IBM Apologizes For Racial Slurs On Its Recruitment Webpages (theregister.co.uk)

The Register: IBM has apologized after its recruitment webpages asked applicants whether their ethnicity was, among other options, the racial slurs Yellow and Mulatto. In online application forms for positions within the US tech giant, in among other questions ranging from military veteran status, and eligibility to work in America, a bizarre drop-down menu asked whether jobseekers were Caucasian, Black, or Indigenous, as well as the aforementioned insults. The Register was first alerted to the baffling error on Monday by an engineer who tried to apply for a technical role at IBM earlier this month, and was stunned by the slurs listed for a mandatory input field labeled: "Please state your ethnic group."

Comments

Yellow?

[Zorro]

Well what else would Homer Simpson be?

Re:Yellow?

[Anonymous Coward]

A singular cartoon metaphor for the Trump administration?

Re:Yellow?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I have jaundice, you insensitive clod!

I didn't know about Mulatto

[Seven Spirals]

I used that term with a friend of mine who is mixed-race. He told me it was offensive and that it was an Italian slur that referred to a coffee drink where milk and coffee were mixed together. He said that it's not offensive because of it's content, it's because of the way people used it in the past. However, then I looked it up and it's actually a Spanish or Portuguese word with "uncertain" origins. I basically look at it like this, you shouldn't call people things they don't like. I have an unusual name and when people butcher it or alter it, I get annoyed in a hurry (mainly because it's easy to pronounce and they do it on purpose). I can imagine that a racially charged term that someone is used to being flung at them by hostile racist assholes is that much worse. However, I was glad that my friend simply explained it to me and I was able to say "Oh, well I won't be using that again, then." That's a much more pleasant method for race relations than the kind of crap the mainstream media tries to propagate. I wonder if they'd like a race war, just to improve ratings!

Re:I didn't know about Mulatto

[misexistentialist]

I basically look at it like this, you shouldn't call people things they don't like.

We're already seeing where that gets you, since they don't like anything you say, you should "shut up and listen," so they can say whatever they want about you.

Re:I didn't know about Mulatto

[bluefoxlucid]

You know, a while back I came across something describing people as white, black, yellow, brown, and red, which seems pretty even-handed in context. There are other words used as slurs which draw considerably more attention, so it's a bit non-obvious that yellow might be offensive.

This is also why I find it odd people call blacks coloreds. Folks are in general pretty colorful.

A while back, a white supremacist got a DNA test and then announced to everyone that he had discovered he was an octoroon. What the hell kind of a word is that even?

The whole thing is very strange. What bothers me, really, is when somebody starts talking about getting rid of birthright citizenship because people born here aren't "real Americans" unless they're born from the right lineage. That's when you get the torches and pitchforks out.

Re:I didn't know about Mulatto

[omnichad]

This is also why I find it odd people call blacks coloreds. Folks are in general pretty colorful.

Probably as a way to make sure that anyone who is half-black or quarter-black can all be lumped into one group as "other."

Re:I didn't know about Mulatto

[Tetch]

I used that term ["mulatto"] with a friend of mine who is mixed-race. He told me it was offensive

I've been told (in a friendly way) that in the UK I shouldn't call people "mixed race" any more cos that's offensive - instead I should use "people of colour" (but woe betide me if I say "coloured people", cos that's offensive too). There was a time when I used "half-caste", but apparently that's really really really wrong, and it was after then that I started using mixed-race.

I'm a honky ... you can call me that all you like, I really don't mind :-)

This whole situation has become ridiculous.

Re:I didn't know about Mulatto

[laie_techie]

>

The whole thing is very strange. What bothers me, really, is when somebody starts talking about getting rid of birthright citizenship because people born here aren't "real Americans" unless they're born from the right lineage. That's when you get the torches and pitchforks out.

