Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom • Hacker News Board

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#111

Post by blisterpeanuts » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:37 PM UTC

pingou wrote: post #18

"as the only African American on her team, she didn’t feel she had much in common with her colleagues. “When I went out to lunch or something with my team, it was sort of like, ‘Soooo, what are you guys talking about?’ ” she says" I find this sentence really shocking, perhaps because I'm french and in France we try to assimilate people more (I don't really know), but I would definitely think that as a white software…

>> ...in France we try to assimilate people more...

Really? What about the Muslim immigrants in the suburbs, who are practically in a separate world from mainstream French, cut off and unable to get in on the lifetime jobs that the French middle and upper middle class enjoy? French-African entrepreneurs report that they have better luck doing business with Americans, who don't care what your race is as long as you pay on time. This is a well documented problem in France.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#112

Post by Larrikin » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:37 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #70

skywhopper wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't find it surprising. I'm white, and I've been on all-white teams where everyone else watched the same TV shows or went to the same movies or played the same video games, and I didn't. Those common interests would feel like the only thing they ever talked about, and it would feel very unwelcoming. Part of the problem is just luck of the draw in terms of the team you get placed on. If that team is all into the…

But that's not what she says, her problem isn't that she doesn't like Marvel Cinematic Universe but that she feels that she doesn't have much in common with people of other races.

But thats not what the article said. >“It could be something as simple as, like, what they watch on TV or what kind of books they like to read. And those are just not TV shows that I watch or books that I read.” It didn't say she thought those were books and TV shows that only people of other races like.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#113

Post by fennecfoxen » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:38 PM UTC

officemonkey wrote: post #46

Moshe_Silnorin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As soon as a minorty achieves success (and often disproportionate success) they are no longer considered minorities.

If it were a game, it would be called "Whiteness unlocked." An Indian- or Chinese-American can attain "no longer considered minority" (aka whiteness) but African-Americans don't get that achievement.

I'm not sure how a first-generation immigrant with skin 80% as dark as a random African-American who celebrates Diwali instead of Christmas, follows cricket instead of (American!) football, and favors rice puddings to apple pies is actually statistically deserving of the "no longer considered minority" flag in America, financially successful or not.

It sounds more like some people are changing their criteria as they go along to lend the rhetorical power of a cry against Racism to a potentially-interesting point, an exercise in intellectual dishonesty which undermines the point if the listener realizes it. Perhaps if we used words to accurately describe the situation we could actually communicate.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#114

Post by numbsafari » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:39 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #70

skywhopper wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't find it surprising. I'm white, and I've been on all-white teams where everyone else watched the same TV shows or went to the same movies or played the same video games, and I didn't. Those common interests would feel like the only thing they ever talked about, and it would feel very unwelcoming. Part of the problem is just luck of the draw in terms of the team you get placed on. If that team is all into the…

But that's not what she says, her problem isn't that she doesn't like Marvel Cinematic Universe but that she feels that she doesn't have much in common with people of other races.

I think that's stretching it. What she said is she doesn't feel like she has much in common with these particular people, not people of other races in general.

Most "engineering-types" would probably feel the exact same way if they were asked to join the sales team at their company. Talk about culture shock...

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#115

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:40 PM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #104

huac wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

those are basically the same thing to put it another way: if your white friends grew up watching spongebob squarepants and you grew up without cable, that could certainly make a cultural difference

They aren't though. Color isn't the defining factor on what TV shows you get to watch.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#116

Post by hueving » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

golergka wrote: post #58

allengeorge wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of caveats to that statement. Within the Bay Area itself there's plenty of segregation: anecdotally, I noticed relatively few Indians living in Palo Alto and working at startups; most live in MV/Sunnyvale/Fremont and worked in larger companies like Cisco and Oracle. I'm not making the claim that this segregation is externally-driven, it's just that there "are people all over the world" doesn't tell the…

May be because it's much harder for startups to sponsor visas, and they don't have oversea offices to transfer people from?

