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For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

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677 points saeedjabbar | 2 comments | 16 Jun 20 15:19 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Thorentis ◴[16 Jun 20 22:42 UTC] No.23545203[source]▶
How is it racist to assume that in a country of mostly white people, the CEO would be white? That isn't racist. Unless you consciously thought the black person in the room was less competent just because they were black, it isn't racism.

If I was in India, and walked into a company meeting with a diverse set of people, I would assume the Indian looking person is the CEO. If I was in Japan, I would assume the Japanese looking person was the CEO.

This isn't racism. This is the human brain using pattern recognition to evaluate a situation and infer information as best it can under the circumstances.

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1. CapitalistCartr ◴[16 Jun 20 22:50 UTC] No.23545279[source]▶
It is racism. There is no need to pre-judge the situation at all. Merely being in the moment and letting the people in front of you tell you all you want to know is sufficient. Pre-judging the people instead of waiting for them to tell you is using prejudice as an unneeded shortcut. It seems obvious because the person so doing is racist. To change, that person would have to acknowledge that it seemed obvious to them because they have a subconcious "rule" CEO cannot = black. Once they see it, it'll be gone.
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2. Thorentis ◴[16 Jun 20 22:54 UTC] No.23545322[source]▶
There was no conscious prejudgement to remove from your behaviour. Humans like to fit in, and like to be informed. The human brain is fantastic at adapting to new situations because of its ability to infer information from past experiences. Put me in a high pressure meeting where the stakes are high and multiple people I don't know, and my brain will be working overtime to help me out. And that may involve my brain using my past experiences to feed me information that it thinks will help me. Such as identifying the roles people play. If I have only ever met white CEOs, or perhaps even if most people in my social circle are white, it is not unreasonable for my brain to infer that the CEO is white. Nothing racist about it. It would be racist for me to then consciously assume that the black person is less qualified to be the CEO purely based on their skin color, but that's not what would've happened initially.