Silicon Valley and Black Coders: Howard University fights to join the tech boom • Hacker News Board

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

#411

Post by davidf18 » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:43 AM UTC

dcole2929 wrote: post #378

colmvp wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, every day I feel like I'm told that I have to do something to help other people. There's always a cause. And you know, I'm not against that. I realize people have it rough. But there is this weird perception that Asian men have this amazing privilege in Western society and that we don't endure any racism or discrimination despite the fact that we still do. They range from how we're depicted in the media, to…

This is an absolutely serious question. Can you elaborate on some of the racism you as an Asian male have experienced? Honestly, outside of certain examples of the "good minority" I've seen very little racism towards Asians in any context so I'm interested to hear what is you may have experienced.

I am not Asian, but Asians generally have to have higher grades and SATs than Whites (and certainly Blacks and Hispanics) to get into colleges. Totally unfair.

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

#412

Post by jessedhillon » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:44 AM UTC

oldmanjay wrote: post #290

pabb wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a white guy who also grew up in a predominantly black area with black friends and makes good money, your attempt to appear as the paragon of racial enlightenment makes me cringe.

Do you feel as though your experiences made you better than the OP and so you cringe because of your superior enlightenment? I can't imagine what else you might have in mind, I find nothing particularly cringeworthy in the OP, especially since the whole "paragon of racial enlightenment" bit seems to come entirely from your own head.

Imagine if someone described their experience as a software engineer like so:

> I often used to only sit and talk with the sales people, but then I took an introductory Ruby on Rails course. Now I feel very aligned with my fellow programmers, having worked on projects such as websites written in CSS, and frontend UIs written with the Java scripting language. Sometimes, my pull requests are rejected by certain fringe elements of the engineering team, but I can understand why, since I do not have a traditional background in CS yet am contributing just as much to their code base. But, in those cases I will usually go around, show my face, do some SQL queries and everything is back to normal.

It's about the equivalent.

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

#413

Post by drstrangevibes » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:45 AM UTC

you think the inequality of sexes in silicon valley is an issue but when it comes to black people its completely fair?! really?!. how about you first admit to yourselves youre racist. We all are a little bit. Admitting it is the first step to solving the problem. Stopping jumping through rhetorical hoops a quick scan of the kind of messages left here makes the racial prejudice situation in silicon valley as clear as day.

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

#414

Post by drstrangevibes » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:46 AM UTC

gohrt wrote: post #399

kenjackson wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is a "high-end" black name?

The richest black Americans are named: Oprah, Michael, Tiger, Sean, Robert, Mariah, Earvin, Jay, Bill, Sheila, Tyler, Shaquille, Dr, Master, Berry, Russell, Quintin, Beyonce, Prince. The richest Americans are named: Bill, Warren, Larry, Jeff, Charles, David, Mark, Michael, Jim, Larry, Sergey (immigrant, didn't change name), Alice (inherited), S. Robson (inherited) Christy (inherited), Sheldon, George, Phil, Forrest,…

so you take the outliers as some indication of the median?

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

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Post by Joof » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:47 AM UTC

brandonmenc wrote: post #336

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…

As a white guy who is totally not into "geek culture" at all, I'm in the same boat. And I simply do not care. I'm not going to start playing video games or watching Doctor Who, or whatever, just to fit in. I'm sure it's infinitely easier for me not to feel like an imposter than it is for a black woman, but of all the real hurdles standing in her way this should be the least concerning of them. Get over it, or the rea…

I doubt its just at work; the silicon valley area itself may be a bad culture fit. From experience, when you don't have people that you relate to face-to-face at home; it gets very depressing. You personally are likely to find people you relate to at home, but they may not.

Being an outsider like that is a huge tradeoff; it can feel like moving to another country.

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

#416

Post by HarryHirsch » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:50 AM UTC

Joof wrote: post #397

HarryHirsch wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot speak for CS, but for chemistry I would not hire anyone who did not graduate from a top-20 program. At any other college, both theory and practice are taught with insufficient depth and rigour - in essence everyone who joins one of those programs either is a medical school aspirant or just there for the "college". CS may be different.

I can't speak for chemistry, but this is a horrificly shitty thing. There are many factors influencing what schools a student chooses to attend. Finances being an important one.

