On Schadenfreude, Bigotry, and Job Interviews

Image description: A male of pallor is shown in a workplace meeting, making their melanated colleagues highly uncomfortable.

One of my favorite things in the world is watching bigots being outed by the public, losing their jobs. I have no issue with hateful Karens and Chets losing their jobs after their beliefs are shared with their employers by people in the community. But while I love allowing the schadenfreude to wash over me like a gentle autumn rain, I can’t help but think about the one party in these matters that is never held accountable: the companies that hire these people.

I’ve been recruiting and interviewing people for over 20 years. I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews and led dozens of recruitments. Please believe that Karens and Chets don’t suddenly wake up one morning and decide they want to be hateful people. They are and have always been hateful people, and it comes out in their job interviews. The way they answer questions, the way they show up in spaces. The red flags are always there.

And companies hire these people anyway.

I can count on my fingers and toes multiple times how often hiring managers and department heads have willingly ignored red flags around hate and bigotry and pushed someone through a recruitment process because they “really like them,” are “a person I’d grab a beer with,” or they “remind me of myself at that age.” Why?

Because it’s easier to ride with the comforts and familiarity of white supremacy than it is to take a stance and not bring people into your organization that pose a risk to your employees and the people you serve.

It has been proven that people hire people with whom they feel comfortable. Bigots, or people who are comfortable with bigotry happening in front of them and not calling it out, hire bigots. Chets and Karens hire other Chets and Karens. It’s white supremacist workplace culture 101. And it’s never a workplace issue until that bigotry gets attached to the company name in a public way.

Chet and Karen have been doing and saying horrible things at work for years. They’ve been reported to HR and their supervisors for their harmful words and actions for years. But as soon as their hateful nonsense spills out into the public in a way that gets them screenshotted and recorded? Then it’s an immediate dismissal and a well-written PR statement touting how the company doesn’t support these views and cares about equity and inclusion. Meanwhile, everyone who has had to work with and be harmed by Karen and Chet every damn day for years has to sit with the learned understanding that their company has never really cared about equity and inclusion and has no issue with gaslighting their employees around supporting these views.

Be mad at Chet and Karen. Be glad that they’re getting their comeuppance. But save some of those side-eyes for the jerks that employed them in the first place, who now want to absolve themselves of their responsibility in giving these people a paycheck.

[Image description: A male of pallor is shown in a workplace meeting, making their melanated colleagues highly uncomfortable.]

On Conversations with the Brainwashed Bigoted Masses

So...y'all's president has unveiled the next stage of the plan to make the United States a Christian, racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, ableist, autocratic hellscape that criminalizes poverty while increasing said poverty tenfold and making homelessness illegal by declaring a state of emergency in the nation's capital and unleashing the National Guard on a citizenry and city that has seen a dramatic decrease in violent crime and crime in general. And he's doing this with no evidence of any kind of crime escalation that would deem this move necessary, because the United States Supreme Court has ensured that being President has no checks and balances, allowing y'all's president to do what he wants to all of us with no repercussions.

Yet some of y'all are still supporting this man and these decisions because, for some reason, you think he's not launching a pilot program for a nationwide police state where everyone faces a state of constant danger for just existing. Hell, some of y'all have already been increasingly harmed by the decisions y'all's president has made and the impacts they have had on entire communities across the country, including rural communities. Some of y'all have lost jobs, businesses, farms, family members, healthcare options, and basic human rights in the past seven months due to the kazillion hateful executive orders and bills passed by y'all's president and his cronies. Yet some of y'all are still supporting this man and his decisions. Some of y'all have gone as far as to say things like, "I know he didn't mean to hurt me. I know he'll make things better" while he continues making things worse for you. And some of y'all are still out here talkin' about we need to keep the lines of communication open with folx and take care of folx who voted for and support this ongoing harm while being harmed themselves and believing they aren't intentionally being harmed.

With all of this in mind, my question is simple: what conversation is there left for us to have?

I refuse to continue putting energy into fruitless conversations with people brainwashed by their own hatred and bigotry.

I refuse to consort with FAFO people who force us all to find out, even those of us who weren't effin' around and knew what effin' around would do to all of us.

I'm done trying to help people "see the light" when they'd prefer to look directly into the sun and act like their corneas aren't being fried.

It's not worth it, y'all. There's no benefit to continuing a directionless discourse with the folx who are embracing their dictator because they're never going to hear you or believe the facts you present that show them how in danger they truly are.

Reserve your energy for fighting for those who need your help. It's clear who and what we need to fight for - and it ain't a fanbase for a wannabe dictator who are cool with a dictator oppressing us all while believing they'll eventually be deemed special and spared of his wrath.

This Week's Opening Thought: August 11, 2025

This week's opening thought: I understand the issues that people have with HR and their criticisms of HR "professonals." I get it. I work in HR and I have the same issues with the industry, its practices, and many of its practitioners. The issues and criticisms many of y'all have are valid. But I want to add something to the conversation that a lot of people don't recognize:

Some of y'all are a WHOLE DAMN HOT MESS.

BRUH.

I have SEEN and HEARD some things at work, y'all, and I am NOT OK.

At least once a month, I see or hear something that someone has said or done at work that makes me wonder about the future of humanity. I have witnessed some horrible people in action, some who have been so heinous that I wouldn't be surprised if I saw them on a future Dateline episode. I've had the displeasure of investigating some heinous, hateful, exploitative, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, ableist situations and interactions and watching in horror and exasperation as all my work and strong recommendations to remove those people from the workplace get thrown in the garbage like someone mimicking Michael Jordan with a wad of paper. Real talk?

