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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

#61

Post by ryanlol »

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…

Would it be shocking if the roles were reversed? There's just as many racist black people as there are racist white people.

edit: Am I wrong?

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

#62

Post by carbocation »

Looking at the commentary at Hacker News, I would say that the author has done a disservice to the topic by ignoring the minority status of East Asians, South Asians, and Latinos.

With very minor changes, they could have used the correct words to cover the topic they really wanted to cover: that there are fewer black programmers in SV than is desired/expected/needed. And that is a topic that deserves discussion. But because the author minimized the experiences of a huge number of other minority groups rather than focusing on the concerns at hand, we are now squabbling about essentially irrelevant material.

95% of the article could remain intact. By cutting the 5% which is both fluff and offensive to other groups, the rest of the article would be much stronger.

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

#64

Post by m1sta_ »

PaulHoule wrote: post #36
pofjer wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it really shocking as well. Not sure how much of it is due to segregation and how much - due to the inability of the person to socialise… which is not uncommon among technical people from all races.

That is what is so hard about it. Everybody gets treated unfairly from time to time, feels awkward, etc. When you are "black" you don't know the line between racism and man's general inhumanity towards man.

This is where shallow discussion of racism can be damaging. If someone receives enough messages indicating that they will be mistreated due to race it is likely to have a major impact on their psyche, then on their behaviour, then on the way they're treated... because of their race.

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

#65

Post by fennecfoxen »

3chelon wrote: post #43
chipgap98 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think its kinda ridiculous to say that to be 'SV material' you need to have started studying CS before college

How so? Many of the classic Valley proto-entrepreneurs (Gates, Jobs, etc) famously dropped out of college. From my own experience, I probably learned about 75% of what I needed to know about programming before I went to university. I'm not sure how easy it is to gain that valuable bedrock experience in an academic environment.

The key, then, is to gain that valuable bedrock experience outside the academic environment. This can obviously be hit-or-miss, and we shouldn't be surprised if we see someone miss.

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

#66

Post by golergka »

tomp wrote: post #49
pmorici wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it struck her as a startlingly homogeneous culture, made up of white and Asian people who “like Star Wars and stuff like Pokémon.” When companies began to visit Howard, they’d boast about having on-site playground equipment and volleyball courts—not the kind of thing Jones or her friends got excited about. “Slides are not really appealing,” she says. “There are not a lot of people of color in the Valley—and that, by…

It often seems like the people writing this articles don't realize that preferring your own race is racism, no matter what race that is. If she feels that she doesn't fit in because there aren't enough people like her (black), that's just as racist as white people not wanting to hang out with blacks because they're not white.

Haven't you heard that racism = power + prejudice, so black people by definition can't be racist because they don't have power?

(This is not an opinion that I agree with, but a lot of people actually think that way).

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

#67

Post by taconacho »

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…

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 ethnicities and nationalities would definitely result in culture shock.

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

#68

Post by abricot »

rquantz wrote: post #21
bdavisx wrote: post #4

I would say some of the students in the article probably aren't SV material - "They’d begun studying computer science in college"? So you've been involved with computers for 4 whole years and you think you're qualified for a top tier job? I'm sure not all of the students only started in college - I'm also not naive enough to think there isn't prejudice in SV, but didn't start until college...

People of lower economic circumstances may not have had access to computers prior to college.

..or healthy food, or stability in their home to do homework, or have parents with time to help...

All of it ends up affecting their hireability.

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

#69

Post by fernandotakai »

golergka wrote: post #31
rquantz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People of lower economic circumstances may not have had access to computers prior to college.

In 1990? Likely. In 2010? This article is supposed to be about US, not a third-world country, right?

even in a third world country like brazil, every single person i know (from lower to high classes) has access to a computer AND a smartphone (even the poorest person has one, it's quite interesting).

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

#70

Post by ryanlol »

skywhopper wrote: post #48
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…

I didn't find it surprising. I'm white, and I've been on all-white teams where everyone else watched the same TV shows or went to the same movies or played the same video games, and I didn't. Those common interests would feel like the only thing they ever talked about, and it would feel very unwelcoming. Part of the problem is just luck of the draw in terms of the team you get placed on. If that team is all into the…

But that's not what she says, her problem isn't that she doesn't like Marvel Cinematic Universe but that she feels that she doesn't have much in common with people of other races.
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