Western Digital sheds 2,500 jobs
By Thomas Ricker 
posted December 17th 2008 8:26AM
posted December 17th 2008 8:26AM
posted December 17th 2008 8:26AM
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I mean since when did racism = recession? The picture is not necessarily a resemblance of a recession
You all don't understand! These employees negotiated wages that were far too high for the market, and the Invisible Hand will now smack them down. And Western Digital has put out crappy products that no one will buy, and they haven't been innovative enough, because of all those overpaid employees, and they deserve to die. Right? Am I right? And now they will go bankrupt, and reorganize with employees making only seven dollars an hour with no bennies, no pension and no future. And the executives should get their bonuses, and then some, because the company needs to retain their talent. Sounds familiar.
Same thing for Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and all those other non-innovative companies that put out product that no one will buy. Why, if wages were comparable to those in Kenya, there would be no problem.
I despair of those educated in the Chicago School of economics, which is pretty much all people schooled in economics in the U.S.
This disaster was caused by seventy TRILLION dollars in unregulated, worthless default insurance paper that was traded in secret to allay the perception that perhaps investments weren't what they seem. The traders demanded that government not regulate that market, and they got exactly what they wanted: fat profits. They'll never go hungry. But they took the world down with them as they pigged out. The unregulated credit default swap market amplified the inevitable real estate market turndown by at least two orders of magnitude, and froze money in its tracks.
Yes, all those foolish nobel prize winning economist at U of C are ruinning this country. Try a small dose of sobriety in the current Federally created crisis and look up cato.org.
The Federal Reserve, which is neither federal nor a reserve as Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist of the U of C once said, was founded twelve or so years before the Great Depression.
And yet still the mob howls for more Government.
When I was in high school (not too long ago) I scanned that picture out of my textbook and animated it in such a way to resemble the "What is Love?" meme on YTMND. I think it's long lost now, but seeing it again makes me want to redo it.
Was engadget looking to get a high comment count today? Had to know a picture like that would be controversial!
Are ya that calculating or that oblivious?
By the by, NOT ONE PERSON mentioned Western Digital or it's layoffs. It's all about the pic.
RECESSION?
They are waiting in line to see Chris Rock !
Seriously though, Besides the fact this pic has Blacks on "a line" and overly happy Whites in a car, you have no idea what the context of this picture is besides what the editor wrote on top.
This could be a picture taken in HArlem of people waiting on line to buy hats!
This could be a picture of a line in Compton to see the movie "World's Highest Standard of Living "!
Engagdet,
This is a really poor choice for a picture. Your website is great and your writers and editors do a phenominal job. But this is a clear oversight. This picture perpetuates harmful and degrading stereotypes about black people in this country. If shown in a appropriate context it would not be as much offensive as it would be a depiction of a historical period of time. But when you use it as the illustration of an article about job layoffs etc, it does no good. While I do not blame you for this oversight because you simply may have not realized how offensive this could have been, I urge you to learn from your mistake and apologize for it. If handled repsonsibly from here, I think we can all take it as a learning experience. If you simply do not see how this could be offensive or refuse to be open enough to HEAR some of the posts on this thread, then I would suggest that you ask some of your black friends or colleagues how they feel about it.
Thanks for the great work you all do in the world of technology.
Dave H.
the picture perpetuates that people got laid off. If you haven't read engadget in a while, maybe you haven't seen that they post a similar picture for EVERY story about people getting laid off.
Maybe everyone needs get the politically correct stick out of their asses.
Yeah, don't muddle davidhasslehoff's pretty little mind, please.
The only groups of people that really care if a picture show a bunch of black people or not, are Afroamerican and KKK, the rest of the people really don't care about it.
What would you think if the people lined up all had dark, wavy hair, big noses, and big ears and where dressed in rags?
What would you think if the poster had people all with blue eyes and blond hair and the heading said in German
"World's most beautiful people"
"There's no solution like the German solution to the question"
Where the editor goes on to talk about some American company acquiring a German hair company.
Of course you could see just that and make no reasonable conclusions. But "think" about "someone", in another circumstance, who would see something else.
