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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

#151

Post by _yosefk »

Moshe_Silnorin wrote: post #26
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,…

As soon as a minorty achieves success (and often disproportionate success) they are no longer considered minorities.

As someone who isn't a native English speaker, I've long noticed that, as you mention, "minority" doesn't mean "the opposite of majority" (I'm not sure since when, or exactly what it does mean; you say success is key, but success in what field - chess, boxing, beer-making? Listing just a dozen fields is probably enough to demonstrate that no minorities exist according to the "success" definition.)

However, to return to grandparent's comment - I, similarly to its author, have never noticed that the word "color" had been similarly redefined. Isn't "a person of color" the opposite of "white", where "white" means a having skin with a color at a mostly-agreed-upon pinkish/palish range?

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

#152

Post by seivan »

ryandrake wrote: post #140
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,…

Yea, that was a head scratcher. Where are these places with all white people? Because looking around at my current team, I'm one of two white guys, and there's a white woman, the remaining 20 or so are all either of south-east Asian or Chinese descent. My previous company was probably 75% Chinese, 20% Indian, and maybe 1% white. Prior to that, my company was a bit whiter, but 60%+ were foreign nationals. It gets to t…

Some need to uphold the concept of "structural" racism. Unfortunately pesky non-whites stand in the way of that when it comes to engineering.

So extreme measures are necessary...

0 Claim Silicon Valley is racist, because racial minorities are not hired.

1 Claim that Chinese and Indians are not minorities.

2 Claim that structural racism has "white washed" the Chinese and Indians in Silicon Valley [0]

The funny thing is, the white washing is conducted by the same group as it starts with the sentence "minorities aren't hired" When you live amongst the inherent Marxists as long as I have, you tend to figure out their patterns.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10945241

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

#153

Post by mafribe »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #100

What a big steaming pile of political correctness. The author interviews a tiny handful of mediocre college students who blame their "color" for not getting hired right out of school by big, glamorous tech companies. Are we supposed to be sympathetic? I remember my own struggles to break into the tech business, many years ago now. Although white and "privileged", i.e. no cultural barriers to entry, I found it very to…

   Affirmative action is a failure; it's nothing but a form of welfare.
Failure from what vantage point? If you want to keep society stable and peaceful, some degree of welfare is probably necessary, for otherwise, those that imagine themselves to be wronged might just band together and violently take what they think has been denied to them.

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

#154

Post by pingou »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #111
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…

>> ...in France we try to assimilate people more... Really? What about the Muslim immigrants in the suburbs, who are practically in a separate world from mainstream French, cut off and unable to get in on the lifetime jobs that the French middle and upper middle class enjoy? French-African entrepreneurs report that they have better luck doing business with Americans, who don't care what your race is as long as you pa…

That's why I said "try". And I'm not saying that French are less racist than American, there definitely is some discrimination going.

I was more talking about cultural assimilation, I think a black american feels a lot more like he belongs to "the black community" as a french black does.

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

#155

Post by xyzzy4 »

MollyR wrote: post #17
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.

Yea. I don't like the way they use it. Asians and Indians get considered white if they don't fit in the specific narrative, an author wants to tell. I also don't like the idea, that liking pokemon or star wars makes you "white". There is something wrong with this,I can't seem to put into words.

I think it also depends if the Asians or Indians have an accent or not. If they were born here, they fit in better and are classified as "white".

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

#156

Post by noxToken »

pofjer wrote: post #74
PaulHoule wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is what is so hard about it. Everybody gets treated unfairly from time to time, feels awkward, etc. When you are "black" you don't know the line between racism and man's general inhumanity towards man.

How about not assuming racism in the first place? It may just be that you are new and people are not accustomed to having you as a part of their group. I'm sure that even if some of them have prejudices, they will accept you as soon as you show them what you are made of and that you are trustworthy. I'm sure everyone knows at least one sh hole from their race, so they can accept a decent person from another one when…

Because modern racism doesn't necessarily parade itself out in the open. There are subtleties to a lot of the actions that people will take, and like the parent said, you don't know the line between racism and man's general inhumanity towards man.

I agree that no one should assume racism right out of the gate. I admit to being guilty of this action before. The line between cliques facing inward and people snubbing you due to race is absurdly blurry. It doesn't help when the entire group happens to be white. Then you start this internal dialogue trying to get to the bottom.

Are these guys just really clique-ish to the point where everyone else is an outcast? Am I doing that weird thing where I have a scowl on my face all day? Did I say something that was misconstrued? Are they just racist pricks? Wait, am I just an asshole?

This isn't to say that all who socialize with you are racist. I think your last line is a very important consideration in moments of self-reflection.

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

#157

Post by bsmoke »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #100

What a big steaming pile of political correctness. The author interviews a tiny handful of mediocre college students who blame their "color" for not getting hired right out of school by big, glamorous tech companies. Are we supposed to be sympathetic? I remember my own struggles to break into the tech business, many years ago now. Although white and "privileged", i.e. no cultural barriers to entry, I found it very to…

How do you know they're mediocre coders? The article makes zero mention of any coding ability, aside from the fact that some of them were having a hard time locking down offers from places like Google and Facebook. Your biases are applying traits to these kids, all of whom you've never met or had any kind of conversation with.

This entire post is the biggest affirmation of "twice the work" if I've ever seen it.

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

#158

Post by [deleted] »

mafribe wrote: post #153
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #100

What a big steaming pile of political correctness. The author interviews a tiny handful of mediocre college students who blame their "color" for not getting hired right out of school by big, glamorous tech companies. Are we supposed to be sympathetic? I remember my own struggles to break into the tech business, many years ago now. Although white and "privileged", i.e. no cultural barriers to entry, I found it very to…

Affirmative action is a failure; it's nothing but a form of welfare. Failure from what vantage point? If you want to keep society stable and peaceful, some degree of welfare is probably necessary, for otherwise, those that imagine themselves to be wronged might just band together and violently take what they think has been denied to them.

[deleted]

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

#159

Post by yoz-y »

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…

I would say the main problem with French is that they really do not like to speak any other language than French. It is quite common that, for example, during the lunch with international participation and a French majority the conversation will start in English but then very quickly slip into French and then foreigners are lost.

It has also happened to me, when speaking English or being in non-french speaking groups, to have drive-by strangers coming up and yelling at us to speak French.

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