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Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

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Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#61

Post by vostok »

jedberg wrote: post #11
throwa34567 wrote: post #6

I'm very happy to see this. I grew up in a town that, before I was born, decided to actively integrate (from being an historically all white, wealthy suburb) and I'm certain I'm better off for growing up in a diverse community. I'm in mountain view now and it's all "silicon valley white", and something actively needs to be done. I worry when I realize my kid can go a week or more without seeing a black person, and I'…

> silicon valley white Interesting term. Does that basically mean Asian (both eastern and southeastern) and White?

And South Asian!

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#62

Post by reader5000 »

misterbowfinger wrote: post #52

I want to comment on the anti Affirmative Action arguments here. I went to a really prestigious high school in New York City. For the summer of my junior year, our AP Computer Science teacher hooked up a few of us with internships at the finance firms, specifically in tech (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.). Now, sure, I did really well and studied really hard to get into my high school. However, I did practically…

Because you're not the person AA hurts. AA doesnt hurt top 1% people, it hurts say top 10% people who are in the wrong ethnic group and lose out to people in the correct ethnic group. Just ask a lower class Asian person with top 10% MCAT scores, and why he lost a med school spot to a middle class URM person with top 20% scores.

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#63

Post by dikdik »

djtriptych wrote: post #23
xienze wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, let's say you were born in China. Would you have a similar level of anxiety about never seeing anyone outside of your ethnic group? I find it very odd how white people are seemingly the only ethnic group so hung up on seeing people of different races one day-to-day basis. On a related note, if being around so many white people bothers you so much, why aren't you living in, say, East Palo Alto or Richmond?

Buuuut this isn't China. It's America. Ethnic diversity is part of the DNA here.

Only in some areas. I grew up in one of those flyover states, according to wikipedia the demographics of my town were 97% white while I was a teenager (~94% white now).

I much prefer being in more diverse areas, but I don't think where I grew up was somehow bad or wrong. It is a very middle class place, so it's not like the minorities were being pushed out, there just weren't many non-white people that wanted/want to live there! ...but to be fair, a lot of white people don't want to live there either, it's quite boring.

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#64

Post by throwaway4lyfe »

xienze wrote: post #20
throwa34567 wrote: post #6

I'm very happy to see this. I grew up in a town that, before I was born, decided to actively integrate (from being an historically all white, wealthy suburb) and I'm certain I'm better off for growing up in a diverse community. I'm in mountain view now and it's all "silicon valley white", and something actively needs to be done. I worry when I realize my kid can go a week or more without seeing a black person, and I'…

So, let's say you were born in China. Would you have a similar level of anxiety about never seeing anyone outside of your ethnic group? I find it very odd how white people are seemingly the only ethnic group so hung up on seeing people of different races one day-to-day basis. On a related note, if being around so many white people bothers you so much, why aren't you living in, say, East Palo Alto or Richmond?

I don't understand this line of thinking for a couple of reasons:

1) Framing diversity as being about white people avoiding anxiety by surrounding themselves with people from other ethnic groups is egocentric and weird. Pushing for diversity is ideally about expanding access to lucrative careers, not bringing in people-as-window-dressing.

2) On the note of lucrative careers, comparing membership in a well-paid, prestigious career field within (say) the United States with being born in a more ethnically homogeneous country is disingenuous. It's the very fact that we don't live in a mono-culture that should make us wonder about the high correlation between being white and male and being in our field.

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#65

Post by FT_intern »

I think we are in need of an open discussion on redefining "diversity".

Race is not a good metric for diversity. Nationality completely trumps it.

People of the same nationality with the same primary language have much more in common with each other. You can actually see this dynamic play out at work where people hang out with others from the same nationality. Americans hang out with Americans, Mandarin Chinese hang out with Mandarin Chinese, Indians with other Indians (don't know enough about Indian culture to split this group up further), Germans with Germans, etc.