Engadget, I'm sorely disappointed at your lack of sensitivity and open-mindedness. Especially in this connected age when you know you have a very diversified audience. I'm almost certain there was some debate before this image was posted and it's sad that you collectively lacked judgment and decided to post this very irrelevant image anyway.
@Orappa
... and get 5.
Just when you thought AOL users' reputation for stupidity couldn't possibly get any worse...
Engadget commenters prove otherwise!
good grief
your name pic and comment made my day all at once
Wow flashpoint, you made me laugh for the first time in your internet existance! +1 for you my good sir.
I don't understand why people are getting so up in arms about this photo. I'm sorry, but I am very respectful of this photo, this is one of the great photos made during the depression by Margaret Bourke-White in 1937. The contrast between a white family and poor african-americans standing in line waiting for relief after a flood in Louisville kinda says it all about how certain people, whatever their color, were treated during that time. I think placing this photo above an article about some tech employees losing their job in the 21st century does kinda cheapen the photo and suggest to some people(probably only those who didnt read their history books) that the two times are equal. Sad that people are losing their jobs no doubt but in no way are the times even close to equal.
As I heard a comedian say the other day, people look at the depression and say that couldn't happen now, those people were all in black and white, everybody lives in color now, how can we have a depression in hi-def? People are just too dense. Being spoon fed answers is easier than thinking for yourself.
Really? That's the whole point. So before posting you own comment, read what the others wrote. You wouldn't look like a fool then, would you now?
The billboard reminds me of Fallout 3's...
It's just missing the bobblehead dude!
Is that Mos Def in the center of the picture?
This coming from the same people that saw no need to create SSD drives............
The photo is indeed challenging and confrontational. However, I doubt that Engadget staff had any racist intent when they selected it. By the way, I'm Black.
The photo, to me, is a reflection of American life in that era. However, it could have easily been taken during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And, a lot of people insist that the U.S. government's lack of response to that crisis was racially motivated - I tend to agree with them.
However, U.S. racism isn't my problem anymore because I moved away from the place years ago. So, you guys slug it out, and maybe one day you'll finally move on from America's terrible racist past.
P.S. Dez, Black people are involved in every high tech industry. So, yeah, we're making hard drives. I was a Senior Database Programming Consultant for nearly 20 years. And, I met quite a few people like you who thought I couldn't or shouldn't be doing that job.
i think that dog's the only one who notices they're about to run those people over . . . .
Maybe its due to the fact that WD hard drives are crappy and fail. Hence why nobody wants them anymore
World's highest standard of living? In Australia, we live in true colour, none of this greyscale stuff.
(Or maybe I have it wrong, and "American Way" is the name of the comedy those people are lining up to see.)
Interestingly, when Bourke-White shot this photo, she composed the picture carefully by rearranging the line to show those she considered most photogenic for the photo. It's still a neat photo, for all that it is composed and not actually spontaneous.
According to Wikipedia, during this flood over 1 million were left homeless, with 385 dead and property losses reaching $500 million (in those days!)
I don't know if a composed shot of a bread line during a catastrophe showing mostly African-Americans implies racism. This may have been in a predominantly African-American neighborhood; alternatively, perhaps these African-Americans lacked the resources to avoid having to get food from a bread line, and thus there may be some implied institutional racism. The photographer may have just been trying to show how affected people in the flood were compared to others in the country. I think people here are reading too much into this. Presumably Engadget is comparing the current economic recession to the Ohio river flood of '37.
LOL at the ones saying the little girl at the left is white.... she is indeed a light skin African American, what white parent in their right mind would allow her to stand in line with Blacks??/....
this was a terrible choice for a picture on an article like this, and it is sad to read some of the comments along with it but like Oprah said...................... you can do anything or say anything but as long as you finish it with.....drum roll........
OBAMA IS PRESIDENT b!tcheeeese!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why wouldn't a white parent allow their child to stand in a line with black people? The black people wouldn't care and most certainly would have treated her just like another human being.
If you were discussing a highly segregated era, like the year 1938 in which the photo was taken, it would have been best to say that so people know exactly what point you're trying to make.
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/B/bourke-white/b-w_living_full.html