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As a white man, I definitely think that the problems of gender in tech are still huge and I'd like to help address them. But I also feel like I can't help, beca

As a white man, I definitely think that the problems of gender in tech are still huge and I'd like to help address them. But I also feel like I can't help, because people, both black and white, are so tense about race. As a white man, literally even talking about race is risking being called a racist. And god forbid I have an actual opinion that might disagree with a person of color--even though people of color don't even agree on everything. For example, I think that the reason people mistake the author of this piece for other black men is that white people have spent most of their lives around other white people, so they become accustomed to the kinds of differences in facial features that white people have. We have less practice differentiating between the facial features of black people, so naturally we're going to be worse at it. It's not malicious or racist. And in my lifetime, I've had a few people just outright say to me that all white people look the same to them. Which isn't offensive--it's because they grew up around people who looked like them, and have less practice differentiating between white people. But tensions are so high, that this innocuous common mistake is seen as discrimination merely because it's related to race, not because of any malice or even intent behind it. And I'm quite sure that many people would call me racist for even having the opinion that mistaking people of color for other people of color isn't racist. Even though it could actually be helpful to people of color. If people of color see that white people don't have trouble recognizing you because they dislike you, but because you literally look different from people who they have practice recognizing, that might encourage confidence. And to be clear, I'm not complaining. It doesn't hurt me at all to keep my mouth shut, and not say anything on the topic of race. The only people who are hurt by my not helping are people of color. Which sucks, but is the result of how tense people (both black and white) are about race. In short, everyone (of all colors) should chill out and focus more on the problems that are clearly problems, not just assuming anything any white person says or does that is race related is racist. That just alienates allies and makes people of color feel hurt. EDIT: I do want to point out that while I don't think mistaking one person of color for another is racist, I do think that many of the behaviors the writer of this piece pointed out are racist. I don't want to say that what the author wrote is all incorrect or invalidate his opinion. EDIT 2: A flurry of downvotes without responses prove my point--people can't point out logically why they think I'm racist, but they downvote to express that they think I am. :)

antisthenes 10y ago
> And in my lifetime, I've had a few people just outright say to me that all white people look the same to them. Which isn't offensive--it's because they grew up around people who looked like them, and have less practice differentiating between white people. Honestly, all people look mostly the same to me. The only ones that stand out are the beautiful ones. If you ask me to mentally visualize faces of people I've seen during the past few days or weeks, the ones that will stand out the most will be the attractive ones (regardless of race, although being white, I am a tad biased). The other ones who stand out will be people with features similar to mine, from a certain European ethnicity. However I grew up in an area which has 4 towns that are the most racially diverse in the US, so I may be accustomed to all the races, so I have to find other features that stand out more (Probably 99% of my days I see people of all races, and probably from every continent as well)

antisthenes 10y ago

> And in my lifetime, I've had a few people just outright say to me that all white people look the same to them. Which isn't offensive--it's because they grew up around people who looked like them, and have less practice differentiating between white people. Honestly, all people look mostly the same to me. The only ones that stand out are the beautiful ones. If you ask me to mentally visualize faces of people I've seen during the past few days or weeks, the ones that will stand out the most will be the attractive ones (regardless of race, although being white, I am a tad biased). The other ones who stand out will be people with features similar to mine, from a certain European ethnicity. However I grew up in an area which has 4 towns that are the most racially diverse in the US, so I may be accustomed to all the races, so I have to find other features that stand out more (Probably 99% of my days I see people of all races, and probably from every continent as well)