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

I thought this was a great article. One of the most interesting things to me was how the embarrassment/defensiveness of the white people involved was one of the biggest blocks to the black CEOs in their advancement, e.g. the VCs who "just wanted to get the hell out of there" after mistaking a white subordinate for the CEO.

I've recently been reading/watching some videos and writings by Robin Diangelo on systemic racism - here's a great starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7mzj0cVL0Q. She also wrote the book "White Fragility".

Thinking about that, I'm just wondering how different it would be if one of those people who mistook the employee for the CEO instead turned to the CEO and said "I'm sorry, please excuse me for the instance of racism I just perpetrated against you, I promise it won't happen again." I realize how outlandish that may sound writing that out, but I'd propose that the fact that it does sound outlandish is the main problem. Everyone in the US was raised in an environment that inculcated certain racial ideas, subconsciously or not. We can't address them if we're so embarrassed by their existence as to pretend they don't exist.

Perhaps the model some Koreans adhere to. Had some business contacts with them and noticed something peculiar and funny. They still have pretty tight hierarchies and a case when you can notice this is when you move between rooms or to a restaurant.

For them it seems to be pretty important to enter a room in hierarchic order. That means the boss goes first followed by rank of employees. It was hilarious to see them fall over their feet to adhere to these rules.

If you had a meeting they always came into the room in the same order. I invited them in after the first employees arrived but they insisted on waiting for their colleagues. After the gang had assembled, they entered in the predicted order.

If you visited another place, you should give them some room to reorder themselves. Otherwise it seems chaos ensues.