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

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

#131

Post by kiiski »

golergka wrote: post #31
rquantz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People of lower economic circumstances may not have had access to computers prior to college.

In 1990? Likely. In 2010? This article is supposed to be about US, not a third-world country, right?

I was born in -91, and the first time I had access to a computer that I could actually install things on (not school/library) was at the age of 15, and no internet access at home until about 2 years later. I live in Finland, but I imagine there are lots of Americans with similiar experiences. Nowadays it's also possible that the those people will have a "consumption only"-device rather than a "real" PC they can do things like programming with.

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

#132

Post by alvern »

> Pratt also noticed that many advanced classes at Howard and other black colleges weren’t as rigorous or up-to-date as they were at Carnegie Mellon or Stanford. By senior year, students risked falling behind their peers from other institutions. “I’d ask faculty members, ‘Why are you teaching this course that way?’ ” he recalls. “And they’d say, ‘Well, I’ve been teaching the course for 25 years.’  ”

That's the core issue right there. The school hasn't adapted to the technology and practices. What use would you be on day one if your coding knowledge was stuck in 1991?

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

#133

Post by zanek »

As a human that people in America would call black/African-American I really dislike articles like this. I understand that some black people feel like they cant relate to others, but I find the entire premise of such arguments about homogeneous workplaces and cultures completely ridiculous. The culture of 'black' people in Alabama will be very different from Howard or Washington DC, does that mean Alabama is unwelcoming ?

Secondly, who cares what schools top tier companies are targeting. If Howard is churning out good software engineers that are so good they cant be ignored, a) they wont need Google, et al to hire them b) their skills will speak for themselves when they apply for a job

It seems like so many people (black, white, Asian, etc) actually buy into this socially constructed division by culture or skin color which is completely insane to me. To me it's like dividing people into groups by eye or hair color and saying you feel unwelcomed by the blue eyed people.

Articles like this seem to reinforce the notion that there is this 'otherness' of culture and skin color. If Google ,Facebook, etc are ignoring software engineers that are top notch from Howard and other historically black colleges, that would be a problem, but I doubt that is the case. Most companies want people that can get the job done well and know their stuff in my experience (I've worked in Silicon Valley and Fortune 50 companies).

The article seems to repeatedly make the point that the black people at tech companies were feeling out of place while working at Google, etc. as if any Indian, Asian, or White person do not experience the same thing (someone from India will have to learn the culture of SV just like someone from Howard Univ. or some white person from Alaska). Who cares if you dont watch the same TV shows or read the same books. If anything , I think thats a good thing, as its a starting point to learn more about something you havent experienced. I think the most important thing is mindset and attitude going into situations like this. Curiosity and open mindedness would do wonders for the people in the article who feel like 'others' in SV.

I dont feel like the culture of SV is as homogeneous as they are trying to project, but this 'otherness' is the real projection

I've never been openly been discriminated against, or felt like the color of my skin had anything to do with my success in Silicon Valley or the East Coast while working at tech companies. I've found almost all people of all 'races' to only care about competence and efficiency (other than the occasional jerk or misanthrope)

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

#134

Post by nickthemagicman »

I think it's similar to the issue of women in comp sci. It's a recruiting and culture problem in the whole industry. African Americans have more barriers than women imo, because statistically they have issues of poverty and less tech early age tech exposure on TOP of culture mismatch.

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

#135

Post by zajd »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #100

What a big steaming pile of political correctness. The author interviews a tiny handful of mediocre college students who blame their "color" for not getting hired right out of school by big, glamorous tech companies. Are we supposed to be sympathetic? I remember my own struggles to break into the tech business, many years ago now. Although white and "privileged", i.e. no cultural barriers to entry, I found it very to…

> I remember my own struggles to break into the tech business, many years ago now. Although white and "privileged", i.e. no cultural barriers to entry, I found it very tough and had to jump through hoops, work my way up from semi-tech to actual development positions

Imagine you actually had cultural barriers to entry to deal with as well.

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

#136

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

This is a very simple problem and racism has almost nothing to do with it:

White founder has a business idea and they bring along their friends - most likely white. Those friends bring in their friends and colleagues - also most likely white - to become the executive team. The executives hire tomorrow's managers. By that time the vast majority of employees are white, and even if they work very very hard to hire black people, it will take a very very long time until there is proportional representation all the way up to the executive level. Some execs work well into their 80s, meaning that it could take more than a century until there is population-proportional diversity at any predominantly white-founded institution.

The longer a lack of diversity persists in a company's trajectory the harder it becomes to fix it. The only solution I can think of is for black people to start more companies themselves.

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

#137

Post by mafribe »

golergka wrote: post #66
tomp wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It often seems like the people writing this articles don't realize that preferring your own race is racism, no matter what race that is. If she feels that she doesn't fit in because there aren't enough people like her (black), that's just as racist as white people not wanting to hang out with blacks because they're not white.

Haven't you heard that racism = power + prejudice, so black people by definition can't be racist because they don't have power? (This is not an opinion that I agree with, but a lot of people actually think that way).

I'm not sure they deep down believe it. It's a rhetorical technique of frame shifting that has been quite successful, and allows some people to avoid facing their own racism. Since it works, why not continue using it?

I have found a near perfect antidote: I point out that the USA is the world's most powerful nation (I'm from a small weak nation that has historically been trashed a lot). So, I continue: are you saying that only Americans can be racist, for they are so powerful?

Nobody that I threw that at has been able to recover, they stutter, stumble, flail their arms, start to sweat and change the subject.

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

#138

Post by hudibras »

dengnan wrote: post #9

> One senior, Sarah Jones, ... “There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley—and that, by itself, makes it kind of unwelcoming." This statement may be true if "people of color" means African American. Otherwise, it is just not the fact. I do think, through my personal experience, the Valley is probably the most diverse place that I have been. I've seen people all over the wrold here: Asian, Latino, European,…

> I do think, through my personal experience, the Valley is probably the most diverse place that I have been.

Yikes. You need to get out more, visit more places in America.

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

#139

Post by joslin01 »

pingou wrote: post #126
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…

Well I'm not an expert but it seems to me that in France we expect minorities to leave a good part of their culture and become "real french", eat cheese, wear beret and never walk without a baguette under their arms, whereas in the US I was under the impression that there's a lot more effort from minorities to differentiate themselves. I don't think we can really talk of a "black culture" in France (at least not in t…

+1 I see where you're coming from now. You're right about America and the culture of minorities, but in the melting pot, that's how everyone kind of is. We all feel like we have to be someone in America. It's impossible to just be American since there's really no such thing. The traditional American is a mid-western cowboy and that doesn't really apply to people on either coast.

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

#140

Post by ryandrake »

dengnan wrote: post #9

> One senior, Sarah Jones, ... “There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley—and that, by itself, makes it kind of unwelcoming." This statement may be true if "people of color" means African American. Otherwise, it is just not the fact. I do think, through my personal experience, the Valley is probably the most diverse place that I have been. I've seen people all over the wrold here: Asian, Latino, European,…

Yea, that was a head scratcher. Where are these places with all white people? Because looking around at my current team, I'm one of two white guys, and there's a white woman, the remaining 20 or so are all either of south-east Asian or Chinese descent. My previous company was probably 75% Chinese, 20% Indian, and maybe 1% white. Prior to that, my company was a bit whiter, but 60%+ were foreign nationals. It gets to the point where "Man, the U.S. Visa system totally sucks!" is the default lunch conversation. There's definitely a gender gap, but as far as race goes, I don't see this lack of diversity.
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