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YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#181

Post by johnathanNYC »

tcdent wrote: post #106
johnathanNYC wrote: post #87

As someone who is both (afro-latino), I'm really excited about this. After reading the majority of the comments, I'm a little disappointed. It seems that many do not understand that being white and male in the United States, by default, affords many privileges that monitories struggle to obtain. If there any questions about this, I'd be happy to answer. Curious to why the word Hispanic was used instead of Latino. If…

I'm curious what privileges you perceive, or know to be true, for non-minorities. I absolutely agree there is a problem. I've heard many first-hand accounts of violence and disrespect from all races. I'm interested in a solution that doesn't just take the labels from a pie chart and reinforce the dividing lines between what ultimately is one group.

At a high level; wealth, education and jobs which is easily afforded due to 400 years of slavery, 100 years of blatant discrimination and 50+ years discrimination built into the American Justice System. White Americans also do not have to worry about mass incarcerations and racial profiling. Laci Green does a fantastic job a breaking all of these down: https://youtu.be/h_hx30zOi9I

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#182

Post by Mz »

dylanjermiah wrote: post #180
bakhy wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so, affirmative action should not be done, and structural racism should not be combated, just so that we do not offend the pride of the discriminated by labelling, or? this is ridiculous. by this logic we might have to ignore racism completely. e.g. if you say that cops in the US are more prone to killing unarmed black suspects, you're also pointing out that black people need help. i guess we should not do that eithe…

Have you actually seen the history of Affirmative Action? I'd suggest you read 'Affirmative Action around the world' by Thomas Sowell. There's a plethora of sources and facts packed onto every page, very enlightening.

I take it the nutshell version is that Affirmative Action is a failure (according to this book at least)? (I mean, that is what your phrasing seems to imply.)

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#183

Post by balls187 »

djtriptych wrote: post #170
balls187 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey great, I (asian man) get to work in tech. Do I get to raise interest rates? How about being a credible candidate for US President? Can I pay money to fuck kids and spend only 5 years in jail?

These are fair points, though outside of a discussion focused on expanding access to tech.

Agreed. I was focused on the parent commenters point that Asian Men have been successful, despite being the time of "White Privilege."

We (asian men) are well represented in tech--even when I was a kid, MIT specifically said they did not consider Asian as a underrepresented ethnic group.

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#184

Post by johnathanNYC »

djtriptych wrote: post #178
tcdent wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what privileges you perceive, or know to be true, for non-minorities. I absolutely agree there is a problem. I've heard many first-hand accounts of violence and disrespect from all races. I'm interested in a solution that doesn't just take the labels from a pie chart and reinforce the dividing lines between what ultimately is one group.

Racism happens in people's hearts and minds, not in policy. Fixing racism means fixing hearts and minds. Calling us "one group" diminishes the value of diversity, which is more or less a fact of nature. We are NOT all the same. Cultural intelligence is a thing. Anyway the specific problem with your race-blind view is that throughout American history we have employed race-sighted policy at every level of government to…

I completely disagree with this, but can you elaborate on racism not being in policy. I think you are confusing systemic racism (in regards to white privilege) with slurs, discrimination, hating someone's skin color, etc.

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#185

Post by nostrademons »

copperred wrote: post #175
tptacek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example: I have an African American neighbor one block over that I see regularly. He works in IT/devops. Like every IT person, he gets yelled at by random people at work all the time; it's a high-stress job. But when he gets visibly frustrated, he's The Angry Black Man. Dipshit coworkers complain that they don't feel safe. It is an example of a white male privilege that being frustrated and swearing at your computer…

"It is an example of a white male privilege" No it is not. You cannot point to poor treatment of one group as evidence of the "privilege" of another group. There are more than two colors of people.

Isn't that precisely what privilege means? Having advantages that accrue to you simply by membership in one group?

There are degrees of privilege, too. I'm not white - I'm multiracial white/Asian, though I look basically Asian. I'm also not a Stanford grad, and my parents weren't millionaires. However, I grew up middle-class in a reasonably affluent suburb, my parents stayed married, they were highly educated, and I'm not black or Hispanic. These are all privileges; they are unearned advantages that I obtained through circumstances before my birth. That I'm not white and can't call up a VC to get them to fund my company doesn't make me unprivileged; it makes me less privileged than certain 1-in-a-million individuals.

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#186

Post by johnathanNYC »

copperred wrote: post #175
tptacek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example: I have an African American neighbor one block over that I see regularly. He works in IT/devops. Like every IT person, he gets yelled at by random people at work all the time; it's a high-stress job. But when he gets visibly frustrated, he's The Angry Black Man. Dipshit coworkers complain that they don't feel safe. It is an example of a white male privilege that being frustrated and swearing at your computer…

"It is an example of a white male privilege" No it is not. You cannot point to poor treatment of one group as evidence of the "privilege" of another group. There are more than two colors of people.

Then whats the cause of the poor treatment?

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#187

Post by tptacek »

copperred wrote: post #175
tptacek wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example: I have an African American neighbor one block over that I see regularly. He works in IT/devops. Like every IT person, he gets yelled at by random people at work all the time; it's a high-stress job. But when he gets visibly frustrated, he's The Angry Black Man. Dipshit coworkers complain that they don't feel safe. It is an example of a white male privilege that being frustrated and swearing at your computer…

"It is an example of a white male privilege" No it is not. You cannot point to poor treatment of one group as evidence of the "privilege" of another group. There are more than two colors of people.

I don't think you grok the concept of privilege as I'm using it. My guess is that like many people who reject the term (or its common usage), you think "privilege" is an indictment of the people who hold the privilege, or a demand for them to relinquish it. That may be some people's notion of privilege, but it's not a very useful one.

Better is just to see it as a positive attribute, rather than a normative one. It is a fact that white men have some advantages in most tech workplaces, simply because they don't stick out. That doesn't make white men bad people, or obligate them to do things to genuflect to non-white non-men. It's just a useful thing to know, is all.

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#189

Post by dylanjermiah »

Mz wrote: post #182
dylanjermiah wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually seen the history of Affirmative Action? I'd suggest you read 'Affirmative Action around the world' by Thomas Sowell. There's a plethora of sources and facts packed onto every page, very enlightening.

I take it the nutshell version is that Affirmative Action is a failure (according to this book at least)? (I mean, that is what your phrasing seems to imply.)

I'd suggest you read the book, it's only 200 pages and I can't summarise it in one sentence. It's sad that someone down voted me for suggesting a book which has voluminous facts and history. Human progress is building on what we have learnt before, if we can't learn from history I don't know how we will make progress.

Re: YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders

#190

Post by Mz »

dylanjermiah wrote: post #189
Mz wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it the nutshell version is that Affirmative Action is a failure (according to this book at least)? (I mean, that is what your phrasing seems to imply.)

I'd suggest you read the book, it's only 200 pages and I can't summarise it in one sentence. It's sad that someone down voted me for suggesting a book which has voluminous facts and history. Human progress is building on what we have learnt before, if we can't learn from history I don't know how we will make progress.

I did not downvote you. I asked a question. There are only so many hours in the day. So, unfortunately, I cannot read every single thing I wish I could read. It would be nice if you actually answered my question instead of recommending "read this book" for the third time. I heard you the first two times.

Peace.

Edit: and have an upvote as a token of good faith.

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