Racism issues at the Tesla plant

[Kichwas]

It reads like they brought in a lot of rural whites from the Central Valley, out of state, or something...

I’ve worked in a place like that described here, but that was back when I was in the Air Force so had to work with a lot of back-country low education whites...

Menial Tasks, Slurs and Swastikas: Many Black Workers at Tesla Say They Faced Racism

 

[albtrssp]

Racists aren't limited to rural areas. They just might be quieter about it when living in an urban area.

 

[Derek Kessler]

Racism? In a factory? NO WAY.

 

[azred]

Racists aren't limited to rural areas. They just might be quieter about it when living in an urban area.

OK and obviously we don’t want to debate in a Tesla forum whether Red, primarily rural states have a much higher proportion of racists than Blue, primarily urban states.

 

[Kichwas]

Fremont plant is about 5 miles from my home. This is one of the most diverse AND socially integrated places in the world.

Racists are all over the place, but a level of them where they’re willing to say something that can be heard or act openly is pretty bizarre out here.

Usually guys like this in this area will wait till they think nobody but whites are around, or still to online. And they’re rare here even at that; they lack any support in their own community as well here (my family exists across every race line, and we’re not uncommon here. People are extremely integrated here and nobody has time, publicly, for racists. Even the most “looks like a racist stereotype” on the outside person here usually has family that is mixed - so no matter who you are here and no matter who a racist targets it ends up being personal).

So yeah... it actually does shock me to see this just “down the block” from my house...

Kern county, a few hundred miles down the road in the Central Valley, is often where these guys hail from when they show up in the Bay Area. I spent some years down there in my youth and have family that lived there for decades. It’s more of the “Klan stronghold” for California.

I hope Tesla cracks down hard on these guys fast... but also know tech companies tend to be amazingly blind to social issues...

 

[Eevee]

tech companies tend to be amazingly blind to social issues...

Indeed.

For context: Amazon scrapped 'sexist AI' tool

 

[Kichwas]

Added context of this being an industry wide issue:

Tesla has a problem with racism in its factory—so do many of its rivals

No excuse... but this shows it will also be that much harder to fix. The pool for blue collar auto workers is just tainted...

All I can say is that I hope that most of these racists are out of towners and we can more easily weed them out before they infect Bay Area culture. The Bay Area used to be one of the most racist places in the USA before and leading into WWII. But we started shedding that way back when...

(When my own parents got married, in 1967, my maternal grandmother went to court to stop it as an abomination... but the judge sided with my parents and the Loving court case came down a little later... so I’ve always personally tracked our regional change on race issues to that time period... and once she had two mixed grandsons my grandmother become a xenophile. I grew up knowing this cool lady who had a rainbow of roommates and then being told how she used to be).

 

[Graffi]

True Story: Many years ago I was a Supervisor of a group for a large corporation. I had been requesting permission to hire another person, but the request kept being turned down - need to conserve budget.

Anyway, a senior Engineer had a son-in-law that was laid-off from another company so he went to my Vice-President asking if he could hire his son-in-law. Well, the VP set up the interview with me. I was soooooo happy. During the interview this person told me that he came from a much more senior position and he WOULD NOT do "lowly" tasks that a junior employee would be expected to do.

After the interview I went to the VP and told him that this person would not be a good fit and would like to set up other interviews to find the right person. The VP told me it was either this person or no one. Out of desperation I agreed to hire him.

What ended up happening was that a lot of what I, as Supervisor, had been doing this person agreed to do. Many other tasks that needed to be done he refused to do, as these things were below him. Can you guess who had to do these "lowly" tasks? You got it, I did. As supervisor it was my responsibility to make sure everything was completed, so even if I had to work many hours of "unpaid" overtime, I did them myself.

Meanwhile this new employee had a very leisurely work day and never stayed even one minute past quitting time. He only did what he wanted to do and nothing more, knowing that he could not be fired. Looking back on it, I should have never hired him in the first place. Because he was there the VP expected even more from my department. I would have been much better off without him.

