Black Girls Code launching in Miami • Hacker News Board

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#11

Post by tinco » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:04 PM UTC

elwell wrote: post #4

I wasn't thinking about race; now I am. I believe minority focused groups, such as this, perpetuate racial discrimination. Can't we all just be one big group of humans? Disagree with my viewpoint? Please comment before you downvote. I'm willing to rethink my views.

No one cares if you are thinking of race, because obviously it is not about you. It's easy to not think about racism when racism isn't an issue in your environment.

It's not as if now that you're exposed to racism, that you will perpetuate it, right?

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#12

Post by rza » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:05 PM UTC

elwell wrote: post #4

I wasn't thinking about race; now I am. I believe minority focused groups, such as this, perpetuate racial discrimination. Can't we all just be one big group of humans? Disagree with my viewpoint? Please comment before you downvote. I'm willing to rethink my views.

You may not be thinking about race, but an outsider looking at the tech industry probably is. Ideally, yes whether everyone is black or white shouldn't really matter, but I'm sure you feel the same way as well when you are in an 'ethnic' neighborhood or gathering. You don't feel the sense of belonging or at the very least, the racial apathy that everyone else feels. By gathering people with the same upbringing together to work toward a common goal, it builds camaraderie and morale, not so different from why companies care about 'culture-fit'.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#13

Post by consonants » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:05 PM UTC

tomasien wrote: post #6

I'm really, really worried about this thread. Holding my breathe. (Edit: for context, when I posted this, there was 1 comment by Bsharp.)

Threads like this provide a moment to gaze into the abyss

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#14

Post by Bsharp » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:05 PM UTC

xpop2027 wrote: post #3

Bsharp wrote: post #2

This is great, thanks for sharing! Hopefully it's able to stick - I live in Miami and there is little-to-no tech culture around.

You have to check out one of the Refresh Miami events, tech meetup once a month! refreshmiami.com

Oh awesome, I'll have to check some of these out! Apparently I haven't looked hard enough.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#15

Post by nicholassmith » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:06 PM UTC

This is awesome, targeting minorities early is a fantastic way to get them into the tech scene. Kudos to them, I really hope it works well.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#16

Post by Karunamon » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:06 PM UTC

tinco wrote: post #11

elwell wrote: post #4

I wasn't thinking about race; now I am. I believe minority focused groups, such as this, perpetuate racial discrimination. Can't we all just be one big group of humans? Disagree with my viewpoint? Please comment before you downvote. I'm willing to rethink my views.

No one cares if you are thinking of race, because obviously it is not about you. It's easy to not think about racism when racism isn't an issue in your environment. It's not as if now that you're exposed to racism, that you will perpetuate it, right?

Jeez, talk about unhelpful and condescending.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#17

Post by sp332 » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:07 PM UTC

elwell wrote: post #4

I wasn't thinking about race; now I am. I believe minority focused groups, such as this, perpetuate racial discrimination. Can't we all just be one big group of humans? Disagree with my viewpoint? Please comment before you downvote. I'm willing to rethink my views.

It's more like a subculture. If people in the group already identify with the group, then I don't think this is going to hurt. It's about having fun with people you relate to. If you like participating in "black girl culture" or "gaming nerd culture" or "english-speaking perl guru culture" you're going to have a better time (on average) than "one big group of humans culture".

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#18

Post by bayesianhorse » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:07 PM UTC

elwell wrote: post #4

I wasn't thinking about race; now I am. I believe minority focused groups, such as this, perpetuate racial discrimination. Can't we all just be one big group of humans? Disagree with my viewpoint? Please comment before you downvote. I'm willing to rethink my views.

I'm also sceptic, but if they are purposely "sampling" black girls into some social "learn to code" program with limited resources, it might not be the worst thing to do.

Depending on location and neighbourhoods, or scope of the program they might actually have less success drawing anybody with a less specific target group.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#19

Post by hjw » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:07 PM UTC

tomasien wrote: post #6

I'm really, really worried about this thread. Holding my breathe. (Edit: for context, when I posted this, there was 1 comment by Bsharp.)

Likewise. There are already some pretty biting responses to expressions of opinions.

Re: Black Girls Code launching in Miami

#20

Post by fchollet » Fri, Oct 25, 2013, 8:07 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #9

It's very true that if you aren't based in SV but visit it regularly this is something that jars every damn time. Doing something positive about it is great. The other side is the rest of us should see it as an opportunity, given that the effective monoculture in SV gives them a sort of blindness to certain product areas.

I never thought of SV as a monoculture, when it comes to nationality and race (it does suffer from a bad case of groupthink though...)

In SV you will find engineers, designers and managers from all over the world --Russia, China, Europe, etc., and when it comes to race you will find very large numbers of highly successful Asians and Indians. Likely more so than in other US industry.