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GitHub, fuck your name change

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Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#501

Post by petr_tik »

Ceezy wrote: post #475
alimbada wrote: post #473

Black people make up 3% of the UK population according to a quick Google search. If there are 7 black people in his company of ~250, that's almost 3%. This is just one data point but it's the one he's using in his post and getting upset over the lack of black representation, when it's proportionate with the overall ratio of ethnicities in the wider population.

44% of London is black.

It was 13% according to the 2011 Census. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_London#Ethnic...

We are still waiting for the results of the current census. Where did you get the 44% figure from?

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#502

Post by gordian-mind »

gspr wrote: post #81

There are parts of this article I agree with, and parts I disagree with, but this part just screaaaaams "I cannot possibly picture that any part of the world is in any way different from the US": > “Meritocracy!”, I hear you cry. “They pick from the most talented students. The ones that worked the hardest to get into the most elite schools. The black students should have just worked harder”. I guess mummy and daddy p…

Instead of meritocracy, he proposes black-only employment programs. What a joke.

This is just the usual black supremacist posing as some kind of angry pragmatist.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#504

Post by munchbunny »

vishnugupta wrote: post #390
tda wrote: post #12

Though I initially sympathized with the name change from master to main (cause I don't care what it is called), I am now more of the opinion that this kind of window-dressing might actually be harmful as it distracts from addressing the root cause. It is a bit complicated as the name change in itself is not bad, but given the context, and that it distracts from addressing real issues it actually is. Same thing with p…

> I am now more of the opinion that this kind of window-dressing might actually be harmful as it distracts from addressing the root cause Came here to express similar opinion and your articulation has succinctly and perfectly captured it so I'll just add to it. Over the years I've come to realise that effecting real change to address the root cause is hard. It almost certainly won't be done by private corporations; t…

> But when you actually see the process from the inside you see how optical and ridiculous it is. The entire program is a joke. No matter what one does the top of the funnel is so ridiculously non-diverse that it's excruciatingly difficult to hire a diverse person.

I agree based on my personal experiences.

One of the concrete suggestions by the author of the blog post really strikes me as a step that we could implement, but we don’t: drawing from non-traditional backgrounds. And it’s because it’s an uphill battle. Much easier to do some low hanging fruit.

I’m not a minority in tech, but coming into my current job I had a semi-traditional background. Even getting first rounds was a struggle, only ameliorated by having a professional network of tech people, which is very much not something that you can expect a non-traditional candidate to have.

Seriously, my “get to phone screen” rate without network referrals was around 2-3%. With referrals was about 60%. That’s how bad it gets. So now when it’s in my direct control I go out of my way to look for non-traditional backgrounds in the pipeline and give them the benefit of the doubt during resume screening, paid for in hours I spend interviewing instead of programming

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#506

Post by stephen_g »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #56
qwerty456127 wrote: post #11

I would agree "slave" seems a weird choice of a word but I can see nothing wrong in "master". Not a single moment in my life I thought about slavery when hearing/seeing the word "master". Should we also rename master degrees perhaps?

That’s my impression too. “Slave” should be replaced with some other more neutral term, but “master” shouldn’t be a problem. There are multiple uses of it in different contexts, but the shared implication is of a definitive source: Master copy; Remastered (music); Master of Arts/Sciences; Mastery Etc. None of that implies a master-slave relationship.

I'd be really interested to hear from any black people here - does the idea of having a device or piece of software being called a 'slave' really actually offend anybody?

I'd never subconsciously linked the term with human slaves, only ever really thinking of it as an abstract concept, until people started complaining about it... Part of it may be coming from a different cultural context, not being from the US though...

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#507

Post by bobthechef »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #451
pron wrote: post #429

Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights. It's fine not to like ever…

> Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare problem with this line is that those in power now in America aren't solving any of these issues. they engage in window dressing and have been doing so since at least Clinton. they are left-INO. What US considers center left actually is right. Unless a new progressive party is formed (AOC, Sanders etc) and this part…

Well, the Left is largely a globalist, neoliberal caste at this point. They had their revolution, kicked the Old Guard to the ground, assumed power, and put in place their own regime. All revolutions are about power, not improvement. And usually, the "cure" is worse than the disease.

> What US considers center left actually is right

The problem here is that the entire political spectrum has shifted leftward. So perhaps in a relative sense what you wrote is true, but in the historical sense, everyone is further left than they were, say, 70 years ago. (It's also true that 70 years ago, people still believed in modernity, and that's no longer the case. 30 years ago, people believed in the End of History, which, despite Western triumphalism, is also no longer the case.)

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#508

Post by zozbot234 »

vmception wrote: post #47

I’m a black American and agree with everything that this person in London wrote. It is also a common criticism of the American “left”, and is entirely accurate. For everyone perplexed about black Americans and other people of color walking away from the left, its because you/they don't see us as equals that can be bothered by the exact same things that other Americans can be bothered by: being told what to think, wat…

Meh, I just like 'main' because it's two letters shorter than 'master'. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#509

Post by sokoloff »

pron wrote: post #429

Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights. It's fine not to like ever…

Without exception, all of the most talented individuals I’ve met wanted to be seen and interacted with as individuals. It’s Sally the engineer, not a nameless member of women-in-technology. Or Clinton the engineer, not a recent SWE graduate of an HBCU.

Protectionist thinking is off-putting to many when it strays over some imaginary line to where I act as if I must be the champion for an underrepresented group because they think I think they are less capable. When I join with them to help, it’s generally welcome; when an influential person speaks as if that help is charitable (rather than equitable), it puts off some people.

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