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Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

theguardian.com

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Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#51

Post by outand_up »

geofft wrote: post #39
outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

> The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not value education. I have no interest in deleting your comment, but I am interested in rational debate. 1. What is your evidence for this? 2. Why would this explain a decline in representation? Do you believe that "urban black" culture has started devaluing education? 3. If, indeed, you're tired of thinking about race, why is your analysis…

Sure, glad to have this conversation.

1. I don't think I need to provide evidence that black culture does not value education. Call me racist, whatever you want - but this is an obvious truth.

2. This is difficult to quantify, maybe it's gotten worse - the underlying issue remains.

3. I specify "urban" culture because I believe the issue of representation is due almost entirely to culture and socioeconomics. You will not see black kids from double-educated-parent households from the suburbs struggling in academia or the workforce. Totally agree, race is non-issue. Could be white, asian, latino, whatever.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#52

Post by DisposableMike »

klodolph wrote: post #34
ashark wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one reason why I advocate giving your kids (if in America, at least) really boring names. Just scratch anything remotely strange off the list, and forget about it. If you can't imagine a Kennedy or a character on 1950s US TV having the name, don't use it. Having a "special" name is unlikely to bring any benefit, and may well have significant social costs (plus having always to repeat yourself and spell your n…

There are plenty of people who regret having the common name, too. Hard to find them online, sometimes you get a mixup with someone else's arrest warrant or credit report, etc.

Male with the most common American male name from 1950-2000 here (and top 5 for the last 100 years or more). I don't even hear my name when spoken in public, I only hear familiar voices or my last name (I usually give a fake name when ordering food or waiting for tires, etc). I went to a large high school and a small college. There were 3-4 persons with my same name in every class. Eventually everyone refers to you by your last name or a nickname. This has not stopped even into adulthood.

Even as a professional working for a small business, I get re-introduced over and over again to the same people. I'm sure that my words and appearance play a role in that as well, but surely my name is not helping.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#53

Post by tomjen3 »

outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

Sadly many people give too many fucks about skin color.

However, I agree with you. Skin color is but one variable - you could just as easily discriminate on hair color, or height.

Lets just all agree that we are members of the human race.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#54

Post by outand_up »

BoorishBears wrote: post #48
outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

""

That's exactly what I meant, you can see me explain in other comments.

Assume good intent in people, come on guys.

Since we're talking about minorities, I felt the need to specify "urban black" culture, but I agree. "Urban " culture is suffering from anti-intellectualism.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#55

Post by outand_up »

k4shm1r wrote: post #41
outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

>We're tired of having accusations of racism Well, maybe if you weren't an actual racist you wouldn't get accused of being a racist every time. >The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not value education. What do you know about "latino culture". In fact what the fuck does that even mean? Why are you grouping people from an entire continent under an umbrella? What do you think an Arg…

This is absurd.

First call me a racist.

Then conflate my comments about anti-intellectualism in urban cultures with all latinos.

Then call me a white supremacist.

Do you have an argument? You are the problem, dude.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#56

Post by hypersoar »

marindez wrote: post #18
tlb wrote: post #7

Every underrepresented group represents an opportunity to start a company, hire some great people from that group, and succeed together. A single company, perhaps one you start this year, can make a huge impact. YC funding applications are due today. https://www.ycombinator.com/apply

What this means is that someone should start a company and become completely racist about who they hire.

If by "racism", you mean making decisions based on race only in a literal, overt sense, then sure. If by "racism" you mean structural, large-scale, societal oppression of disadvantaged groups, then no, that's not something a lone startup, or even a bunch of startups, can replicate. The latter is typically what people actually mean.

The over-arching problem is that structural racism is subtle. It doesn't come from managers saying that don't want any [insert racial slur]s on their team. It comes from people making connections through their kids' schools in mostly-white neighborhoods, or getting along because they like the same music or share the same hobby. People like people who seem familiar, and it's harder from someone with a different cultural background to break through. And this is before we factor in the fact disadvantaged groups tend to grow up with fewer opportunities.

Being "neutral" isn't a solution. If you don't try to actively correct for these things, you just end up favoring the status quo. It's not avoiding a choice. It's just choosing the path of least resistance.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#57

Post by shadowbanned2 »

BoorishBears wrote: post #48
outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

""

Black people, living in a predominately black neighborhood, surrounded mostly by blacks do indeed have an awful culture that perpetuates ignorance and calls speaking without ebonics, "talking white".

It's cool you use big fancy words like "socioeconomic issue" to describe what is, in essence, black people behaving like black people!

There are no evil white men pulling their strings forcing them to be ignorant and not get educated, they just don't want to be a part of modern society and would rather rely on government subsidies than getting out and getting a real job or career.

If the majority of black people everywhere they go create ghettos and create this shitty "culture", then its the black peoples fault themselves, not some magic boogeyman "culture" that liberals are so inclined to throw around.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#58

Post by _m8fo »

talad wrote: post #33
_m8fo wrote: post #8

Unsurprising. I tell all of my minorities friends to remove their pictures from LinkedIn and use American sounding names. The increase in callbacks always shocks me. You can do this experiment in reverse yourself if you already have an American sounding name. Unfortunately the real solution, anonymity, will probably never be adopted because there are groups who benefit from being identified. There's way too much many…

It's not really as clear-cut as that, Australia for instance had some study results* led by a Hardvard Grad show the opposite, that blind recruitment generally favored the white male majority as it precluded affirmative action hires. * https://pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/domestic-policy/going-bli...

If a truly anonymous (which I'm skeptical that study was, but I'll give them the benefit of doubt) hiring method yields more white people, then that's 100% OK. The goal IMO should be to prevent bias with respect to gender, race, etc; not to implement a quota resulting in a certain percentage of people from backgrounds being hired.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#59

Post by JohnFro »

outand_up wrote: post #27

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We're tired of obsessing about race. We're tired of having accusations of racism, sexism, whatever-the-next-trendy-ism crammed down our throats at every opportunity. The reality is, urban black (and to a similar extent latino) CULTURE does not valu…

You're asking for quite a lot. Black America doesn't value education because the culture was designed to devalue education. I know no one on this site wants to talk about it, but a culture was created for Black America during slavery.

Think about what was valuable in slaves. Physical Prowess (Stronger slaves means more work can be completed in the fields), and talent (slaves that can keep other slaves entertained mean they're not planning a revolt).

Keeping the slave master entertained by singing and dancing also brought perks for the slaves that are able to do so. Being able to produce more value in the field also brought perks.

Now think about the industries Black Americans dominate today... Athletics and Entertainment.

Being caught reading would get you killed, being caught writing would get you killed. Being white and teaching a black person to read or write could also get you killed.

African immigrants have no problem taking advantage of the education provided in america, so this isn't a genetic issue. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-10-13/it-isn-t-...

The problem is the culture. Simply saying fix the culture when it's the result of a process that took hundreds of years to create will not solve the issue.

Re: Black and Latino representation in Silicon Valley has declined, study shows

#60

Post by BoorishBears »

shadowbanned2 wrote: post #57
BoorishBears wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

""

Black people, living in a predominately black neighborhood, surrounded mostly by blacks do indeed have an awful culture that perpetuates ignorance and calls speaking without ebonics, "talking white". It's cool you use big fancy words like "socioeconomic issue" to describe what is, in essence, black people behaving like black people! There are no evil white men pulling their strings forcing them to be ignorant and not…

I'm a black person, so I'm not going to engage with someone who says things like "black people behaving like black people!"
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