Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes they are. You don't understand what white privilege is.
Seeing that you grew up in Massachusetts, went to CMU, and now live San Francisco, I can see why you hold that opinion. Come visit me in Louisiana and I will show its a socio-economic issue, not a race issue.
As a female engineer, I am not diversity
111–120 of 141 posts
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#112I'm going to say it. The most excluded group in SV are conservative republicans. Its a death sentence to your career to come out as one. If you truly value diversity, their point of view is the most absent from tech.
What exactly do you mean by "conservative republican"?
Back in the middle of 2016, conservative author and Research Fellow at the Cato Institute P.J. O'Rourke made a surprising announcement:
"I have a little announcement to make ... I'm voting for Hillary. I am endorsing Hillary. I am endorsing Hillary, and all her lies and all her empty promises. It's the second-worst thing that can happen to this country, but she's way behind in second place. She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters."
If someone is a "conservative republican" as the term would have been understood 20 years ago, or perhaps even as late as 10 years ago, I think they could openly state their political positions in SV today without any dire consequences, if they stated them without actually saying they are "conservative republicans".
Liberals would think that some of those positions, or even most of them, are wrong, but they would think they are, as O'Rourke would say, wrong within normal parameters.
Heck, some of the major ideas from those classic "conservative republicans" could probably even build up some strong liberal support today. Conservative republicans are behind one of the best proposals for addressing climate change, for example [1].
But those kind of "conservative republicans" aren't openly welcome in the Republican party any more. They are still around, but they are keeping silent. What was once the right's conspiracy nut lunatic fringe has effectively taken over the party, or at least taken over the party's messaging. Those are the people that come to mind now if you label yourself "conservative republican" without further clarification.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep I completely agree that gender and race have an influence on our thought process, and perhaps the title of "I'm not diversity" is a tad overdramatic, because I _do_ bring in a unique perspective. My goal with this post is to convince people to not just limit their views of diversity to race and gender, but also look beyond those 2 to care about the other ways each of us bring in diverse perspectives as well.
Certainly: the objective is to ensure that perspectives are not systematically ignored. However, please don't ignore history. Reality is not neat and tidy: there's never a blank slate from which to build anew. Everything real exists in context and has a past, which constrains its possible futures. Correlation is an important concept because it is evidence of association. And while it's true that associations can be n…
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seeing that you grew up in Massachusetts, went to CMU, and now live San Francisco, I can see why you hold that opinion. Come visit me in Louisiana and I will show its a socio-economic issue, not a race issue.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18305769
You're not going to convenience a white southern who enlisted in the military out of high school on the myth of white privilege.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#115I'm kind of surprised by the extent to which people have bought into this diversity thing, to the point where it's actually literally a thing people care about. My understanding is that this modern push for diversity and all the rhetoric surrounding it effectively started as a dogwhistle used by liberals to push affirmative action in pursuit of social justice without having to talk about the uncomfortable reality of white privilege and the controversial politics of social justice and reparations. Diversity is sort of a cop-out, a way for liberal white people to convince less liberal white people that affirmative action is the right thing not because white people did anything wrong ever but because it make white people richer.
Taking this as a serious thing on its own devoid of the political context in which it became a necessary tactic and getting into the weeds about what truly is diversity is sort of like the liberal equivalent of taking the Republican rhetoric about makers and takers, welfare frauds and the need for voter ids seriously without realizing that these talking points are largely understood by their audiences to be about black people and immigrants. Seeing the world through rhetorical devices created specifically to confuse the issues results in confusion like this entire article. This is not what diversity means to people for whom it's an important issue.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#116I'm kind of surprised by the extent to which people have bought into this diversity thing, to the point where it's actually literally a thing people care about. My understanding is that this modern push for diversity and all the rhetoric surrounding it effectively started as a dogwhistle used by liberals to push affirmative action in pursuit of social justice without having to talk about the uncomfortable reality of…
Otherwise, do we believe the biggest advocates of diversity are just really passionate about making shareholders richer by getting workers to produce more at lower costs? That is what makes them push for a more diverse workplace everywhere? I mean some middle manager somewhere might be convinced that diversity is an important ingredient for increased productivity and that may be true for some definition of diversity, but by and large the push for diversity comes from an entirely different place that is far more about the politics of gender, race and social justice and the movement that is providing the actual weight behind this push for diversity doesn't care one bit about which teams and companies are more productive.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#117I'm going to say it. The most excluded group in SV are conservative republicans. Its a death sentence to your career to come out as one. If you truly value diversity, their point of view is the most absent from tech.
Donald Trump (R) proudly proclaimed himself a nationalist at a rally a few days ago. The Party continues to stand behind him. The frog is almost boiled.
At this point, I can no longer spare any empathy for those who identify as Republican and yet somehow feel oppressed. They are directly threatening my country, my way of life, and our collective peace.
Fix your party or face the music.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every one of them? Isnt this the textbook definition of generalization that diversity is supposed to counter?
Well, conservatives in the US have thrown in with a party that typically demonizes people of color, is actively working to disenfranchise them, and has a growing white nationalist element to it. Are there some conservatives who really just care about there being too much government regulation, or whatever? Sure. Looking at the party they rally around and the way it wants to treat people, there sure are some general t…
TBH the other side is kinda big on demonising people of certain color, sex and sexual orientation too. The whole identity politics thing is disgusting regardless of vector.
Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#119Re: As a female engineer, I am not diversity
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not something you should ask someone in a job interview though. And most people (mercifully) don't talk about politics at work. So what would promoting political diversity look like?
>So what would promoting political diversity look like? Not ostracizing people for having political opinions that are not the majority but fairly mainstream. I work at the satellite office of an east coast tech company and how you have to be careful not to say anything that betrays politics that are not officially condoned is a bi-weekly gripe among the group I eat lunch with. I'm not saying it should be perfectly ac…
Is NASCAR uncool now? :(