The moral of the story is that no matter what your color, gender, language, etc, etc, a business has a need to have tasks accomplished. If you are not willing to accomplish these tasks, then you should not work there.

To suggest that to be expected to do things that you think are beneath you is Racist is Way, Way, off base. If you do not wish to do those tasks then get a job somewhere else, or apply for another position within the company that you think you are better suited for.

just my thoughts - without even reading the article...

 

[Buggle]

True Story: Many years ago I was a Supervisor of a group for a large corporation. I had been requesting permission to hire another person, but the request kept being turned down - need to conserve budget.

Anyway, a senior Engineer had a son-in-law that was laid-off from another company so he went to my Vice-President asking if he could hire his son-in-law. Well, the VP set up the interview with me. I was soooooo happy. During the interview this person told me that he came from a much more senior position and he WOULD NOT do "lowly" tasks that a junior employee would be expected to do.

After the interview I went to the VP and told him that this person would not be a good fit and would like to set up other interviews to find the right person. The VP told me it was either this person or no one. Out of desperation I agreed to hire him.

What ended up happening was that a lot of what I, as Supervisor, had been doing this person agreed to do. Many other tasks that needed to be done he refused to do, as these things were below him. Can you guess who had to do these "lowly" tasks? You got it, I did. As supervisor it was my responsibility to make sure everything was completed, so even if I had to work many hours of "unpaid" overtime, I did them myself.

Meanwhile this new employee had a very leisurely work day and never stayed even one minute past quitting time. He only did what he wanted to do and nothing more, knowing that he could not be fired. Looking back on it, I should have never hired him in the first place. Because he was there the VP expected even more from my department. I would have been much better off without him.

The moral of the story is that no matter what your color, gender, language, etc, etc, a business has a need to have tasks accomplished. If you are not willing to accomplish these tasks, then you should not work there.

To suggest that to be expected to do things that you think are beneath you is Racist is Way, Way, off base. If you do not wish to do those tasks then get a job somewhere else, or apply for another position within the company that you think you are better suited for.

just my thoughts - without even reading the article...

As soon as I read your "I hired him cause it was him or nothing" I cringed. No employee is better than a shiit employee. Especially a shiit employee backed up by nepotism.

 

[McRatToo]

There are always internal politics at a large factory.
It's incredible that according to this story, the Bay Area in 2018 is more bigoted than ultra-conservative Orange County, California was in the 1980's, 35 years later on. And by incredible, I mean lacks credibility. But back in the 1980's saying, "do I know you?" wasn't a racial slur like it is today. Wearing the wrong fashions, using the wrong syntax, being the wrong color in a group are all unacceptable today.

We will look back upon the 21st Century as the new swing towards censorship and away from personal freedom. Oh well. I'm lucky, I'm multi-cultural, so I get to chose to be mad at everybody or nobody. I like the second path.

 

[Cosmacelf]

There are always internal politics at a large factory.
It's incredible that according to this story, the Bay Area in 2018 is more bigoted than ultra-conservative Orange County, California was in the 1980's, 35 years later on. And by incredible, I mean lacks credibility. But back in the 1980's saying, "do I know you?" wasn't a racial slur like it is today. Wearing the wrong fashions, using the wrong syntax, being the wrong color in a group are all unacceptable today.

We will look back upon the 21st Century as the new swing towards censorship and away from personal freedom. Oh well. I'm lucky, I'm multi-cultural, so I get to chose to be mad at everybody or nobody. I like the second path.

I agree, but I think it goes beyond such a swing. We are living in the equivalent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution where the elites of the day unleashed hordes of righteous brainwashed ignorant youth upon society to shame everyone who didn't act in the approved way. Just like in China, if you are part of the wrong group (in China it was being educated or rich), you are automatically guilty and must be re-educated. I really hope it doesn't end up like it did in China, but right now, it's anyone's guess where this goes.

