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Have you ever had a black boss before?

Have you ever had a black boss before?

  • Yes

    Votes: 93 75.0%

  • No

    Votes: 31 25.0%
  • Total voters
    124
Winston said:
Yes, just because they are black. Everything awarded to black people is based upon their racial stats bestowed upon them at birth and advancement in companies can never be enacted based upon merit, for blacks. Because black people have no merits.

There. I phrased it better for you. Insinuating is fun.
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Seriously, your comment was that blacks deserved to be in management. You didn't mention any other qualification. I'm not putting any words in your mouth. All I'm doing is asking a simple question regarding EXACTLY what you wrote.
 
Winston said:
I often hear from conservatives that blacks are no longer oppressed. I contend that blacks are certainly still oppressed. What was open and straight forward bigotry in the 1950's is, today concealed within a racist socio-economic system.

So, I have a question for you all. Have you ever had a black supervisor/boss before?
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Yes, I've had three bosses who were black. Two guys and a woman.
 
Fenton Lum said:
And no one ever really tied this question down. Boss. Immediate supervisor? Up the food chain? Associate Director? CxO? Way too wide open to be meaningful.
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The time I did have a black boss, he was a director. With the exception of Asians, minorities are very underrepresented in IT, and women even more so.
 
Winston said:
They deserve to be in management.
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They deserve to me in management? Why? Because they're black?

People who are qualified for the position should be in management. Doesn't matter if they're black, white, gay, etc.
 
Lutherf said:
Seriously, your comment was that blacks deserved to be in management. You didn't mention any other qualification. I'm not putting any words in your mouth. All I'm doing is asking a simple question regarding EXACTLY what you wrote.
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They do deserve to be in management. They deserve to get a piece of the pie too.

What are the other options for my beliefs? That they do not deserve to be in management?

If blacks are disproportionately outside of management. There is a reason for that. Either it is because of conscious or unconscious racial bias for whites, or, it is because blacks lack sufficient segues into the skills necessary to go far.

It's a worthy topic to discuss. I just knew tons of cons would come in here and basically give me the middle finger for even asking.
 
Yep. The man who hired me out of college into Digital Equipment Corporation was black. I owe him for taking on a college kid and setting my career out on the right foot.
 
MaggieD said:
No, but I'm not really the best voter because I've had few bosses in my life. I will say there is a difference between oppression and failure to thrive. I think way too many blacks suffer from the latter. Abysmal high school graduation rates, permitting disrupters to remain in classes, lack of role models, failure of the AA family, crime-filled neighborhoods, too often an instilled feeling of hopelessness and so many other factors figure into that failure to thrive, as I've called it.

Unless and until we can solve these problems, AA stats will continue to reflect oppression when that isn't the problem at all. It is a long-standing culture. And, imo, that's the ugly truth.

Let the accusations begin.
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Right. These factors cannot be ignored.
 
MaggieD said:
No, but I'm not really the best voter because I've had few bosses in my life. I will say there is a difference between oppression and failure to thrive. I think way too many blacks suffer from the latter. Abysmal high school graduation rates, permitting disrupters to remain in classes, lack of role models, failure of the AA family, crime-filled neighborhoods, too often an instilled feeling of hopelessness and so many other factors figure into that failure to thrive, as I've called it.

Unless and until we can solve these problems, AA stats will continue to reflect oppression when that isn't the problem at all. It is a long-standing culture. And, imo, that's the ugly truth.

Let the accusations begin.
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Come on! In the last 50 years so many laws have hampered our largest companies by instituting diversity. Local governments especially are safe harbors for
minorities. Any one working in government has to have had especially early on in their work experience a AA as a boss. When my company was forced by our
town to put in new cement sidewalks those who made sure I complied were blacks.

'Funny thing is if 'Diversity is Crucial" I wonder why GM went belly-up. Is it because the white male executives who nade it the greatest company on earth
was reduced dramatically? So if diversity in senior leadership of the corporate world is desirable how did we become the greatest manufacturing & economic
power in history before the coming of the age of diversity!'

I'm surprised so little of the posters have not had black bosses. I guess few ever entered government, or the glass structures of corporate inner cities.
 
Winston said:
The OP states my thesis. Blacks are still oppressed.

