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Donald Sterling and his comments

There are a lot of blacks in position of power or owners of businesses...plenty who work in academia and have their own labs too. I have yet to see one where the expectations are any different. Did they all "sell out to whitey"? Or are they merely conducting business effectively? You can try and spin professional conduct as institutional racism all you want...but professional conduct is professional conduct, and it doesn't matter who owns the business or runs the show.
I didn't say anything about racism. I said that rich white people invented the "professionalism" standard that's now being followed, which is IMO mostly a facade, specially regarding appearance.
 
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I didn't say anything about racism. I said that rich white people invented the "professionalism" standard that's now being followed, which is IMO mostly a facade, specially regarding appearance.
you're right, I think that poor people with zero stake in a company's business ought to be able to set the standards or conduct and dress.
On a serious note it depends on your business, Trader Joe's and Hot Topic encourage their employees to look like freaks, I guess it all comes down to whomever you're trying to cater to.
 
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I didn't say anything about racism. I said that rich white people invented the "professionalism" standard that's now being followed, which is IMO mostly a facade, specially regarding appearance.

Of course its a facade. No one that I know of gets up in the morning, shaves and puts on a suit and tie if they aren't going to work.

When I choose to do that it is because I am exercising personal accountability, not because the man is keeping me down.

If any of the rich white people who own all the businesses thought they could get richer by having a work force of mangy hippies they would have a work force of mangy hippies. It isn't an exercise in social conformity, its a practical solution to meeting the needs of the customer whether it be business to consumer or B2B.
 
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I didn't say anything about racism. I said that rich white people invented the "professionalism" standard that's now being followed, which is IMO mostly a facade, specially regarding appearance.

One might argue that this "professional standard of appearance" was actually established by the Anglo-American working/middle class over the last two centuries. So maybe white, sure, but I don't know that rich was a necessary part of it.
 
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When I was taking classes in the CEPL at GWU, the Lt. General in command of my agency emphasized that how you present yourself, in dress and appearance but in how you handle the situation in front of you, not only reflects on the agency (he said his agency and it is) but it mostly reflects on you as a person.

His name is Ronnie Hawkins, Jr. Look him up. He's easily the best commander DISA has had in the 15 years I've been in and out of the agency.
 
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One might argue that this "professional standard of appearance" was actually established by the Anglo-American working/middle class over the last two centuries. So maybe white, sure, but I don't know that rich was a necessary part of it.
I believe that the object of our standards, especially when dealing with the public, is to offend as few people as possible.
 
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When you say something was invented by "Rich, white people" in today's vernacular you are insinuating that they are doing it because of race.
Saying that rich white people did a thing is racism? Aren't we touchy.
Of course its a facade. No one that I know of gets up in the morning, shaves and puts on a suit and tie if they aren't going to work.

When I choose to do that it is because I am exercising personal accountability, not because the man is keeping me down.

If any of the rich white people who own all the businesses thought they could get richer by having a work force of mangy hippies they would have a work force of mangy hippies. It isn't an exercise in social conformity, its a practical solution to meeting the needs of the customer whether it be business to consumer or B2B.
When the needs of the customer have nothing to do with whether the employee is a mangy hippie or not, it's exactly an exercise in social conformity. A few summers ago I interviewed for a job at a moving company. They didn't hire me because I wouldn't meet their appearance standard. Which is fine, I took another job, but that doesn't change the fact that one's ability to pick up a couch isn't really contingent on looking like Derek Jeter.

My issue isn't really with you conforming to the sensibilities of your employer. It's with people talking about standards of professionalism as if they were 1) objective and 2) completely rational, neither of which is true.
 
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Saying that rich white people did a thing is racism? Aren't we touchy.
When the needs of the customer have nothing to do with whether the employee is a mangy hippie or not, it's exactly an exercise in social conformity. A few summers ago I interviewed for a job at a moving company. They didn't hire me because I wouldn't meet their appearance standard. Which is fine, I took another job, but that doesn't change the fact that one's ability to pick up a couch isn't really contingent on looking like Derek Jeter.

My issue isn't really with you conforming to the sensibilities of your employer. It's with people talking about standards of professionalism as if they were 1) objective and 2) completely rational, neither of which is true.
This is true but sometimes in life you have to suck it up and do what you gotta do. I always tell people that if you don't like the company's policy there's three doors, pick one.
 
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Saying that rich white people did a thing is racism? Aren't we touchy.
When the needs of the customer have nothing to do with whether the employee is a mangy hippie or not, it's exactly an exercise in social conformity. A few summers ago I interviewed for a job at a moving company. They didn't hire me because I wouldn't meet their appearance standard. Which is fine, I took another job, but that doesn't change the fact that one's ability to pick up a couch isn't really contingent on looking like Derek Jeter.

My issue isn't really with you conforming to the sensibilities of your employer. It's with people talking about standards of professionalism as if they were 1) objective and 2) completely rational, neither of which is true.

In your mind, but then you don't run a business that we are talking about, I don't imagine.
 
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professionalism standard isn't set by anyone, it is set by everyone aka the market.


while your appearance may not have impacted your ability to lift a couch, it would impact the perceived value from the customer though and would make future jobs more difficult to acquire for the business.

when you are hiring, you often aren't looking for the best person. you are looking for the safest person generally that fills that need and is zero risk to the HR person.

you gotta put yourself in the HR person's position.

they have zero tangible skill.

their job is to hire someone else to do all the work.

often it is work they themselves know nothing about.


call me a butcher, but one bad hire means i have two job openings, the replaced bad hire and my entirely disposable HR person.
 
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