Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 497 posts

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

#471

Post by codyb »

pabb wrote: post #327
oldmanjay wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel as though your experiences made you better than the OP and so you cringe because of your superior enlightenment? I can't imagine what else you might have in mind, I find nothing particularly cringeworthy in the OP, especially since the whole "paragon of racial enlightenment" bit seems to come entirely from your own head.

I know enough to not pretend I'm on a higher plane of racial understanding by giving trite justifications such as "I'm the only rich white guy in a gentrified neighborhood" while simultaneously giving the example of being the target of an attempted theft, so as to not so subtly show the bias of minorities as criminals. Not to mention the "OG Cody" at the end, once again showing that these must be stereotypical (highl…

If this was in a poor white neighborhood I'd expect similar shit to happen.

It's much more an issue of socioeconomic status than race. And I'm sorry you perceived my post in that matter.

They're predominantly Spanish speaking Puerto Ricans. You're the only one who mentioned anything about race when it comes to that instance and your own presumptions don't hold true.

And I never said I was "the only rich white guy in a gentrified neighborhood". That wouldn't make any sense, one person doesn't gentrify a neighborhood. I said I was one of the only gentrifying members who has made an attempt to become a part of the existing community. This is consistent with every place I live, work, and play whether said place is predominantly minority, or predominantly white.

Every person has decades (except children) of experiences that I don't have. Every person is an extremely rich fabric comprised of characteristics inherited from an extremely complex ecosystem of factors. As such, I try to treat everyone with respect, and it ends up enriching my own world.

That being said, sometimes I still don't know exactly what to say. I come from a world of privilege even if my parents were lower to middle middle class, and they certainly don't.

Crime is more predominant in lower socioeconomic groups, it's just a reality. Did I blame every latino in my neighborhood? Did I scorn, run to the police, move away? No. I just backed off for a little and then came back after the holidays and kept going about my business.

You can perceive that however you like.

Edit: And what exactly was this racist thing I said? Was it when I heard that a couple of people were going to take things from my house and so backed off for a little? To mention a legitimate event that happened to me is now considered racist?

Edit 2: And in this world - [0] - You're damn straight I'm proud to have such a multicultural group of friends, and experiences. And even though this post indicates otherwise, I don't particularly give two shits how anyone misconstrues my post which essentially was trying to say "We should come together, hang out with eachother, and understand and forgive". Because, apparently I'm assuming superiority by continuing to hang out with people after I heard they where going to take shit from my house. All I can say is, fuck that.

[0] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/25/three...

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

#472

Post by alistproducer2 »

jorgecurio wrote: post #450
alistproducer2 wrote: post #187

I'm a black guy working in IT at a company in the top 5 of the Fortune 500. This is complicated issue. There have been experiment that show having a "black" name lowers your job prospects [1]. Other studies that show: "...race actually turned out to be more significant than a criminal background. Notice that employers were more likely to call Whites with a criminal record (17% were offered an interview) than Blacks w…

what has your experience been like?

I was contacted to interview with Google but didn't b/c I don't want to live in California. Despite having a distinctly "black" sounding name, I've never had trouble finding work in IT or at all for that matter. I'm split b/c on the one hand I know society is not meritocratic, but I don't feel that I have personally been hamstrung by my race.

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

#473

Post by codyb »

jessedhillon wrote: post #412
oldmanjay wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel as though your experiences made you better than the OP and so you cringe because of your superior enlightenment? I can't imagine what else you might have in mind, I find nothing particularly cringeworthy in the OP, especially since the whole "paragon of racial enlightenment" bit seems to come entirely from your own head.

Imagine if someone described their experience as a software engineer like so: > I often used to only sit and talk with the sales people, but then I took an introductory Ruby on Rails course. Now I feel very aligned with my fellow programmers, having worked on projects such as websites written in CSS, and frontend UIs written with the Java scripting language. Sometimes, my pull requests are rejected by certain fringe…

You're right, I overplayed the nature of how much of a contributor I am to the community. I'm not on the block party planning committee for instance. But I spend tens of hours a week during the warmer months just sitting and hanging out with my neighbors. I try to learn a little Spanish which I really enjoy. And we have a lot of fun together.

The idea that I only talked with "sales people" prior to this is invalid though. I was actually the minority in my public school when I was growing up.

And yes, I do feel as if through sharing experiences with people I've learned how to "be aligned" with people as you say, although I wouldn't say that's a fair characteristic of how I perceive it.

I don't particularly feel aligned with any group of people, majority, or minority.

But I do recognize the value of shared experiences which give me a stronger cultural background, empathy, a grander perspective and worldview.

Of course, imagine if someone judged your entire life from 2 or 3 paragraphs on the internet without knowing said person, their background, experiences, personality, or anything about them?

