Would You Pass AI HR Screening?

Somebody asked me the other day if I was offered a full-time job, would I take it? I said no, because I don't want to deal with being Black in the office.

I'm not saying I've only had bad experiences with white people at work. I'm saying the bad experiences I've had have scarred me and it's why I prefer to work for myself.

I've worked in places that tolerated racism and sexism. At my first IT job in the early 90s, I had a boss who somehow always found a way to touch my ass every day as I ran anti-virus and hard drive integrity checks on the servers every morning. This same boss allowed consultants to use the N-word and called the other IT Team made up of mostly Asians and Latinos "monkeys". He had a mean nickname for the white woman who ran that department and made it seem like our department's survival depended on their destruction. "There could be only one," he used to say and even had it hanging up on the wall in the shared IT Office.

At my last job, my presence in places was always questioned, even though I was in charge of network operations and the network covered the entirety of every building meaning my presence everywhere was to be expected. During COVID, I saw a colleague from that same job at one of the sites where the City was giving out COVID shots to people who work in education. My colleague sees me and says loudly, "What are you doing here?," as if I was not entitled to a shot. As if I were not the very reason he could teach his classes remotely. As if I wasn't the one who had taught him how to teach his classes via Zoom. It was humiliating to have to justify my existence and that he'd questioned me in front of a crowd of scared people was really messed up. His question made it seem like I was undeserving and jumping the line.

And yet, even after I was asked recently about whether or not I'd go back into anybody's office, I found myself considering it. We could be entering a depression for all I know. Best to keep options open.

But would I pass AI HR screening? Probably not. The bias is baked in, as we've learned from a recent study. Not only that, my time being a student as a fully grown adult showed me that a lot of institutions have allowed ethics to slip. Students are allowed to cheat without consequences.

Besides, most jobs I've ever gotten came through word of mouth. But a friend of mine who worked for the government has been out of work for 18 months and finds silence from his former colleagues in his network. No one has sent him leads. Most people don't take his calls. We're being left with limited options for a reason and it's not good.

I believe the policies of this regime have the goal of making Black people a permanent underclass to openly scapegoat again. If you've been following me for awhile, none of what I'm saying here should come as a surprise. I've been clear about what I think.

Elon Musk says people won't have to worry about earning an income by 2036 and that everyone's needs will be taken care of. Karen Hunter asked a question I've been wondering myself. Do people like Elon Musk see Black people being around in 2036? What do y'all think?