Racism in talk about outsourcing
blog.codeboff.in
blog.codeboff.in
You asked what you did wrong. I present to you what you did wrong
could someone explain to me, where the racism lies in the above sentence? Seriously, it may not be a well thought out response that highlights the perils of outsourcing, but it is well know that outsourcing increases risk.
India, being one of the largest software outsourcing recipients, just bear the brunt of this well know reality. I have rescued many projects from "India" and not one of them has been because of some genetic inferiority of "Indians", rather there are real logistical and cultural issues that many people are not aware of when they sink into the lowest bidder trap.
Unfortunate, individuals that make comments like the quoted one have seen this far too many times and instead of offering constructive dialog, tend to take an I told you so attitude without offering a explanation as to why. Meanwhile the overly sensitive politically correct immediately jump to the racist white guy explanation for criticism.
The fact of the matter is that outsourcing to India or anywhere else is fraught with risk, more project fail than succeed. It is not racist to be a realist and to deflect from the issue by crying racism does not fix the underlining issue, which is really that people need to be educated on how to outsource successfully.
I also agree that the race card is overused and in general any assertions made under it are not falsifiable. But the flip side is that real racism is easy to qualify with a rote disclaimer ("I know many smart Indian programmers personally"). That doesn't decrease the sting of the isolated snide remark which was almost but not quite racist.
I believe that the number of outsourcing successes is not as low as is portrayed in online forums, perhaps because those involved tend to be less vocal about it.
My point is related to what you seem to say in the last line: people need to be able to discuss outsourcing or anything else without some being able to get away with saying 'Indians suck at programming'.
In the USA at least, since the early 80s, "Human Resources" departments have trained managers, directors and up to think of employees as coming in "plug-compatible" categories. Naturally, management has extended this incorrect mindset to offshored workers. The vast cultural differences between USA and India cause a lot of problems, as does the time difference.
But nobody can say anything because of the danger of inadvertantly sounding racist.
The cultural differences between anywhere and anywhere else may be vast but I don't think they are unbridgeable, provided that both sides first agree to co-operate.