, it is to view the comments of an individual black person to be representative of black people in general.

We do this all the time, but would never accept a random white person to claim they represent all white people.

Al Sharpton knows nothing about the lives of black people where I grew up. He's never been there. My friends growing up were deeply resentful of his constant claim to be "the voice of black America." He's a New Yorker, through and through. And yet the media elites act as if he was an elected representative of black America.

This Google employee is no different. How does he get to speak for all black Googlers? Who elected him? How many black employees at Google think he's correct, vs. paranoid and overly sensitive?

Show me an actual survey, and I'll open up on this. But this is anecdotal bullshit, just like the placating white hosts on news channels signaling their virtue by picking up the phone and bringing Sharpton on since they don't know normal, non-celebrity black people.

[davinic]

This is an article written by one person expressing their experiences. They aren't claiming to represent all black employees. You've created a straw man with your non-sequitur Sharpton comments.

[skinnymuch]

The Googler didn’t claim to represent everyone. That part and the rest of your comment are arguing against things no one is against.

[esyir]

He might not be, but everyone else is treating it like it is.

[kerng]

Seems like the Googler just expressed their own experience. You might be implicitly falling for the point you are trying to make?

[x86_64Ubuntu]

It's kind of weird that you brought up "Al Sharpton". I've never heard anyone from the black community in the modern era cite All Sharpton, nor speak about him as "King of Black Folks".

[ng12]

> Sure, it's nice to say, "I would prefer...", but honestly, we would all prefer things to be different than they are. But they're not.

I think it's important to note the role that Google plays in breeding this culture. I've worked in fintech for years and have yet to hear a single coworker talk about politics, race, or gender. It's a good policy and SV is just slowly beginning to find out what the reasons for it are.

[surge]

I think what they're saying is none of those issues should ever come up at work.

Most companies its understood that talking about that stuff leads to a meeting with HR, I also imagine the conversations about police brutality is why they were so silent, because people are afraid to discuss it without saying something that's likely to offend or know its a highly sensitive topic.

I agree work should be neutral ground, at least if you want to keep non-hostile.

[manigandham]

All of that is subjective. Every single person will have a different interpretation and clearly the colleagues were fine with it. Without knowing what was actually said, there's no objective measure of whether anything even crosses the professional line or if it was this person just finding it personally disagreeable (which seems likely given the rest of the note).

There needs to be some pushback on how far people expect others to constantly read their mind and cater to their level of offense and sensitivity. Otherwise workplaces and society itself will start to grind to a halt.

[elefanten]

Agreed. With these stories, I tend to think the safest takeaway is "The narrator clearly felt XYZ" rather than "X1, Y2 and Z3 strictly happened"