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Comment by nerdponx | Hacker News Reader

What a weird story, and weirdly reported too. Not sure what to make of it.

Anyone have juicy insider info?

It probably feels weird because it attempts to tell Zhu's side of the story, and he still manages to come out looking bad. Investors made the right decision, it seems.

“I was fired because I’m Asian”

“But your replacement is Asian..”

“Oh he’s temporary, they’ll fire him too”

I think Zhu is saying that he was fired because of his Asian management style. His partner's management style was not described, so it could be that his partner's style aligns better with what the VCs are used to.

Andrew Boni doesn't sound like an East Asian name to many people, though it certainly could be. A quick google search indicates he also looks less East Asian than Justin Zhu.

Edit: Since someone seemed to be irritated with my comment enough to downvote, people just with East Asian names have been known to suddenly face less discrimination once they started using non-East Asian names, or be characterized as non-East Asian after changing their names to something non-Asian.

Some notable biracial (White/East Asian) Hollywood actresses with ambiguous racial characteristics have had to change their East Asian sounding name to a white name to get roles, or non-typecast roles. For example Sandrine Ho (of House of Cards) changed her name to Sandrine Holt and suddenly got more callbacks.

Everyone looks bad here, to me. Zhu seems like a weirdo (who thinks it's a good idea to try your first LSD microdose right before a big meeting?), but the investors also seem like they were manipulative and removed him for somewhat arbitrary reasons.

Super weird - feels like a quirky story that will generate enough people to click through.

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