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Why are there so few black people in STEM?

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Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#181

Post by scarface74 »

blackrock wrote: post #171
scarface74 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about stereotypes. I am sure that everyone on HN knows that not all Black people are poor. I am Black by the way. But, we also have to look at statistics and think longitudinally instead of anecdotally. I came from a middle class family in a small town in the south. But my mom being a well connected high school math teacher did give me some advantages. When I graduated from college, I had a choice between ta…

Nice story. COBOL programmers started making some serious money with Y2K. At least, the contractors started billing advanced hourly rates. And were making more than they ever did. And from what I’ve been seeing, COBOL just isn’t going anywhere. Those mainframes really are built to last. So he should probably have a job for the rest of his life. I hope he’s got a nice pension.

I hope so. I posted on Facebook that I found my old FORTRAN, Pascal and COBOL textbooks from college when I went home to visit my parents and tagged him and few other classmates.

We graduated in the mid 90s. The book was last updated in 1985. He told me he was still programming in COBOL. I just got quiet. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to insult him.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#182

Post by the_omegist »

chii wrote: post #161
downerending wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most basketball fans would agree with that argument.

And yet when there's little or no representation of one race in one area of human endeavour, it's OK and accepted. But in another endeavour, it's frowned upon and spell racism.

Even more visible than basketball and totally genetically admitted : 100m race. Even the most gene-allergic person will have trouble denying perhaps predisposition for speed can be unequally distributed among different races.

But genes would magically stop having any meaningful effect above the waist...

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#183

Post by galoisgirl »

hardwaregeek wrote: post #43

I wonder how many people on HN have experienced being the only person of their race in the room. In my case I was put into a French public school where I was the only Asian student. It took me a bit to realize why I found that experience so shitty. The language and culture barrier was definitely a factor. But also it just sucks standing out. Sometimes this difference manifests as racism. Sometimes it manifests as sim…

Not race, but I was sent to a French public school at six.

When I started, I could only say my name. Within a year, I was fluent. After 3 years, I was made to skip a grade. I stood out, but knowing I was better than all those kids at their own native language was quite the ego boost.

Later on, the same race, combined with the language fluency, allowed me to blend in, so I was spared from most negative experiences that immigrants face.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#184

Post by mercer »

dx034 wrote: post #166
DeonPenny wrote: post #126

I'd like to see how many poorer men in general. I'm a black engineer and I couldn't count how many of my classmates would have graduated if they were in my shoes. There were 4-5 weeks at different where I just ran out money and sat on bed instead of eating thinking I couldn't be hungry is I was sleep. I usually found enough money to collect to buy a bag of rice for the month. But regardless of race this is hard. Give…

The US definitely has a lot of untapped potential. And they're not even worst in class. According to the OECD, other countries (e.g. Germany, France) are much worse when it comes to social mobility [1]. [1] http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/1-5%20generations.png

Interesting. One thing to keep in mind that being in the bottom 10% might be a lot better in one country over another though. I'm trying to think of what kind of statistic would show this. Something concerning "Quality of Life"? Any ideas?

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#185

Post by csharptwdec19 »

cbsks wrote: post #135
belval wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can provide an interesting data point, I had access to a survey given to students at one college that asked a few questions to cross it with the student's results. Guess which was the undeniably most common issue among people failing two classes or more? Financial insecurity. It's hard figuring out a solution there as that was in a country with cheap (not free but still) education.

Anecdotally, of my friend group in college (at a large state school in the US) everyone who was financially stable eventually graduated with a bachelors degree. 3 out of 4 of my friends who were paying themselves through college dropped out. Having a part time job and trying to go to school full time took a huge toll on them.

Not just that.

I've noticed a difference in success from my associates who worked in college and did not.

Those who worked no jobs, or worked jobs that were close to their career were able to either network in school or network through those jobs, helping them in their careers.

Those who had to work retail or similar jobs had a much more difficult time getting their career paths started.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#186

Post by ReticentVole »

opportune wrote: post #132
rayiner wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system you’re talking about already exists! Half of all K-12 funding comes from state and federal sources, and is directed to the neediest kids. Here is the district by district breakdown in Maryland: https://i2.wp.com/conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/wp-content/up... Baltimore City has less than half the local education funding of Anne Arundel (a predominantly white, upper middle class county containing Annapolis an…

No amount of funding towards schools can make up for a home life or general environment that's not conducive towards education. I wish we in the US looked at solutions beyond throwing money at it (or at least, in a different way) because it obviously doesn't work.

End the drug war, legalise marijuana and decriminalise everything else, send Black men to get married and raise their kids instead of sitting in Jail.

Only 36% of Black kids live with married parents: https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/FT_18...

Stop giving additional welfare to single-parent households.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#187

Post by ReticentVole »

jmpman wrote: post #164

I’ve been in the industry since the late 90’s, right before the H1B volumes really spiked. I worked with a number of black people, and my hiring class consisted of a number of black engineers from historically black colleges. Fast forward 10 years, and cost savings forced a deep round of layoffs and offshoring. The black engineers were hit disproportionately. The current team’s makeup consists heavily of H1Bs. Those…

Infosys is in court again for racist discrimination against non-Indian applicants:

https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/another-...

Black unemployment hit an all-time low this year:

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/irUjPx0BNBh...

Which is partly thanks to tougher enforcement action against illegal immigrants:

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/410/cpsprodpb/A67A/production/...

If you want to help Americans, particularly Black Americans, the H1B visa needs to be ended, the refugee intake reduced to <10,000/year, the wall built, birth citizenship ended, and mass deportations of illegal immigrants to take place across the USA.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#188

Post by jeegsy »

jmpman wrote: post #164

I’ve been in the industry since the late 90’s, right before the H1B volumes really spiked. I worked with a number of black people, and my hiring class consisted of a number of black engineers from historically black colleges. Fast forward 10 years, and cost savings forced a deep round of layoffs and offshoring. The black engineers were hit disproportionately. The current team’s makeup consists heavily of H1Bs. Those…

Thank you very much for providing an actual and IMHO the most important reason.

Re: Why are there so few black people in STEM?

#190

Post by aparsons »

hellisothers wrote: post #113
SiVal wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's not really a lot of debate about what makes for good schools There is plenty of debate about what makes for good schools. Many school districts are large enough to include neighborhoods on "both sides of the tracks". It is the same school district with the same pay, same class sizes, same teacher demographics, but different student body demographics. Result is often a large disparity in outcomes for students.…

This example feels anecdotal, small classes taught by well paid teachers seems like a hugely impactful improvement. Dismissing that because sometimes students don’t fit in with the environment feels like a straw man.

In many low income black areas, the culture among students is that if you’re trying in school, you’re an “uncool nerd” or along those lines.
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