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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

#431

Post by School-Cotton »

niels_olson wrote: post #427
ashwinaj wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like? The Midwest and South (minus urban areas i.e.cities which are few and far between) there aren't many diverse places.

I think you're asking for regions in the US, not cities, where you can meet lots of people, so as to demonstrate diversity. Well, there are plenty of black people in the deep South. There are plenty of latino ranchers in the Southwest. There are some pockets of even non-English speaking folks in Louisiana and the Chesapeake. But that's not diversity, that's just a different homogeneity. Although I can certainly attes…

I am from the Southwest and it is not very diverse compared to SV. Having a lot of Latinos doesn't make a place diverse.

There are tons of Latinos and tons of Whites in Arizona. Not much of anything else.

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

#432

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal »

Some interesting points in the article picking up on the mono culture in a lot of software companies and especially games companies, in my experience outside Silicon Valley, I think it's a programming thing in general wherever you are. After many years I'm quite tired of the endless Star Wars talk, references, and T-shirts that I have to endure from colleagues. I even like the Star Wars movies but there comes a point where I think we could surely shut up about it for one day. However, I have to endure it, I've worked in numerous companies and it's the same thing all over the place, the blah mono culture, I'd love to work with some of the people in this article.

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

#433

Post by School-Cotton »

worik wrote: post #307
rhino369 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is undisputedly the best country at assimililating immigrants. It comes from doing it for centuries. We are one of the only countries with complete mixed ethnicities and a strong nationality. But that doesn't really work for blacks because they aren't a different culture, they are a subculture. Their culture has been a part of American culture from the beginning. For almost all of American history they were e…

"But that doesn't really work for blacks because they aren't a different culture, they are a subculture" There you have it. Deep racism.

I think you just misunderstand what "subculture" means. "sub" here has a meaning like "subset", not like "subhuman".

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

#435

Post by niels_olson »

School-Cotton wrote: post #431
niels_olson wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're asking for regions in the US, not cities, where you can meet lots of people, so as to demonstrate diversity. Well, there are plenty of black people in the deep South. There are plenty of latino ranchers in the Southwest. There are some pockets of even non-English speaking folks in Louisiana and the Chesapeake. But that's not diversity, that's just a different homogeneity. Although I can certainly attes…

I am from the Southwest and it is not very diverse compared to SV. Having a lot of Latinos doesn't make a place diverse. There are tons of Latinos and tons of Whites in Arizona. Not much of anything else.

As I said:

> that's not diversity, that's just a different homogeneity

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

#436

Post by dingbat »

kenjackson wrote: post #393
dingbat wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

further complicated by the tendency towards aspirational naming, as over time formerly upscale names like Emily / Alexandra / Madison etc become associated with low-end socioeconomics due to overexposure. however, you'd have to be willfully ignorant to deny the perceptual gap between high-end/low-end Emily/Amber vs. Lakisha

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

it may have been misunderstood: when I am referring to "high-end/low-end" I am referring to Emily as high-end, Amber as low-end --- not Lakisha. I do not know what the equivalent comparison would be using the example of Lakisha, whether or not that is considered upscale or not.

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

#437

Post by toomanybeersies »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #187

I'm a black guy working in IT at a company in the top 5 of the Fortune 500. This is complicated issue. There have been experiment that show having a "black" name lowers your job prospects [1]. Other studies that show: "...race actually turned out to be more significant than a criminal background. Notice that employers were more likely to call Whites with a criminal record (17% were offered an interview) than Blacks w…

Sounds like a good solution is to strip names from CVs when reviewing them.

People are fallible, and often racist/sexist/discriminatory in general, even subconsciously.

I wonder if this effect is the same with black recruiters, or if it goes the opposite way. It's very much normal for people to favour people similar to them, by race, gender, religion, etc.

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

#439

Post by [deleted] »

School-Cotton wrote: post #429
fortes wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree completely, I think that type of attitude leads to the notion of "Real" Americans. Keeping the ethnic identity is the opposite of the melting pot. In Brazil, you're just Brazilian, regardless of color.

100% of the Brazilians I have met (I'm in the US) are middle class and above. Also, as if by magic, 100% of them appear white (or mostly white), despite non-whites making up a large fraction of Brazil's population. It's absurd to act like everything is great for racial minorities in Brazil.

[deleted]

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

#440

Post by yummyfajitas »

KingMob wrote: post #285
taconacho wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that surprising. Howard University is 95% black (source: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1024 " rel="nofollow">http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl... ) and is one of the lowest ranked colleges in terms of diversity. Coming from such a culturally closed-off environment to a different one comprised mostly of whites and Asians of different eth…

You're mistaken if you assume that going to Howard means they somehow have less experience with diversity than being in Silicon Valley. Black people, just by virtue of being a minority in America, are exposed to white people and culture at way higher rates than the reverse. In fact, a major point of going to a historically black college is to get a bit of a "break" from the dominant culture.

Why does one need a "break" from a culture? I'm in India right now, live here 1/3 of the year, and have lived here extensively in the past. I don't need a "break". I don't need some "critical mass" of firangi around me. As a person who is willing to adapt to the world around me, that's all just a bunch of silliness.

From what you say, it sounds as if many Howard students are less willing to adapt. That's fine. But it's pretty clear that for folks who are willing to adapt themselves (e.g., Chinese, Indian and other immigrants to the valley), the valley is quite welcoming.

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