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Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

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Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#101

Post by humanrebar »

joslin01 wrote: post #76
pingou wrote: post #18

"as the only African American on her team, she didn’t feel she had much in common with her colleagues. “When I went out to lunch or something with my team, it was sort of like, ‘Soooo, what are you guys talking about?’ ” she says" I find this sentence really shocking, perhaps because I'm french and in France we try to assimilate people more (I don't really know), but I would definitely think that as a white software…

What do you mean by the French try to assimilate people more? I'm confused because France is notoriously horrendous to tourists. I've seen polls rate it as the worst place for customer service with tourists and my own brother's experience got him nearly in a fight with some French guys bullying him. Furthermore, this is just a cultural thing. I'm white and was in a team with a bunch of white engineers that loved cars…

There's a difference between "come as you are" and "come join us". Diversity and assimilation are two different things.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#102

Post by AndrewKemendo »

gtk40 wrote: post #5

It's interesting that it describes Silicon Valley as being too white, when it seems like there are quite a few Asians. Even working elsewhere, a high percentage of our programmers are Asian, higher than the metro's demographics would suggest.

White is a class, not a race.

For example Irish people weren't considered white until they gained significant economic power. [1]

Interestingly enough it was somewhat at the expense of Black Americans at the time.

Today, Blacks have significant economic and political power, yet only a handful have achieved "white" status and they are almost all politicians (Pres. Obama) and military leaders (Colin Powell).

[1]https://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/white13.htm

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#103

Post by pacala »

scarmig wrote: post #37
HelloNurse wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the purpose of this article, they count as white. According to a quoted student (around 1/3 of the text), Silicon Valley is "a startlingly homogeneous culture, made up of white and Asian people who “like Star Wars and stuff like Pokémon.”"

Oh yes, that homogeneous Asian culture, comprising 4 billion people who all speak the same language and eat the same food and watch the same TV shows. They're all the same!

To be fair, that homogenous white European culture, with about 50 countries, 23 official languages in EU, 225 indigenous languages in whole of Europe, and every valley with its own, sometimes quite distinct, dialect and traditions. Here are some European dialect maps:

http://i.imgur.com/9btMHIT.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Continen...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovene_dialects

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Polska-d...

etc/und so weiter/and so on/et ainsi de suite/...

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#104

Post by ryanlol »

huac wrote: post #99
ryanlol wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's not what she says, her problem isn't that she doesn't like Marvel Cinematic Universe but that she feels that she doesn't have much in common with people of other races.

those are basically the same thing to put it another way: if your white friends grew up watching spongebob squarepants and you grew up without cable, that could certainly make a cultural difference

They aren't though.

Color isn't the defining factor on what TV shows you get to watch.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#105

Post by dengnan »

allengeorge wrote: post #52
dengnan wrote: post #9

> One senior, Sarah Jones, ... “There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley—and that, by itself, makes it kind of unwelcoming." This statement may be true if "people of color" means African American. Otherwise, it is just not the fact. I do think, through my personal experience, the Valley is probably the most diverse place that I have been. I've seen people all over the wrold here: Asian, Latino, European,…

There's a lot of caveats to that statement. Within the Bay Area itself there's plenty of segregation: anecdotally, I noticed relatively few Indians living in Palo Alto and working at startups; most live in MV/Sunnyvale/Fremont and worked in larger companies like Cisco and Oracle. I'm not making the claim that this segregation is externally-driven, it's just that there "are people all over the world" doesn't tell the…

I think the segregation you were talking about might be attribute to the first generation of immigrants. NYC and many other places have a longer tradition of accepting people from other contries. Many "people in color" in those cities have been there for generations. But in SV, many tech engineers are not born and raised in America. They tend to hangout within their own group for obvious reasons. Compared with NYC, SV has just started to welcome people from other countries.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#106

Post by ghaff »

lectrick wrote: post #41
chipgap98 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its kinda ridiculous to say that to be 'SV material' you need to have started studying CS before college

I think they're more looking for a sign that you had an early and therefore natural curiosity to tinker with the mechanisms in the world. Not "CS" per se, but just... computer tinkering. If your family couldn't afford a computer, IMHO, if you at least, say, took a clock or motor apart or something, that would be a good indicator, too. By the way, this has been brought up as the reason for the dropoff in the women who…

>freshman CS classes have basically assumed prior (and thorough) computer experience

I imagine that it depends on the school but there's probably some truth to that. I've taken a couple of "Intro to Programming" type classes from top schools. I found the material quite manageable--but then I have a moderate amount of programming experience even though I don't do it for a living. I'm pretty sure that if this were the first time I saw a computer command line or wrote code, I'd have been lost. Freshman physics at those schools may be challenging but it doesn't assume a whole lot of prior exposure (other than an appropriate level of math).

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#107

Post by autoreleasepool »

pmorici wrote: post #13
gtk40 wrote: post #5

It's interesting that it describes Silicon Valley as being too white, when it seems like there are quite a few Asians. Even working elsewhere, a high percentage of our programmers are Asian, higher than the metro's demographics would suggest.

"it struck her as a startlingly homogeneous culture, made up of white and Asian people who “like Star Wars and stuff like Pokémon.” When companies began to visit Howard, they’d boast about having on-site playground equipment and volleyball courts—not the kind of thing Jones or her friends got excited about. “Slides are not really appealing,” she says. “There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley—and that, by…

> like Star Wars and stuff like Pokemon

What an amazingly stupid generalization. Some of my favorite Pokemon and video game youtubers are black. Tons of black Star Wars fans exists too. It's pretty offensive to associate an entire group of people with certain preferences.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#108

Post by tw04 »

skywhopper wrote: post #48
pingou wrote: post #18

"as the only African American on her team, she didn’t feel she had much in common with her colleagues. “When I went out to lunch or something with my team, it was sort of like, ‘Soooo, what are you guys talking about?’ ” she says" I find this sentence really shocking, perhaps because I'm french and in France we try to assimilate people more (I don't really know), but I would definitely think that as a white software…

I didn't find it surprising. I'm white, and I've been on all-white teams where everyone else watched the same TV shows or went to the same movies or played the same video games, and I didn't. Those common interests would feel like the only thing they ever talked about, and it would feel very unwelcoming. Part of the problem is just luck of the draw in terms of the team you get placed on. If that team is all into the…

So... you either decide you want to be included and try joining in some of the team's shared interests, or you don't. I'm not sure what the problem is - it's no different than being in a regular group of friends when some of them decide to pick up a new hobby/show/whatever. You can either engage and join in, or you can choose not to. Don't whine or act like there's something wrong if you make the decision not to participate though.

If you go in and feel like an outsider and DO NOTHING ABOUT IT, there's nobody to blame but yourself. If you actively try to engage and they don't welcome you, you should probably find a new job where people aren't jerks.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#109

Post by pmorici »

The real story here seems less about race and more about how the CS program at Howard was mediocre (or at least didn't produce students that met Google's expectations) and one of the professors with a background of working for Google and attending an elite CS program realized it's deficiencies, improved it, and was able to get a bunch of students hired by Google by filling in their knowledge and experience gaps.

The school happens to be historically black but I'd be surprised if you found hiring statistics from a majority white school with a similarly ranked CS program to be substantially different.

Re: Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom

#110

Post by maker1138 »

I have a dream where people are judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.

Seriously. I'm tired of these people focusing only on skin color. Why don't we let it go, forget about skin color, and live together.

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