Comment by techdragon
4 years ago
Quote from one of the founders: “We want to build a very inclusive work culture and we think this could be an extremely great product and technology to actually bring people closer.”
Yeah… this is dystopian, offensive, racist, utterly thoughtless, completely lacking in any sort of understanding of human cultures… this is wrong on so many levels.
Not only is the Indian to “White American” demo offensive in the obvious racism way but it also represents the removal of cross cultural exposure, the parallels to “news bubble” and the problems they can lead to are obvious and it’s extremely irritating as a potential customer to be lied to like this (its a great example of the sort of thing that leads to customers boycotting a company once its discovered)... and my ultimate example of why this is an bad company (not a bad technology, as technology is simply a tool, the ethics of which depend on the humans putting it to use) imagine it backwards, a “White American” using this to sound “Indian” … hopefully the offensive nature of selling this as a product was obvious before that example but yeah. This is toxic ethical swamp territory that I hope their investors end up watching their money slowly sink into before it eventually disappears.
This startup should not have happened.
"Imagine it backwards, a “White American” using this to sound “Indian”" I'm white, I don't find this offensive at all, why would I? The only way I would is if I was looking for offense. If my job was calling people to make sales and they couldn't understand me I would leap at the chance to change my accent so they could. Sales is a commission based job, more sales by leveraging an available software tool means a better life for my family, especially if I am based in a third world economy.
If my options as a call center business owner are to 1) use foreign workers and lose customers due to the communication gap, 2) use foreign workers and leverage software to negate the communication gap or 3) use more expensive US based workers; how is it racist to acknowledge the facts on the ground and choose the second option? Your argument is that the call center operators should be forced to lose customers and business because not to do so is racist?
India is also a country, a guy of Indian descent from Britain sounds just like a white guy from Britain, same with people from Florida or NY. To conflate race and nationality is a flawed argument. What does 'White American' sound like? Do people from Alabama and NYC sound the same? If a black kid and a white kid are adopted as babies and raised in the same family they will sound the same. Accent is a regional thing, not a racial one.
Not everything is racist, stop trying to find things to be outraged about.
Stop being outraged about other people finding things to be outraged about. They’re not going to stop and you’ll just end up miserable in the end.
Lol. I'm not outraged I'm just commenting on a message board to pass time while getting paid like everyone else here.
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If your solution to racism is to disguise as a white man it's not a solution to racism. The tool is almost the complete opposite of what their selling pitch is
And let's not play dumb here, the end goal is too milk workers from third world countries
I'm not sure where I saw this being pitched as a solution to racism. It has nothing to do with racism. Accents are based on location, not race. Of course the intent is to further milk 3rd world countries. That's the whole benefit of hiring third world workers, they are cheaper. If not why use them? This tool is pitched as making them more effectively able to communicate with their target audience, first world people. This is a boon fir the workers allowing them to be better at their job. People that employ the call centers want things sold, this allows for them to do this more effectively. Where is the negative in that? Sales is about getting someone to buy things, sitting on your moral horse doesn't feed people's families
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> it also represents the removal of cross cultural exposure
I don't call a call center to be exposed to new cultures. I call them to fix a problem.
Waiting 20 minutes then ending with someone who has a terrible mic that seems like it's 10 feet from their face then throw on an accent of any type (heck, I've had agents with US Southern accents that I can't understand) and I end up hanging up to pull the lever on another agent.
Like yeah, is it racist? Probably. But would it fix a problem without hurting anyone? Yes.
Accents can be genuine communication barriers. It isn’t racist to acknowledge that or to desire to find ways to resolve those issues. That is, ways that don’t involve asking a person to repeat what they’ve said over and over or to have your issue completely misunderstood because the worker also has trouble understanding your accent.