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Reflections on the color of my skin

haydenplanetarium.org

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Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#41

Post by birracerveza »

lokedhs wrote: post #40
birracerveza wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of claim is ridiculous and hurts your cause. If you are going to hire people based on the color of their skin you are actively being racist, even if it is in order to promote diversity. EDIT: I would add, if you think that I'm wrong I encourage you to reply to me to let me understand why. If you just angrily push the downvote button I'll not understand your point of view.

Because once racism is systemic, actively avoiding racism will continue to perpetuate the current situation. Great if you're part of the privileged group, not so much much if you're hoping for a change.

I feel like this is an issue that must be fixed at the root (education), not at the leaves (actual job).

I agree that there is a systemic discrepancy that needs to be addressed, but in my opinion this is a completely wrong way to approach the problem.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#42

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

jpxw wrote: post #7
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

I come to HN to get away from political discussions, I’d rather it stayed like it is now.

I don’t. Its never been that way and I don’t see why it should start now.

I’m more annoyed by the meta mods

Maybe y’all should find a different place to hang out instead of flagging thinks folks actually wanna read, seeing as how it made it to the front page

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#43

Post by lokedhs »

birracerveza wrote: post #41
lokedhs wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because once racism is systemic, actively avoiding racism will continue to perpetuate the current situation. Great if you're part of the privileged group, not so much much if you're hoping for a change.

I feel like this is an issue that must be fixed at the root (education), not at the leaves (actual job). I agree that there is a systemic discrepancy that needs to be addressed, but in my opinion this is a completely wrong way to approach the problem.

I'm not trying to tell anyone what the correct solution is (I've experienced societies with wildly different approaches to this), but doing it at the leaf (as you express it) is a solution. It's not the only solution, but it is one. Furthermore, this solution does work to some degree, and it has quite quick results, compared to education which takes generations to impose any real change.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#44

Post by jpxw »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #30
jpxw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I come to HN to get away from political discussions, I’d rather it stayed like it is now.

Yeah, if we could get rid of all those all stories about pages being deleted, tweets being annotated or apps being taken down that would be nice.

I don't know if this is sarcastic, but yeah I'd like that too.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#45

Post by david38 »

ReticentVole wrote: post #18

In New York city, the portion of Black people killed by police gunfire is perfectly aligned with the portion of Black people firing on police officers: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/analysis_and_plan... 52.6% of murders are carried out by African Americans: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-... 49% of Black children live in single-mother households, which is double the rate of H…

You just refuted your own argument. Blacks in Africa do better than blacks in America. What changed? Did their DNA change? Did they get smaller brains?

They now live in an environment not conducive to their success.

To clarify, let’s take color out of the picture. Let’s say we’re talking about some poor, southern white town.

What do you often get? Generational poverty. If you were to talk to some, you might be turned off. These aren’t polished people. Poor decision making, often backed up with “what different will it make”.

Look at the history of Flint, Michigan. There are many others. It doesn’t take a lot to destabilize a community.

I do agree with that victimhood isn’t helpful. There is a tendency towards that recently, so let’s put the media aside.

Go talk to a few black people who are analytical like you. Talk to a few of different ages, from different parts of the country, etc. It might be informative, it might not. It’s a better place to start than the news.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#46

Post by camillomiller »

Tenoke wrote: post #5
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

There's a significant amount of people of color on that page including (at least) one black person. It's a bit beyond me how you can think comments like yours are helping anyone.

Can you indicate the African-americans from that page? I’m not questioning diversity or pointing out that YC enforces any kind of anti-diversity policy. Quite the contrary: despite being a diverse organization, the amount of people of African-american descent in that page are basically statistically irrelevant, if there’s any. Either this tells you something about the state of things in tech and Silicon Valley, or you’re just as unaware of the problem as many other Americans seem to be.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#47

Post by camillomiller »

nekopa wrote: post #4
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

Michael Seibel - joined Y Combinator as its first African-American partner in October 2014.

You’re right. One of eighteen partners. 1/18. Since six years.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#48

Post by camillomiller »

bzb4 wrote: post #6
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

I’m mostly happy not to have too much politics on hn. Discussions on politics are usually uninteresting and many times too heated; a net negative most of the time.

This is exactly the problem. YOU are politics. Tech is effing politics.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#49

Post by camillomiller »

tangue wrote: post #17
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

I would separate the board issue with the disconnection from reality. But yes, as some tech leaders are expressing themselves on twitter, each time I log into HN I have the feeling I can hear "Whitey on the moon".

Good to know I’m not alone.

Re: Reflections on the color of my skin

#50

Post by camillomiller »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #8
camillomiller wrote: post #2

Upvoted. I am honestly disappointed at how this board seems completely of out touch with what's going on in the US. And not a single official line from ycombinator as well, so far. I would also point out that, despite a quest for diversity that spans a few years, now, a quick glance at the people page of ycombinator shows an appalling truth: there is not one single black person listed. https://www.ycombinator.com/peo…

What are you arguing for? Equality of outcome or equality of opportunity? The first can be dismissed as another form of racism outright, so let's talk about the second. Do you think that black people have not had equal opportunity?

Yes, I might have rushed my comment, but that’s what I meant. If even a diverse organization like YC can’t have enough African-Americans in their ranks, it has to mean something about the access these people get compared to white folks and people of other heritage.

To further elaborate: Reddit hiring a black person to fill a board seat vacated By a white man on the premise of giving it to an African-american is a patch that’s worse than the hole.

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