4 ms·

I've only been to SF twice, but I have to agree that it is pretty white. Not as white as Colorado, but still. I also toured Medium and was blown away by the lac

I've only been to SF twice, but I have to agree that it is pretty white. Not as white as Colorado, but still. I also toured Medium and was blown away by the lack of black folks working there. It's tough to describe the feeling, but when you're the only black person in the room, you do feel different--a little uncomfortable. However, I don't think this reflects a conscious effort to not hire blacks, rather there are institutional and socioeconomic barriers that leave us underrepresented in tech and many other fields.

m1sta_ 11y ago
I've only visited Japan twice but I have to agree that it's pretty yellow.
hibikir 11y ago
Yes, there's not a big black community in San Francisco. There's an unusually large southeast asian community though, which is uncommon in many other parts of the US. Still, even smaller divides can be stark. I am white and I live in St Louis. There are a lot of black people in St Louis. However, there's parts of the city where it's very uncommon to see black people, while in others, black people have asked me if I got lost or something, because I am the only white guy around. There's the famous Delmar Line, where two blocks separate an expensive white neighborhood from some of the poorest black areas of the city. In the middle two blocks, there's a lot of men in blue. I mean, I've done software in this town for 15 years. That gives me hundreds of work acquaintances. Out of those, FOUR are black, and one is a first generation immigrant from Kenya. The biggest work contrast is a company that ran a call center in premises. HR, Accounting, IT... one black guy. The call center, paying $10/hr? 75% black. I am not sure of how much of all of this is racism vs socioeconomic barriers (although I am sure there's some of all), but segregation is so very real.
- travjones 11y ago
  Thanks for your thoughtful, considered response. We need more people like you in the world and in tech.

m1sta_ 11y ago

I've only visited Japan twice but I have to agree that it's pretty yellow.

hibikir 11y ago

Yes, there's not a big black community in San Francisco. There's an unusually large southeast asian community though, which is uncommon in many other parts of the US. Still, even smaller divides can be stark. I am white and I live in St Louis. There are a lot of black people in St Louis. However, there's parts of the city where it's very uncommon to see black people, while in others, black people have asked me if I got lost or something, because I am the only white guy around. There's the famous Delmar Line, where two blocks separate an expensive white neighborhood from some of the poorest black areas of the city. In the middle two blocks, there's a lot of men in blue. I mean, I've done software in this town for 15 years. That gives me hundreds of work acquaintances. Out of those, FOUR are black, and one is a first generation immigrant from Kenya. The biggest work contrast is a company that ran a call center in premises. HR, Accounting, IT... one black guy. The call center, paying $10/hr? 75% black. I am not sure of how much of all of this is racism vs socioeconomic barriers (although I am sure there's some of all), but segregation is so very real.

travjones 11y ago
Thanks for your thoughtful, considered response. We need more people like you in the world and in tech.