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The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

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Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#31

Post by weberc2 »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #21
tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

Black in this context is a race, which is an extremely broad spectrum of ethnicities and nationalities of various skin tones.

In any case, I don't know anyone who would consider this man to be black. Perhaps it's the lighting or angle of the photo?

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#33

Post by douche »

Unfortunate title, since it's already dragging this into flamey territory...

Any good information on the actual search engine? I'd never heard of it, it's before my time. TFA has about two paragraphs about it before bloviating into a philosophical discourse on the effect of search technology on society.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#34

Post by monknomo »

tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

The guy is from the Caribbean. Race is always complex, but it is especially complex in the Caribbean.

How pale a person looks doesn't really have bearing on whether they consider themselves black. We don't know what his parents looked like, but they might have been fairly dark. We don't know what his sibling look like, but you'd be surprised at the variation there is. I have a black family friend and he has some blond grandchildren. Don't know if they consider themselves black, but they have a better claim to it as I have to consider myself Swedish.

I also think you're off on what the US considers hispanic. While many hispanic people have some southern European origin, the term really mean people from Mexico on south from a Spanish culture of any race or ethnicity. It's a little weird, but you can have hispanic black Dominicans and hispanic Indian Brazilians. Actual Spanish people probably aren't hispanic in the US sense, although I get different answers on that. Filipinos are another people difficult to slot into the standard US hispanic definition.

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#35

Post by pessimizer »

zeveb wrote: post #18
h4nkoslo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised, but in the American context numerous people considered "black" for political reasons clearly have microscopic amounts of black admixture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Butterfield https://twitter.com/mayorvincegray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Jealous

> You might be surprised, but in the American context numerous people considered "black" for political reasons clearly have microscopic amounts of black admixture. E.g. Mr. Obama, who is actually half-white but considered black by American blacks and whites alike.

American blacks who are on average about 12% white and 5% native. The obsession with discussing how black black people are is annoying. Slavery, Jim Crow, and racial discrimination wasn't and isn't exclusively for 100% sub-Saharan African descended people; only South African apartheid micromanaged that much.

edit: And 50% is a microscopic amount, now?

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#36

Post by garysieling »

tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

It comes from a legal tradition-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#37

Post by austin_coder »

tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

The gender and racial identities of underrepresented populations is relevant to a whole host of readers, including researchers, educators, social scientists, etc. But beyond that, it's also relevant because the article references Black History Month and is even tagged with a "Black History Month" tag.

As far as why he is considered black, it's probably because someone found it economically advantageous to consider one or more of his ancestors black at some point in their history, and the norm was that a son of a slave was also a slave (i.e. "black"), regardless of complexion.

Relevant: https://psmag.com/why-your-race-isn-t-genetic-559908897f93#....

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#38

Post by pessimizer »

weberc2 wrote: post #31
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Black in this context is a race, which is an extremely broad spectrum of ethnicities and nationalities of various skin tones.

In any case, I don't know anyone who would consider this man to be black. Perhaps it's the lighting or angle of the photo?

Is who you know relevant?

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#39

Post by whatever_dude »

tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

While I agree 100% the US and most of the Western world has a weird definition of "black", I think the photo in the article is just unlucky lighting. If you look at the guy's photos on Google Images [1] it's clear he has mixed features that are commonly associated with Caribbean blacks.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Alan+Emtage&source=lnms&tbm=...

Re: The Black Technologist Who Invented the First Internet Search Engine

#40

Post by chickenfries »

gmarx wrote: post #26
tomp wrote: post #17

I don't understand why one would point out a person's race (unless it's relevant to the situaiton), but since the title did... I cannot fanthom how anyone could call this person "black". If anything, his complexion is similar to what US people call "hispanic" (although to me that's just southern European, not a distinct race).

The article is for Black History Month, a...holiday? here in the US which I think is now called "African American History Month". So does a guy from Barbados working in Canada not count now? I'm not good at that kind of math

If you're genuinely confused and not trolling, it's okay to use black as an adjective. African American is okay too if they are that, but the 90s trend of referring to everyone black as AA is over.
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