Surviving IDEO: A DEI critique of the design firm

> my lived experience as a person of color working at the firm was consistently negative. So many traits of white supremacy culture were rebranded as professionalism. Perfectionism, a perpetual sense of urgency, paternalism, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, and individualism were proudly on full display.

This has to be the fastest way to discredit oneself. None of these cultural issues have anything to do with race. This seems like just another instance of shoehorning race into everything because it's the issue of the moment, and I think it does a disservice to actual race issues and those who genuinely care about them.

Edit - this comment is particularly about the authors experiences in the first part of his post - the stories he shares later are absolutely deplorable and anyone should read them. IDEO should take a real look at itself. What follows is a criticism primarily of always assuming something is racial when it might be universal. The latter stories are clearly discriminatory from a racial or gender standpoint in nature while the first I’m positing could be construed either way.

I’m somewhat skeptical of the idea that it’s entirely race focused - is it really considered a thing that only POC/women get imposter syndrome? That white people always feel empowered and justified? That white people aren’t called out publicly by abusive management in unjustified and uncalled for ways? I certainly do not wish to downplay the very real challenges POC people exclusively have to deal with in the workplace, but I also believe aiming the shot at the right target requires understanding that some things are more universal and less race based - one can even make a lot more allies that way by not gatekeeping workplace trauma.

I admit I may be getting the gist of this wrong, and the later stories are much more clearly showing actual racial discrimination which should absolutely be emphasized as true abusive practice based primarily on race and gender. I certainly empathize with the author, and having to see a company that was the cause of me having to spend a long time in therapy post about how much they “support” literally anyone is triggering and infuriating. It feels somewhat like the video of the person putting differently shaped blocks into the same square shaped hole - it can fit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best fit.