For some reason today this really old interview of billionaire Mark Cuban came upon on how in the past he had an interview with Inc. where he was talking about personal prejudice and stereotypes that he carries of others at times. From what I gather, it was supposed to be a way to express how one recognizes their biases while proactively trying o improve it. His quote was “If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face — white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere — I’m walking back to the other side of the street. The list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of.”
While this was a long time ago, in recent times there has been a lot of debate about DEI in the workplace which he openly is in huge support of. With that said, this quote is spreading around where people are using it as a way to suggest he supports it allegedly more to compensate for his prejudice with certain people.
That got me to think if it is ever wise to give these types of candid interviews as depending on the current trend people will tend to try and find everything to use against people to the point where even if they aren’t affected by it the attention surely will affect the businesses that they run. So is it better to simply treat it like politics where you try not to get involved since it can be so divisive? Or at least when you are in “retirement mode” per se. At the same time, I guess for many part of the success in getting funding and support from certain groups s to be vocal as well.