 

[Routybouty]

It's a manufacturing plant right? Isn't this expected? My friend works at a GM supplier and spends time both in his plant and GMs, this is fairly common stuff, the stories are interesting. It comes from all sides also.

 

[RedMS]

Sounds like the OP has an agenda.... just a hunch.

 

[Eclectic]

Sounds like the OP has an agenda.... just a hunch.

When I read his bigoted supposition about the identities of those who allegedly engaged in the racist acts I assumed he was just trolling on behalf of either the UAW or those who are trying to turn everything into an attack on a certain skin color. Then I concluded it was both.

 

[brkaus]

As soon as I read your "I hired him cause it was him or nothing" I cringed. No employee is better than a shiit employee. Especially a shiit employee backed up by nepotism.

Agree. But seams everyone has to learn this the hard way.

 

[TEG]

Lion of Judah - Wikipedia

Amazonian Kichwas - Wikipedia

 

[McRatToo]

When I read his bigoted supposition about the identities of those who allegedly engaged in the racist acts I assumed he was just trolling on behalf of either the UAW or those who are trying to turn everything into an attack on a certain skin color. Then I concluded it was both.

It's been very common this century to increase the stereotyping of rural folk as ignorant, bigoted, or sub-human. The comedy? Urbanized states are often scoring worse in standardized testing regardless of demographic group. So I don't sway anyone's perspective, just type in Average SAT Scores by State. California and New York are simply average, and not high enough for college admissions, at least not when I went.

The SNL Stereotype Doctrine of the ignorant hillbilly is not supported today. It's the NYC SNL crew who are most likely to be dullards.

 

[Buggle]

It's been very common this century to increase the stereotyping of rural folk as ignorant, bigoted, or sub-human. The comedy? Urbanized states are often scoring worse in standardized testing regardless of demographic group. So I don't sway anyone's perspective, just type in Average SAT Scores by State. California and New York are simply average, and not high enough for college admissions, at least not when I went.

The SNL Stereotype Doctrine of the ignorant hillbilly is not supported today. It's the NYC SNL crew who are most likely to be dullards.

What does knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic have to do with being bigoted or not? I think Trump has quite clearly shown rural ppl can often be bigoted. We just had a senator from Mississippi joke about wanting to be invited to a hanging on tape, then pull down 80+% of the white vote. If that's not 80% bigoted racist white people in Mississippi I don't know what is.

 

[McRatToo]

What does knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic have to do with being bigoted or not? I think Trump has quite clearly shown rural ppl can often be bigoted. We just had a senator from Mississippi joke about wanting to be invited to a hanging on tape, then pull down 80+% of the white vote. If that's not 80% bigoted racist white people in Mississippi I don't know what is.

I was raised on a farm and lived on one as recently as 10 years ago. I scored 1475 at age 14 back when the test was harder. I'm not Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton, but I bet in private Hillary is far more bigoted than Trump. DNC members think of blacks as being different and in need of more government. Not in a good way. The rest of us don't worry so much about if somebody is orange, brown, or green. My family Thanksgiving was like usual this year; it looked like a UN session.

Hanging is not used in Mississippi. Only Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington use hanging as capital punishment. We killed Nazis by hanging though.

Apparently your definition of bigot and mine do not agree. I see a bigot as somebody who acts bigoted. You define bigotry as sounding bigoted. Most of the DNC cannot tell the difference between actions and words, so it's completely understandable. I blame the schools.

 

[McRatToo]

What does knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic have to do with being bigoted or not? I think Trump has quite clearly shown rural ppl can often be bigoted. We just had a senator from Mississippi joke about wanting to be invited to a hanging on tape, then pull down 80+% of the white vote. If that's not 80% bigoted racist white people in Mississippi I don't know what is.

Just so we stay on topic, this thread is about bigotry in the perhaps the most ultra-liberal DNC stronghold in the USA. Not Mississippi. So it's not rural pickup-drivin' white trash. It's the Perfect World of Pelosi Vineyards.