It's scary, frustrating, and leaves the people who've been harmed and those trying to support and defend them feeling disregarded and defeated. And it does nothing but add to the narrative that HR folx don't want to help you.

Look, some HR "professionals" are not in the business of helping you. We can all agree on that. But believe me when I say that some of us do want to help you. We are trying, y'all. TRY. EENG. But we're basically swimming upstream against the current in shark-infested waters while getting knives and rocks thrown at us. If it isn't organizational culture and white supremacy it's labor laws that are structured to be manipulated for loopholes because of how vague they are. We're catchin' it from all angles while trying to support and protect people.

Some HR "professionals" deserve the reputation they have. But sometimes? Sometimes people are raggedy, systems are raggedy, and the solutions are raggedy because they're non-existent or neutered to the point where they do more harm than good due to the places we work and the laws we're governed by.

I'm surprised Lester Holt ain't said some of y'all's names yet.

This Week's Opening Thought: August 4, 2025

This week's opening thought: I can see that after Kamala Harris decided not to run for the governorship of the state of California, and her decision to put her energies into other things that don't have anything to do with running for public office, that some of y'all are back on your "Black women need to step up and get in the fight with us" bullsh--.

Who is back on this B.S., you ask? I won't say...*cough* faux liberal people of pallor who expect Black women to save the day even though they treat them just as badly as everyone else does *cough*...

Sorry about that. Allergies.

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh, the B.S. has boomeranged back around. With that in mind, I want to emphatically remind people of pallor that BLACK WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU NOTHIN'.

Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg.

300,00+ Black women have lost their jobs, their careers, since y'all's president got back in office. For the past three months, that increase has been even more pronounced, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (likely the last honest numbers we're likely to obtain for the foreseeable future).

From June to July, the unemployment rate for Black women increased from 6.1 percent to 6.7 percent. The only other racial subgroup with an unemployment rate that keeps climbing? Black men. Black men saw a significant increase in their rate of unemployment from June to July as well, from 7.5 percent to 7.7 percent. And you shouldn't be shocked to know that these unemployment numbers are twice the rate of workers of pallor and much higher than the unemployment rates of every other racial subgroup in the United States.

Simply put, Black folx in general are drowning in this economy. Still, Black women are bearing much of the brunt of the instability of a white supremacist society that has historically disregarded, subjugated, and harmed them at every turn.

So explain to me how Black women owe you their blood, sweat, and tears, their bodies, in a time in history where y'all made your bed and don't want to lie in it?

Yes, we are in horrible times. Scary and dangerous times. But Black women have ALWAYS been in horrible, scary, and dangerous times, and still showed up and fought for everybody to live and be free while most of y'all sat there and watched them putting their bodies and souls on the line. Historically, generationally, and currently? Black women have more than earned the right to sit this one out. How about you fight for them for once? You seem to care a lot about what they're doing or not doing, so I'm gonna take that as genuine concern for their needs. That's what it's about, right? Not about treating Black women like workhorses but as people you care about, right?

That's what I thought.

You'd better get to work.

This Week's Opening Thought: July 22, 2025

Trigger warning: anti-Black woman hate and harm, anti-Black violence, murder of Black bodies, transphobia, white supremacy.

This week's opening thought: Brett Hankinson, one of the Louisville police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor in her home on March 13, 2020, is due to be sentenced this afternoon. As we wait in unity with Breonna's family for a verdict that somewhat resembles some kind of justice, never forget that y'all's president's hateful and racist Department of Justice has recommended that Brett serve just one day in prison and three years of supervised release for his violent actions, a sentence that will likely never be served due to time served. Also, never forget that this recommendation was pushed forward by the chief of the Justice Department's civil rights unit.

Yep, you read that right.

The Justice Department's civil rights unit is pushing for a violent man of pallor to get a slap on the wrist for his contribution to the murder of a Black woman whose home was invaded and riddled with bullets.

And who was the person tasked with the responsibility of submitting this request to the Louisville courts?

Harmeet K. Dhillon, an Indian woman who has led a privileged life defending people of pallor's "civil liberties" through private practice and her legal nonprofit, the Center for American Liberty. What kind of "civil liberties" are Harmeet and her team fighting for?

Harmeet was the main leader of the legal fight against California’s stay-at-home order during COVID. Harmeet has also supported such wonderful people as a group of "non-transitioners," people who feel that they made a mistake during their transitions who now want to stop everyone from seeking gender-affirming care, a young male of pallor in Texas who claims he was racially discriminated against in school due to showing up every day in his MAGA hat while espousing MAGA talking points, and multitudes of "concerned" parents of pallor who believe their children are being indoctrinated with DEI and LGBTQIA+ "ideologies."

The truth is, Harmeet could care less about actual civil rights but, evidently, her "tireless" work defending and supporting people who want to harm other people because they think it's their right to do so - and fragile people of pallor in general - made her y'all's president's top choice to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division.

And why does Brett Hankinson deserve such a non-sentence? According to Harmeet, Brett's life has been ruined and he's already paid enough for his actions so why punish him more? Because, you know, Breonna Taylor's life is worth a day in prison and some supervision.

Breonna deserved better.

Breonna's family deserves better.

Black women deserve better.

But we live in the United States of America, so none of us should be shocked that a man like Brett's "suffering" matters more than the life of a young Black woman whose life was taken due to hateful action from violent police officers.