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3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

npr.org

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Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#11

Post by dugditches »

eksemplar wrote: post #4

I wonder why we do social media voting at all. Even if it isn’t ruined by racist trolls it’s still kind of silly isn’t it? How would a bunch of random strangers know which science project was good? And more importantly, why do we care what everyman Joe/Jolie has to say about anything? We’ve always had village idiots or people who stood on cardboard boxes and yelled about our impending doom, but when did we decide tha…

Because it brings eyes to a project/company/product/etc.

Why do you think shows like American Idol or weekly music countdowns were so popular? The feeling of participating and having an impact generates interest. Similar to the rise in Video Game streaming and Youtube(comments).

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#12

Post by maxerickson »

blattimwind wrote: post #3

> Hundreds of schools across the United States have drinking water that is contaminated by lead How?

Typically from the building plumbing or the service line from the water main to the building. Both are customer responsibility to repair and a lot of school systems have limited funds.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#13

Post by arseraptor »

RasputinsBro wrote: post #2

Slight off-topic. I'm sure this has been said before, but I'm saddened to catch myself doing it. All my life I've been indifferent to matters of race, and so if I'd read 10 years ago about 3 black girls doing whatever I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But after what's been happening in recent years, I just caught myself thinking: "3 black girls? I wonder if they didn't win as part of the diversity quota" :-/ I…

> I just caught myself thinking: "3 black girls? I wonder if they didn't win as part of the diversity quota"

Not only are you a racist but you need to check your privilege. These people have come a much longer way to stand further than you "Bro". You disgust me because you feel the only way an ethnic person can be as good is with help. Look outside your shitty little enclave to see the world, and how tiny a fucknugget in it you actually are.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#14

Post by [deleted] »

eksemplar wrote: post #4

I wonder why we do social media voting at all. Even if it isn’t ruined by racist trolls it’s still kind of silly isn’t it? How would a bunch of random strangers know which science project was good? And more importantly, why do we care what everyman Joe/Jolie has to say about anything? We’ve always had village idiots or people who stood on cardboard boxes and yelled about our impending doom, but when did we decide tha…

[deleted]

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#15

Post by mieseratte »

maxerickson wrote: post #9
chirau wrote: post #6

I've always wondered whether 'freedom' encompasses freedom to be racist or hateful. But then again, the moment you bound the freedom, you have to allow others to bound other freedoms in their societies as well, which could very well lead to oppression, or even enslavement. It's a tough call.

It does in the US. People seem to get confused though and expect that repugnant speech won't have any consequences.

> People seem to get confused though and expect that repugnant speech won't have any consequences.

And for folks who scream "Free Speech doesn't mean Free of Consequence" and engage in harassment campaigns causing targets to lose jobs, homes, and everything else, I hope you're fine with the same thing happening to you when someone finds your views repugnant.

We're trying to push the societal ball forward, not revert to a state of digital Weimar-era street fighters engaging in mob justice.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#16

Post by threeseed »

mieseratte wrote: post #7

Meta-Comment: While I really don't doubt a bunch of racist trolls would do something like this, I've seen /b/ do enough dumb shit over the years, but I don't see why these papers (NPR, WaPo) don't at least include an example, i.e. screen-shot, of the calls for vote-rigging. Would make the cynic in me, and hopefully others, thinking this is a stunt for free press, like with the Clock Kid, go away.

NASA made the claim about vote rigging. You really think they would lie just to get some free PR ?

And the "clock kid" incident wasn't a stunt. The child was actually accused of being a terrorist, handcuffed and detailed by police. And then when the news spread he was subjected to continued racial and xenophobic taunts.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#18

Post by IanDrake »

RasputinsBro wrote: post #2

Slight off-topic. I'm sure this has been said before, but I'm saddened to catch myself doing it. All my life I've been indifferent to matters of race, and so if I'd read 10 years ago about 3 black girls doing whatever I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But after what's been happening in recent years, I just caught myself thinking: "3 black girls? I wonder if they didn't win as part of the diversity quota" :-/ I…

I’ve never met anyone who claims racism doesn’t exist. Perhaps I haven’t met the right troll?

The odd thing about racism is that we typically see it in the US as a asian/black/white/hispanic issue where historically race was finer grained, especially when talking about a much more homogeneous population.

Historically Brits would consider the French, Irish, or Italians as a different race, and, yes, have racist views about those people.

What I learn from that is, even if the US was 100% “white”, racism would still exist as we would find increasingly small differences to categorize people into races and then discriminate.

The problem is that discrimination based on categorization is how the human brain works.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#19

Post by verroq »

rudedogg wrote: post #17

I read about this a couple days ago. Apparently this started the nonsense: https://twitter.com/Pash_away/status/988951710524583937 Lots of varying levels of "wrong" to go around IMO.

Funny how none of the news mention that pro-black groups started the vote manipulation, which resulted in trolls escalating the manipulation.

Re: 3 Black Teenage Scientists Had a Breakthrough, Then Came the Trolls

#20

Post by RasputinsBro »

hrktb wrote: post #10
RasputinsBro wrote: post #2

Slight off-topic. I'm sure this has been said before, but I'm saddened to catch myself doing it. All my life I've been indifferent to matters of race, and so if I'd read 10 years ago about 3 black girls doing whatever I wouldn't have thought twice about it. But after what's been happening in recent years, I just caught myself thinking: "3 black girls? I wonder if they didn't win as part of the diversity quota" :-/ I…

> I maintain that "affirmative action" does more bad than good in the vast majority of the cases. Even if it was a case of affirmative action, their work still gets the chance to get criticized and touch people’s eyes. Arguably with no action it could have rotten in some binder in a desk, so isn’t “something” still better than nothing ?

> Even if it was a case of affirmative action, their work still gets the chance to get criticized and touch people’s eyes. Arguably with no action it could have rotten in some binder in a desk, so isn’t “something” still better than nothing ?

To be clear: I'm NOT saying this was a case of affirmative action.

You pointed a positive consequence of affirmative action. I agree it exists and that it's positive.

My observation was just that in my opinion it has a much much larger negative consequence. It gets neutral people like me, for whom race has always been a non-issue, to now wonder "is this a real achievement, or is it just affirmative action?" This is a real effect, I just caught myself doing it.

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