We'll have to wait and see the results of this amateur poll. But, if blacks are not in management, why is that? They deserve to be in management.
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Nobody deserves to in (or not in) management because of their race, gender, gender preference, veteran status, national origin or religion. The whole idea of "good discrimination" to achieve some proportional racial parity ideal should be tried on the NBA first where becoming a boss (coach) is likely to get you a pay cut.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
The time I did have a black boss, he was a director. With the exception of Asians, minorities are very underrepresented in IT, and women even more so.
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Interesting. That hasn't been my experience. I've been in IT my whole life - my career's going on 33 years - and I've worked with and for lots of women. The team I currently manage, if you include me, has 5 women to 4 men. Though I do only have one black person on my team - she's one of the women and a recent college grad.

Maybe it's a regional thing but I've always viewed IT and tech companies to be pretty much color and gender blind, at least at my level of the organization if not in the C-suite, though even there about 1/3 of the people holding the title of "Chief" in my current company are women.
 
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TheGoverness said:
They deserve to me in management? Why? Because they're black?

People who are qualified for the position should be in management. Doesn't matter if they're black, white, gay, etc.
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No one puts "Black Guy" on their cover letter with work experience "Being Black On a Friday".

I know that.

Here's what I should've said. "Black people are just as qualified as other races, so if race is precluding them from going far, why is that?"
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
The time I did have a black boss, he was a director. With the exception of Asians, minorities are very underrepresented in IT, and women even more so.
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Same in what I've seen in biomedical/pharma molecular biology research.
 
Gaius46 said:
Interesting. That hasn't been my experience. I've been in IT my whole life - my career's going on 33 years - and I've worked with and for lots of women. The team I currently manage, if you include me, has 5 women to 4 men. Though I do only have one black person on my team - she's one of the women and a recent college grad.
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Unfortunately, your experience is not very typical. https://www.cnet.com/news/women-in-tech-the-numbers-dont-add-up/
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Nobody deserves to in (or not in) management because of their race, gender, gender preference, veteran status, national origin or religion. The whole idea of "good discrimination" to achieve some proportional racial parity ideal should be tried on the NBA first where becoming a boss (coach) is likely to get you a pay cut.
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And then there's the way things actually work in society.
 
Winston said:
Oh, you love this thread. It's dripping in controversy like your favorite president.
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What controversy would that be? You see your poll isn't yielding the desired results. ;)
 
countryboy said:
What controversy would that be? You see your poll isn't yielding the desired results. ;)
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I don't desire blacks to be outside of management.
 
Winston said:
Oh, you love this thread. It's dripping in controversy like your favorite president.
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And man, speaking of a guy who's really shown us all what a terrific boss is!!!!
 
Winston said:
They do deserve to be in management. They deserve to get a piece of the pie too.

What are the other options for my beliefs? That they do not deserve to be in management?

If blacks are disproportionately outside of management. There is a reason for that. Either it is because of conscious or unconscious racial bias for whites, or, it is because blacks lack sufficient segues into the skills necessary to go far.

It's a worthy topic to discuss. I just knew tons of cons would come in here and basically give me the middle finger for even asking.
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Wow. You really don't see anything racist in your position, do you?

At what point in the decision making process do you believe race should be considered when we're talking about a management position? Should race be considered before or after skills performance history? Should race be considered before or after personal interaction history? Should race be considered before or after training ability? Should race be considered before or after retention potential? Do you think any of the aforementioned factors should even be given consideration if the possibility of promoting a black person is available?
 
Yes, but that was when I lived in a majority black county and worked in a majority black city. I have worked for more white, Hispanic or Asian bosses than black bosses overall.
 
Fenton Lum said:
We can all learn that stuff, but education is not universal for all in the US anymore than healthcare is.
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Yeah I think there are a lot of factors. We do now have a couple of women in technical positions in our group. They are young, so I think its slowly changing. One of the reasons why Blacks and Hispanics lag Whites in household income is their under-representation in higher income fields like IT.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Unfortunately, your experience is not very typical. https://www.cnet.com/news/women-in-tech-the-numbers-dont-add-up/
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Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed that given what I've seen. And I may be a victim of the unconscious bias the article mentioned and am misremembering exactly how many women I've worked with though I am certain in my current company there are a lot of women in technical and leadership positions and most meetings are close to 50/50 between men and women.
 
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