I’m fine working with racists.
I’ve done it my entire professional life. In my senior year of high school, I woke up at 5 am to work 4 hours in a furniture mill. My supervisor was racist. My teammate was a swastika tattoo having skinhead.
He was a good teammate.
Gave me some good tips. He kept conversation all about the work, except for daily debates on musical taste. This was during the OJ Simpson case.
He taught me something critical about diversity.
Actions matter, thoughts, feelings, and opinions don’t. No employer hires good people. Thinking isn’t doing. And actions are the only thing others experience in the real world.
They hire folks they believe will get good results.
They keep people who get good results. At no point in the hiring process do we screen for a person’s character. So long as you don’t put a company at risk, they will keep paying you.
As long as we conceal our thoughts that Women or Black folks are inferior, you’re good.
Don’t let those thoughts bleed into action. It’s impossible to prove someone is biased. We can only detect if someone acts in a biased way. And it’s super easy to attribute to any other reason.
Work isn’t family.
A company isn’t home. My workplace expectations are simple.
I expect an employer to make an effort to support high individual and organizational performance.