As usual you choose to misinterpret. I'm a white conservative Republican. Some factions of conservatives want to get rid of birthright citizenship for the offspring of illegal immigrants. Every time a conservative talks about illegal immigration the Left declares said conservative a racist, xenophobe, and against all immigration. I'm pro-immigration (I brought my wife here and two brothers married foreigners who were here legally), but vocally against illegal immigration. I've often used the object lesson of someone knocking on my door vs breaking a window to enter my child's room. I don't care what race you are - if you break into my home I will treat you like a hostile, and will protect my family with whatever force is necessary. If you knock on my door, odds are you will be invited to dinner.

Cacuasian?

[Misagon]

I'm from Europe, not from Armenia, Georgia or Azerbaijan

Re:Cacuasian?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

racist adj Believing someone is socially or legally inferior.

Re:Cacuasian?

[jeff4747]

Do you really need someone to explain to you how making someone socially or legally inferior based on their race is racist?

the only ethnicity is human ethnicity

[fche]

so the question is meaningless right?

Re:slur?

[MrKevvy]

Yet "mula" is "mule" in both Spanish and Portuguese. I think claiming this is merely coincidental stretches credulity.

How could this happen?

[IMarvinTPA]

I'm guessing this happened because the requirements only said to ask for ethnicity but failed to include the list. The developer went and found an obviously wrong list to force testing/acceptance to return a proper list. They all failed.

Re:slur?

[aitikin]

Per Google search, using the search phrase, "etymology of mulatto":

late 16th century: from Spanish mulato ‘young mule or mulatto’, formed irregularly from mulo ‘mule’.

so it was from Spanish, and does have to do with mules.

The obvious cause

[slashmydots]

This is what happens when you go to India of the Phillipines for your web development project and yell "okay, who's going to do this for the cheapest?" Tada, "localization problems" to put it politely.

Re:I can speculate what happened here.

[93 Escort Wagon]

So this was another side-effect of out-sourcing... gotcha.

Re:Is Mulatto a racial slur now?

[dpidcoe]

Isn't the requirement to report on actual employees, not applicants? So there is no need to ask until after you decide to hire them.

But how is that going to help if they're one of the overrepresented demographics? You'd need to know the race before making the hiring decision in order to make sure you're able to meet the diversity numbers.

WRF

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Why is "ethnicity" a mandatory field? Actually, given anti-discrimination laws, why is it not a "do not say anything about ethnicity, religion or sex on this or any other form" popup?

Re:Why is ethnicity even a field to fill in?

[RightwingNutjob]

Yeah. More examples of US Government-mandated racialism.

Re:Race matters!

[david_thornley]

I'm sorry you were triggered. Here, show me on this doll where the leftists touched you.

Thank the libtards

[Murdoch5]

The reason they're asking these questions is to make sure they have a diverse work force, instead of a qualified workforce. It's more important for a company to be a mix of culture, then it is for a company to have an able and qualified staff, because skin color diversity makes the libtards happy, and that's all that matters anymore, because if you don't make them happy, they'll just #metoo your ass and waste massive resources over hurt feelings.

Re:Race matters!

[Darinbob]

People make stuff up and as long as it's on the internet someone will believe it -- Calvin Coolidge

Re:Pure fantasy!!!

[arglebargle_xiv]

Yeah, the answer to what happened is right there in the article, the page was created by or for Brazilians, where ethnicity = skin colour. The category "yellow" is a direct translation of amarelo, which is how Asians describe themselves in Brazil. So it's something that's the norm in Brazil where the page/code presumably came from, but less so in translation into English.

Re: slur?

[c6gunner]

Even if Mulatto was at one point an acceptable term, so were retard, idiot, moron, imbecile and cretin. We cant do much about slur creep, other than to pay attention and not use the particular words deemed offensive

So calling some idiotic moron and imbecilic cretin is unacceptable? That's retarded. What am I supposed to call him? An "alternately-abled information challenged individual"? Yeah that just rolls of the tongue.

Of course those words will give offense when used as an insult. They are not offensive in and of themselves though. Just like "yellow" and "mullato" could be used in a context which makes them insulting, but have zero negative connotations in the context of an employment questionnaire. Pretty much ANY word can be used as an insult/slur. People who don't understand that are fucking retarded.