Yes, this is the main reason. A startup is a much larger gamble for someone on a visa.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#117

Post by codyb » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

taconacho wrote: post #67

pingou wrote: post #18

"as the only African American on her team, she didn’t feel she had much in common with her colleagues. “When I went out to lunch or something with my team, it was sort of like, ‘Soooo, what are you guys talking about?’ ” she says" I find this sentence really shocking, perhaps because I'm french and in France we try to assimilate people more (I don't really know), but I would definitely think that as a white software…

It's not that surprising. Howard University is 95% black (source: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1024 " rel="nofollow">http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl... ) and is one of the lowest ranked colleges in terms of diversity. Coming from such a culturally closed-off environment to a different one comprised mostly of whites and Asians of different eth…

I'm not sure why anyone would consider that to be a positive, such a closed environment in terms of demographics.

Living with people of all races, genders, backgrounds, and sexualities helped me become the man I am today (I've lived with whites, blacks, asians, latinos, men, women, hetero and homosexual people, Americans, and French citizens).

Currently I spend a lot of time with my neighbors in Brooklyn. I'm probably one of the only people in the neighborhood who could be considered both a part of the local community (I know nearly every regular face on my side of the street) and a part of gentrification (I'm a white man who makes good money and is a part of the forces driving rent prices up).

Things get hairy sometimes. I'm offered a lot of things I don't particularly want, and had a few people conspire to potentially remove a few select items from my house. So I started going out in the city more, and now everything's back to the nice vibe it once was. I'm just as comfortable as I was before and that process of potential betrayal and silent forgiveness (I'm not sure my friend even knows I knew he was planning to pull the jux (as my friends from my hometown might say)) is just a part of who I am.

Facing adversities, interacting with new cultures, experiencing new experiences. That's what makes you a rich human being.

Not staying cooped up in your own home, where you bring your friends in from other neighborhoods, like the vast majority of young people here do. I'm convinced, while it may make the neighborhood a bit safer, it destroys the vibrancy of the same simultaneously.

And besides, can you really tell me who wouldn't want to be OG Cody Loco? At least for a little bit? ;-)

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#118

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:42 PM UTC

humanrebar wrote: post #101

joslin01 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by the French try to assimilate people more? I'm confused because France is notoriously horrendous to tourists. I've seen polls rate it as the worst place for customer service with tourists and my own brother's experience got him nearly in a fight with some French guys bullying him. Furthermore, this is just a cultural thing. I'm white and was in a team with a bunch of white engineers that loved cars…

There's a difference between "come as you are" and "come join us". Diversity and assimilation are two different things.

[deleted]

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#119

Post by crapolasplatter » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

WTF, Being in the industry myself I see a lot of non white people in the industry.

This could be used to reinforce the thought that the majority of people that care and judge based on color are mostly African Americans.

"More than 20 percent of all black computer science graduates attended an historically black school, according to federal statistics—yet the Valley wasn’t looking for candidates at these institutions."

Ah news for you , they are also not looking at candidates from my community schools.

Perhaps the article should be why you shouldn't attend a non racially diverse university or a university that doesn't attract employers in your field?

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#120

Post by qaq » Thu, Jan 21, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

Yaziyumaru wrote: post #75

qaq wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you? Google FB etc. are hiring MIT, Stanford etc. graduates what a surpise :) they are hiring people who started coding when they were kids as opposed to people who picked up SE in college no way!

I don't think this is true, I went to a very small not well known college in Canada and a classmate of mine went straight to Google after finishing his CS degree. Good companies generally hire off of provable skills not "how early" you started learning.

Which parts are not true:

1) Majority of employees at Google FB etc are graduates of top tech schools.

2) Majority of employees started coding and had interest in CS before college.

How likely you are to be good at CS if you never had an interest in CS before college :)? I have a lot of friends from Easternn Europe now working at Google, Apple, FB, but this anecdotal evidence does not change the fact that majority of SEs there are graduates of top tech schools.