Well done, YC. I believe we need more of these types of actions to act as a shot in the arm for diversity in the industry (and other industries, too).
YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
51–60 of 282 posts
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see. It just that the concept just feels weird to me, targeting specifically a few types of people. I suspect having that here where I'm from (Portugal), would have been construed as being racist. Again, not being a troll, just trying to understand.
A lot of Americans think this is racist too. It's basis is rooted in the fact that "white people" still haven't repaid "black people" for slavery.
Note to reader: Generally you want to replace "A lot of Americans" with "I" in statements like this.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#53The explicit nature of identifying these groups by race is off-putting, mostly because it is short-sighted. Racial identification can't be the solution if the ultimate goal is to end racial disparity. This obviously isn't the first or last program YC implements, but as some point the message has got to become more sophisticated to accomplish the core goal. YC is a numbers game. This simply encourages stereotypically…
Exactly this. By announcing separate open hours for groups B and C, don't they deliberately make their normal hours even more A?
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#54You planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? I mean, until the ACA came along, I pretty much took a risk-aversion pattern career path so I wouldn't get thrown into the "prexisting condition" abyss, and I'm probably not alone here. Personally speaking, a lot of handicapped folk I've met through the years are quite clever, innovative, and determined, because starting life at the plate with a 3-2 co…
> You planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? This is part of the problem with things like this - while good intentioned, it inevitably alienates another equally oppressed group. Why can't we just have "Office Hours" and make it absolutely clear it's for anyone -- and actually follow through with the intent. It just seems silly to says "these here are for only this one small group - and that's h…
They aren't "combating bigotry". They've observed the obvious demographic gaps, and they're doing targeted outreach to try to close that gap.
Combating bigotry is a worthy cause, but it is not the only worthy cause, and evaluating unrelated outreach programs by their impact on bigotry is a sort of rhetorical sleight of hand.
I think this is worth pointing out: there is probably no criticism anyone is going to have of this program that the YC partners have not already considered. It's 2015, and they're not dumb.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#55I'm not trying to be a troll, I'm just trying to find a justification. Having something that says you can only can come in if you are "Black, Hispanic, Women, Veterans, and International founders" kinda racist as fuck? It sounds exactly like segregation to me. Again, not trying to be a troll. Not American, just trying to understand.
Whenever you are confused about our culture, just try following the money... problem + buzz + market = opportunity. These are good capitalist VC's acting normally, nothing unusual about it. And if I didn't miss it already, I wouldn't be surprised at a diversity-focused startup fund announcement some time very soon. In this light, this announcement is probably a test/market research for that fund.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#56Veterans? What does this word mean in this context? I would expect it to mean a military veteran (this is what wikipedia thinks), but it sounds very weird here. PS. I'm neither living in America nor a native speaker so excuse my lack of knowledge
Yeah, military veteran is the correct reading.
I guess if you really stretch the idea, they count as minorities.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#57> Black, Hispanic, Women, Veterans, and International founders. I think it's great that YC is concerned about helping non-elite people. What about just focusing on helping poor people compete in Silicon Valley in general? Does anyone think wealthy founders of any kind need more help than poor founders of any kind?
You would think all the efforts towards social outreach would focus on poverty as their #1 criteria - the most direct and obvious criteria of people in need - but they almost never do. The problem is these programs are created by upper-class people in their media-social bubble, cobbled together from the arbitrary championings within that bubble. Unfortunately poverty doesn't have a strong, dedicated representative in…
Discrimination on the basis of superficial factors exists. Positive discrimination on the basis of similar factors is inefficient for exactly the reasons you describe, but a) it's a lot cheaper and simpler than means-testing people to find out whether they're actually poor or just pretending to be and b) people often rely on superficial characteristics when choosing role models, which is natural because you want a model who's substantially ahead of you (otherwise you don't have much to aspire to) but the greater the gap you wish to close the lower the probability that you can establish personal contact with all the extra nuance and information involved.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#58You planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? I mean, until the ACA came along, I pretty much took a risk-aversion pattern career path so I wouldn't get thrown into the "prexisting condition" abyss, and I'm probably not alone here. Personally speaking, a lot of handicapped folk I've met through the years are quite clever, innovative, and determined, because starting life at the plate with a 3-2 co…
> You planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? This is part of the problem with things like this - while good intentioned, it inevitably alienates another equally oppressed group. Why can't we just have "Office Hours" and make it absolutely clear it's for anyone -- and actually follow through with the intent. It just seems silly to says "these here are for only this one small group - and that's h…
Fair enough, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If nobody cared about what YCombinator does, or what potential affect it can have on a career path, then it'd fall by the wayside. It's one of the fine lines good businesses have to straddle - once in a position of leadership, gradually society looks toward the business and wants to know how they intend to use that position of status.
I don't see this being much different than what being featured on Oprah's Book Club could do - sometimes things are overlooked, and using personal currency to bring attention to such things makes sense.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not trying to be a troll ... kinda racist as fuck?
I'm sorry if I came across as trollish, I was just trying to reinforce how weird the concept is to me.
Racism is a pretty heavily charged accusation to make, and you made it very casually. I believe you weren't trying to troll, but rather than repeatedly saying "I don't mean to be a troll", you might have better luck by being more careful about how you phrase your concerns. That's all.
Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
#60The explicit nature of identifying these groups by race is off-putting, mostly because it is short-sighted. Racial identification can't be the solution if the ultimate goal is to end racial disparity. This obviously isn't the first or last program YC implements, but as some point the message has got to become more sophisticated to accomplish the core goal. YC is a numbers game. This simply encourages stereotypically…
> The explicit nature of identifying these groups by race is off-putting
They're also targeting Female, Veterans and international founders. All of which YC has identified as underrepresented in SV startups.