Edit: And in this world - [0] - You're damn straight I'm proud to have such a multicultural group of friends, and experiences. And even though this post indicates otherwise, I don't particularly give two shits how anyone misconstrues my post which essentially was trying to say "We should come together, hang out with eachother, and understand and forgive". Because, apparently I'm assuming superiority by continuing to hang out with people after I heard they where going to take shit from my house. All I can say is, fuck that.

[0] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/25/three...

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

#474

Post by blisterpeanuts »

dang wrote: post #248
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…

Please don't post ideological rants and angry invective to HN. They have no place here; we want thoughtful discussion. Unfortunately, this is still worse: > mediocre college students You can't possibly know that. It sounds like you overcame some significant obstacles, and that's admirable. But please don't put other people down.

It's an opinion and a set of observations, not an "ideological rant and angry invective". If you agreed with me, would you still call it an angry rant? And yes, I know they're mediocre (in the sense of average, not exceptional) because there's no evidence they've accomplished anything of note, but are merely marketing themselves as raw material for hire to big companies and then complaining that they aren't getting hired because they don't "fit in". That's not what high achievers do.

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

#475

Post by blisterpeanuts »

pingou wrote: post #154
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> ...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 pa…

That's why I said "try". And I'm not saying that French are less racist than American, there definitely is some discrimination going. I was more talking about cultural assimilation, I think a black american feels a lot more like he belongs to "the black community" as a french black does.

But many, if not most, African Americans have culturally assimilated, and black culture has permeated mainstream America as well. The U.S. has come a long way since the 1960s.

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

#476

Post by Joof »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #416
Joof wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for chemistry, but this is a horrificly shitty thing. There are many factors influencing what schools a student chooses to attend. Finances being an important one.

College choice is a problem, especially for first-generation students and those whose families aren't well-off. There are students who could do much better than Tumbleweed State, but they didn't pick the nearby Ivy because they it never crossed their minds that they could have gotten in. There might have been a decent financial aid package. If there wasn't one, who can risk debt in this economic climate. But I can't…

Anecdotally, a friend of mine had a chemistry education at a top 50 school and went straight to a PhD program at an ivy league where they have had no trouble keeping up.

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

#477

Post by maxerickson »

diyorgasms wrote: post #441
HarryHirsch wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College choice is a problem, especially for first-generation students and those whose families aren't well-off. There are students who could do much better than Tumbleweed State, but they didn't pick the nearby Ivy because they it never crossed their minds that they could have gotten in. There might have been a decent financial aid package. If there wasn't one, who can risk debt in this economic climate. But I can't…

This is one of the most horribly elitist comments I think I have ever seen on this site. Cost is a huge consideration for prospective college student, especially since the onset of the Great Recession. Furthermore, quality education is available at (I would estimate) most institutions of higher learning. It's just that the students have to do some research to find out who the good professors are at the less prestigio…

For people that can get into Harvard or Yale, they will be among the cheaper options, at least as far as tuition.

Especially people that aren't coming from wealthy families, as their need based aid programs will pay 100%.

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

#478

Post by ryanlol »

dcole2929 wrote: post #368
ryanlol wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be shocking if the roles were reversed? There's just as many racist black people as there are racist white people. edit: Am I wrong?

In short yes. A) There are more white people in America in general (see really any/every census) B) There are fare more white people in positions of power. So it matters more when a white person is racist than when a person of color is. Racism sucks but the real kicker is discrimination

>A) There are more white people in America in general (see really any/every census)

Obviously not what I meant

>B) There are fare more white people in positions of power. So it matters more when a white person is racist than when a person of color is. Racism sucks but the real kicker is discrimination

How's that relevant? My point was that nobody would be shocked if a white person was racist.

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

#479

Post by ryanlol »

rustynails wrote: post #346
ryanlol wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it be shocking if the roles were reversed? There's just as many racist black people as there are racist white people. edit: Am I wrong?

No, but two wrongs don't make a right. Also, as a society, we should be better than that. I'll give you an example. Some of my friends made disparaging remarks about Muslims. I made it clear that was a generalisation and pointed out a (predominantly Australian) area with a lot of crime, "what about that? Is that any different?" I've slowly but surely educated good people to show more tolerance. Having said that, I'll…

>No, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Not in the slightest what I was trying to communicate, my point was that racism is so prevalent that it's hardly shocking at this point.

Obviously that's not a good thing, but I found it a bit odd that someone would be shocked by such a remark when you hear much worse things every single day.

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

#480

Post by solaris_2 »

dang wrote: post #379
solaris_2 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never been openly been discriminated against Yes, I always walk around with my head in the sand too.

> Yes, I always walk around with my head in the sand too. That crosses into personal attack, and you can't comment like that here. On HN, please post civilly and substantively or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

I'm not attacking him/her and I hope it wasn't interpreted that way but that is a ridiculous statement by any POC in the United States to make. See dcole2929's response regarding the incredulity of that statement. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10949198
Post reply on HN