College choice is a problem, especially for first-generation students and those whose families aren't well-off. There are students who could do much better than Tumbleweed State, but they didn't pick the nearby Ivy because they it never crossed their minds that they could have gotten in. There might have been a decent financial aid package. If there wasn't one, who can risk debt in this economic climate.

But I can't fix the world. It's not my fault that at non-top-20 colleges they fail to teach basic things.

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

#417

Post by Spooky23 » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 12:52 AM UTC

igonvalue wrote: post #281

The clickbait article headline is "Why Doesn’t Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?" The answer is buried three quarters of the way into the article: > When they started interviewing seniors, companies found — as Pratt did at Howard — that many were underprepared. They hadn’t been exposed to programming before college and had gaps in their college classes. So why isn't the article titled, "Why Aren't Enough Black Coders…

Because recruiters are lazy. They cherry pick colleges and build relationships over a period of years. Then they decide that they need more black people, so they send someone to man a booth at a historically black college and expect the same level of polish. (Which is mostly BS)

I had the same experience as a graduate of a mid tier public college. Finally a recruiter from a big company laid it out for me -- they have a list of schools they recruit from, period unless you are referred.

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

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Post by mcguire » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 1:06 AM UTC

michaelborromeo wrote: post #319

igonvalue wrote: post #281

The clickbait article headline is "Why Doesn’t Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?" The answer is buried three quarters of the way into the article: > When they started interviewing seniors, companies found — as Pratt did at Howard — that many were underprepared. They hadn’t been exposed to programming before college and had gaps in their college classes. So why isn't the article titled, "Why Aren't Enough Black Coders…

Based on my experience interviewing a handful of developer candidates graduating from Howard, not being prepared is the best way I can describe the impression they left. It felt like they only had a smattering of CS courses, none of which pushed them very hard. In other words, they should fix their curriculum.

This is a problem for essentially every liberal arts school I've looked at.

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

#419

Post by zanek » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 1:06 AM UTC

dcole2929 wrote: post #381

zanek wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have my head in the sand. I'm saying I don't remember ever being openly discriminated against. Are you saying it's impossible for a black person to live there life without being openly discriminated against in the U.S. ? Obviously we aren't in some post-racial utopia, but I'm saying I have never experienced racism to my face. I find it funny that someone would think I would have to have experienced it

Honestly, and I'm thinking really really hard about this but yes. I don't know where you have lived but I find it actually amazing that you can say that you have never in your entire life experienced open racism. I have so many questions I don't even know where to begin. And as a side note, my reaction should probably tell you all you need to know about race in America.

Please, ask any questions you have. I'd love to know what questions you have about it, as I see it as perfectly normal.

Obviously depending on where you live, your socio-economic status , your experience may vary. I'd think one to be crazy if they said there were openly racist people in every city saying racist things, everyday to a black person. That seems ridiculous to me

I seriously don't see what the big deal is. The USA isn't in the midst of the Jim Crow or slavery. Maybe your view is skewed my the media (CNN, etc) about the pervasiveness of racism.

You can't fathom that many black people can live a life without meeting openly racist people ? I would think You were odd if that were the case

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

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Post by rezistik » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 1:13 AM UTC

crpatino wrote: post #400

noir_lord wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the UK, I've eaten most of those but not in taco's 2) I quite like a tongue sandwich. 3) Tripe is not my cup of tea but I've had it 4) Fried pork blood, we have a thing here called black pudding (it's congealed blood soaked in oats, then fried, it's damn good and apparenly good for you). 6) Lots of times, don't see it much now, my nan lived on it 7) Used in stocks 10) Pork Scratchings are huge here also damn g…

Right, I forgot most European cuisines do make use of the whole animal. I stand corrected. I kind of dislike blood (you have to eat it quickly, or the flavor deteriorates in your very plate before you notice), but otherwise everything that runs, swims or flies is game ;)

I have eaten most of those but I was tempted to pretend I haven't.

My point was a major simplification of how American assimilation happens or I think ideally it should happen. Cultural heritage is important and mixing cultures together is the best version of America in my opinion.

I'm saying that American culture is a tapestry of it's subcultures and it's subcultures are sourced far and wide. The idea isn't to go with direct and hard assimilation the way people talk about French assimilation as was mentioned at other points in this thread where immigrants adopt French mannerisms but that American immigrants adopt some American mannerisms while bringing their own that other Americans adopt. I used really simple and identifiable culture parts like food.