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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

I've had a few of the things you listed happen, including getting beat up for my race, not getting an apartment rented out because of my weird name, and rejected by my mother in law. (I'm an arab by the way, and my wife is chinese).

I've also not gotten a job because I was considered "white". The hiring manager was a friend, so he let me in on the "social justice" that was going on behind the scenes.

These are both "actual racism" to use your terms, and I revile them equally.

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I'm surprised by the number of people who don't get jobs due to reverse racism and then find out for a fact this was the case. Generally with 'classic' racism you're left guessing.

It seems implausible to me. Perhaps "its political correctness mate" is the go to excuse when your acquaintence fails an interview.

HN seems to generally agree hiring is broken, so it shouldnt surprise people that good candidates dont get picked, but maybe we need a specific reason to feel better about it.

I received a written rejection from a software company stating that they would only consider non-males for junior dev roles. It seems like a lot of people just think this sort of thing is acceptable so they have no problem telling people about it.

You should contact Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division. If what you say is true and you have this on paper, you should be able to get some actual justice on this. You can start filing a report here: https://civilrights.justice.gov/

I would implore you to do this — we have unfortunately allowed this kind of thing to happen in our industry for far too long. My condolences.

The DFEH received an argument from the company along the lines of "The applicant did not fill out the official application on our web site, therefor they did not apply, therefor we did not discriminate against them" and agreed with it. So it's ok then for employees of the company to advertise an opening, to tell people that the way to apply for the opening is to email them directly, and to reply to the emails with rejections on the basis of gender, as long as some other part of the company also has some other application process!

I have not followed up on the issue because my disability means that I have extremely limited capacity for this sort of thing and spending enormous amounts of that capacity for a minuscule chance at like $10,000 seems like a bad use of resources. I'm also no longer able to follow up on it! I understand that if I wanted justice, I had to get it within 18 months.

Edit: I filled out the form at the DoJ. It would be sweet if something came of all this, even if I don't personally benefit.

DFEH is understaffed by about 10000x because private attorneys do almost all of the enforcement. Get your right to sue letter, google “employment lawyer” and see if you have a case. They will do infinitely more than any government agency will.

I talked to a handful of these and they said I had a case and they hoped I could find someone else to take it. I really don't have the capacity to talk with a dozen lawyers to start a process that will take months and give me negative value. Also, my rights have expired.

I do not think rights in discrimination suits ever expire, for reasons you have cited exactly — the discriminated are usually in a disadvantaged position, don’t have the resources, time or the willingness. If an attorney told you your rights expire, was it your attorney? As in — were you paying them or was someone else doing the paying? Until you hear an attorney you pay say this, you probably have non-expiring rights.

This can't be too common, because all the anecdotes I hear are of the "I knew someone in the company and they confirmed it" kind, which would seem a bit unneccessary if people were regularly sending out "Sorry but you are too white and/or male to be employed" letters to people.

And I'm surprised by the number of people who think reverse racism and 'classic' racism is different.

I stood at an all hands meeting and heard the VP of HR say “if you know of any women or minorities who want to work for us, let me know and we’ll find them a role”.

This is a Fortune 50 company.

Clearly the same effort wouldn't be expended for either males or whites.

I was taken aback by how blatant they were being. And the statement was likely illegal.

> I'm surprised by the number of people who don't get jobs due to reverse racism and then find out for a fact this was the case. Generally with 'classic' racism you're left guessing.

What is implausible about that? What you call the 'classic' type of racism has not been acceptable for half a century. Those racists have to hide or they are pushed out, sued, targeted by governments, boycotted, etc.

The new "good" flavor of racism is openly pushed, celebrated, encouraged by governments and academia and politicians. Of course many racists will openly boast about their racism, and they will be praised for it.

How does it not make sense that racism against white people would be more overt?

For one it's much more socially accepted to discriminate against white people in the name of equality of chances.

It's easy to dismiss this, but it's real. He showed me slide decks where they explicitly call out prioritizing certain classes of people, and would only fill certain roles with those classes due to the team being "imbalanced". I've known this person for a long time and trust them to not weave an elaborate fabrication including creating fake documents to make me feel better. This is a FAANG company btw.

You can literally look up the SAT, GRE, MCAT and GPA cutoffs for different races, dude.

I’m sorry about what happened to you. However, your individual experience to the contrary does not counteract the general point.

And what exactly is the "general point"?

That reverse racism, especially against Asians, is real?

Discrimination against Asians isn't “reverse racism” (to the extent that phrase is ever meaningful), in any sense, unless maybe it's in an environment where Asians historically hold disproportionate social power and have used it to systematically discriminate against non-Asians.

I’m sorry you’re ignorant of history. There used to be laws like “Chinese Exclusion Acts” that were straight up racism based on a theory of racial inferiority of Asians. Now they are being punished for being academically superior in the name of equity, hence the reverse.

Though I agree with you the phrase is mostly meaningless, to the extent it has meaning it’s exactly what I’ve described. Which you seem to agree with, so I’m not sure why you’re flaming me.

> I’m sorry you’re ignorant of history.

I’m...not.

> There used to be laws like “Chinese Exclusion Acts” that were straight up racism based on a theory of racial inferiority of Asians.

Yes, discrimination against Asians is quite common in US history, so any such current discrimination wouldn't be “reverse racism”.

Then what was your point? So, now there is such a thing as reverse racism? I think you just wanted to pick a fight. Be gone. It's reverse racism because they're being punished for their perceived or real superiority as I pointed out. If you can't at least understand that distinction in good faith, you're just arguing for the sake of it.

The parent is trying to say that it’s just regular old racism. Competent Asians are disadvantaged because this serves the elite better.

I think the reason underperforming minorities are so prioritized by the media and the elites is simply that the elites don’t feel much competitive pressure from them, and using them to distract the masses, they can then conveniently screw the minorities that are actually threatening their interests. Another reason is to delegitimize standardization of merit (e.g., standardized comprehensive exams). This allows them to use a subjective (“holistic”) approach that obviously favors themselves.

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