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The Amazon experience: The Hierarchy of Race · Spending time with Dr. Christina

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  Hello everyone and welcome back to my podcast
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  spending time with dr. Christina. We're in season
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  8 episode 2 of the Amazon experience in this
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  episode I want to start to talk about and reflect
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  on a hierarchy that I've noticed at Amazon in
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  their warehouse culture and in fact I've watched
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  people talk about it at Amazon. They've even
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  mentioned it on their white boards, which is
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  their internal communication board that everyone
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  can kind of share their opinion. And what I want
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  to talk about is this hierarchy. And it is indeed
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  a hierarchy of apparently race. And it's sad
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  to have to even address it or even talk about
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  it because It is definitely an issue there and
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  I remember a young man that I had met and Talked
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  to him off and on but not too much, but I remember
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  he made a post on the whiteboard and he talked
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  about favoritism and this was favoritism of another
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  race and When he said it a lot of us were like
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  Hmm. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking
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  about Now I spent as I mentioned a good part
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  of my career in the legal arena and in particular
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  with human rights So I deal with the discrimination
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  I deal with the issues that are Pretty much violations
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  to other people because of the way that they
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  look the way that they worship their sexual orientation
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  everything is under human rights and What I noticed
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  in regards to what this young man mentioned and
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  what other people have experienced is that yes
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  indeed There is something afoot at Amazon's warehouse,
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  right? So I did notice this hierarchy he's talking
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  about I did notice that there is a type of discriminatory
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  pattern That comes from leadership down and I
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  saw this in the warehouse and I think that What
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  Amazon needs to ask itself is that if they support?
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  Dei if they support a global workforce What can
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  they do to break up this? Monopoly that's occurring
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  and anyone Can see it that walks into the organization
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  because it becomes very evident and um, and I
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  have listened to stories And um while a lot of
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  people say, huh, you can't believe everything
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  you hear. No, I don't But I do know again Um,
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  it's been a career in knowing when people tell
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  the truth, right? Especially in court. We try
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  we do our best at least right? I can tell you
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  that many people have experienced this discriminatory
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  pattern. And it's a belief system that normally
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  should be weeded out before somebody is hired.
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  And it hasn't been. Amazon is recruiting people
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  that come into the workforce with beliefs that
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  are harmful. They're harmful. They make it difficult
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  for others to succeed This is America and out
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  of all the places. This is New York State a very
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  diverse state so for Amazon to Say that they're
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  operating outside of discrimination It's sad
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  because they need a lot of oversight to see what's
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  going on You know, I have listened to stories
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  even of managers that come in managers of color
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  They'll come in They'll work their way up They're
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  in college mind you or maybe they're working
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  on a graduate degree They're not offered the
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  opportunity to step in to the college graduate
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  management roles all the time Instead they're
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  starting on the bottom They're working their
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  way up into these roles while other folks are
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  coming right into these managerial roles and
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  it really is not fair and I can tell you That
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  is Amazon's if they were to say what are my legal
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  challenges and or what they're going to be very
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  soon That would be the area They have to start
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  to create an area of fairness for everyone. So
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  indeed Amazon has some very big challenges probably
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  even similar to what we hear about what Elon
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  Musk is going through at his factories but they
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  have some very big challenges some of them I've
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  witnessed some of them I've even experienced
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  and I can tell you that this is an area that
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  It's just not going to help this organization.
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  While many people need jobs and many people tolerate
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  a lot of this behavior, the discrimination, the
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  racism, the targeting due to whatever, the race
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  to create the culture. This is something that
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  is definitely going to Affect this company in
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  the long run and when you think about legacy
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  Jeff Bezos is gonna have to decide along with
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  his spouse and We already know his ex -wife is
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  on the she's on the right page. She does a lot
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  of good a lot of great things However, he's got
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  to decide and I believe he is a Cuban American
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  What kind of legacy does he want with Amazon
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  does he want? fast packages going out or does
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  he want fairness with fast packages to go out?
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  I mean this is just a hypothetical but this is
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  definitely very concerning and I believe it should
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  be on the agenda not for their marketing team
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  but for their leadership team to get Amazon on
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  the right track, where it is a balanced organization.
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  The organization is perfect, but it is balanced
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  and they are hiring people that are carrying
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  out good values, American values even, human
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  rights values for that matter. This should be
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  the target for Amazon along with its legacy of
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  bringing packages and robotics and all of those
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  great things to the warehouse to enhance its
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  ability to deliver and make it better for its
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  employees. We've got this part here that really
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  needs to be dealt with and I'm hopeful that it
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  will be in the near future. This is the end of
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  this week's episode and I thank you all for joining
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  me. as we talked a little bit about the hierarchy
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  issues at Amazon. And until the next time, I
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  wish you all a great week.