Cultural_Difference(random_nationality1, random_nationality2) > Cultural_Difference(same_nationality_different_race1, same_nationality_different_race2)

With this metric, tech is one of the most diverse fields in the world.

Seen through this new point of view, the racial categories are very shortsighted. The difference between Indian and Chinese (or even Chinese and Korean) cultures is immense, yet they are assigned as part of the same category. African Americans have their own category, yet they are culturally and linguistically(same native language) very similar to white Americans.

Now let's move onto the controversial "disadvantages" discussion.

African Americans generally have family whose native language is English and who understand American culture and can impart these skills and knowledge to their children. They have the language and cultural knowledge to fight for their interests and a powerful organization (NCAAP) to back them up. With these advantages, African Americans are basically seen as honorary Americans similar to white Americans. These advantages even put them in a better position than white immigrants (and sometimes their American born children who have a harder time assimilating).

With these advantages and affirmative action based advantages(educational programs, scholarships, diversity internships and hiring, easy access to colleges/universities from affirmative action[works out to something like +150/2400 SAT and +0.2 GPA which is huge when competing in top percentiles]) middle class and upper middle class African Americans are very privileged.

Edit:

And on disadvantages in the workplace.

Americans are the largest group and the language spoken is English, so Americans (of any race) and native English speakers are privileged.

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#66

Post by and0 »

xienze wrote: post #20
throwa34567 wrote: post #6

I'm very happy to see this. I grew up in a town that, before I was born, decided to actively integrate (from being an historically all white, wealthy suburb) and I'm certain I'm better off for growing up in a diverse community. I'm in mountain view now and it's all "silicon valley white", and something actively needs to be done. I worry when I realize my kid can go a week or more without seeing a black person, and I'…

So, let's say you were born in China. Would you have a similar level of anxiety about never seeing anyone outside of your ethnic group? I find it very odd how white people are seemingly the only ethnic group so hung up on seeing people of different races one day-to-day basis. On a related note, if being around so many white people bothers you so much, why aren't you living in, say, East Palo Alto or Richmond?

It's more telling than you might realize that you took their complaint to mean "I'm upset I'm around so many white people" and not "I'm upset a part of the population isn't included in my area / culture". It certainly makes the rest of your comments less surprising.

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#67

Post by lr4444lr »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #48
lr4444lr wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very inaccurate statement. http://www.apa.org/research/action/stereotype.aspx

You're talking about this phenomenon? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat#Failures_t...

Well, I am surprised to see that pretty much every study I have seen confirming the phenomenon had been conducted before those meta-analyses, and is in fact almost 10 years old or more. Healthy skepticism created. Thank you!

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#69

Post by [deleted] »

pram wrote: post #21
throwa34567 wrote: post #6

I'm very happy to see this. I grew up in a town that, before I was born, decided to actively integrate (from being an historically all white, wealthy suburb) and I'm certain I'm better off for growing up in a diverse community. I'm in mountain view now and it's all "silicon valley white", and something actively needs to be done. I worry when I realize my kid can go a week or more without seeing a black person, and I'…

What would an optimal diversity level be in your opinion? Should your child see a black person on a daily basis? Should the black people your child sees be from a diverse socioeconomic range? Should the black people be a mixture of African Americans and literal Africans?

[deleted]

Re: Howard University opens a new campus at the Googleplex

#70

Post by FT_intern »

misterbowfinger wrote: post #52

I want to comment on the anti Affirmative Action arguments here. I went to a really prestigious high school in New York City. For the summer of my junior year, our AP Computer Science teacher hooked up a few of us with internships at the finance firms, specifically in tech (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.). Now, sure, I did really well and studied really hard to get into my high school. However, I did practically…

The test to get into the prestigious high school is orthogonal to race.

Given that the top percentile of the test takers are the children of immigrant parents who don't understand American culture and whose primary language is not English, the tests appear to be very objective.

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