7 ms·

Rent a Minority

74 points by ammaristotle 9y ago

Mz 9y ago
http://rentaminority.com/hire-us/ http://rentaminority.com/hire-us/ So, yes, this is a joke. Obviously. You can stop getting angry now. Or get angry, but get angry at what Rent-a-Minority is angry about. The site is a #satire on a type of tokenism that is particularly rife in the tech and media world.
- aphextron 9y ago
  It's damn funny. But a site full of white people like HN will be way too uncomfortable to laugh at this.
  - Mz 9y ago
    I'm white. I and my two white sons found it hilarious. Your remark, on the other hand, not so much.
    - aphextron 9y ago
      >I'm white. I and my two white sons found it hilarious. That's good. I'm glad we can all enjoy laughing at minorities together then.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - dang 9y ago
        Please don't do this here.
  - cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
    Where do you get the idea that HN is full of "white" people? Your sound like you see yourself as a non-racist, but you probably don't realize that you are actually being racist yourself by making these comments.
    - notfromhere 9y ago
      Given the stats on diversity in silicon valley, not exactly an out of touch statement.
      - livingparadox 9y ago
        HN isn't just silicon valley folks
        dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
        More than that, part of silicon valley's diversity is (iirc) an unusually high representation of asian men; an assumption of whiteness wouldn't get you far.
      - vacri 9y ago
        SV is significantly overrepresented with east and south Asians, compared to the general US public. If you wanted to make SV match the general US demographics, they'd have to hire more white people. Just because black people specifically are underrepresented in SV doesn't mean that it's (racially) non-diverse.
douche 9y ago
It's hilarious, and to be honest, I wouldn't be all that surprised if there was a startup tone-deaf enough to actually form around the concept. "Booth babes" are still a thing, stupid and sleazy as that is.
- mikeash 9y ago
  I hear that this is totally a real thing in China with white people. Supposedly you can make pretty good money just putting on a suit and going around pretending to be an American business partner at meetings.
- skyrw 9y ago
  Booth babes will always be a thing. We are all slaves to the god of biomechanics.
- viggity 9y ago
  "booth babes". what is wrong with women with a sex positive attitude profiting from their hard work? Perhaps the question is: why are there no booth bros. Well, there are, they're just not in a booth. They're standing bare chested in front of Abercrombie tries to get the lady folk through the door. Sexiness is sexiness, it is human nature to be attracted to the physically fit, millions of years have literally hardwired our brains to act a certain way. It is nothing to be ashamed of.
  - wcummings 9y ago
    I don't think there is parity with how frequently men and women are objectified, as you imply. I'm also sure that like most people their job choice is mostly to do with needing to make money, not their personal attitudes about sex. People shouldn't put down women who work as "booth babes". Nothing wrong with it, everyone needs a job, not everyone is drowning in opportunities, but criticizing their presence at tech events is legitimate. I can't imagine being a woman and seeing that in a supposedly professional setting.
    - viggity 9y ago
jlg23 9y ago
Rarely did bring a title such a broad smile to my face. And it turned in roaring laughter when going through the page. Absolute brilliant :)
- dmix 9y ago
  I'm sure it will satisfy both sides: One who see's corporations only disingenuously adopting formal policies to hire minorities, only doing it in marketing and for public appearance to appease other white people, rather than offering minorities meaningfully positions of power. And the other who see these policies as ineffective and bowing down to special interests groups without providing any meaningful benefit to the minority group while simultaneously harming the parent company by hiring people based on their appearance rather than intrinsic value they provide the company. Attempting to eliminate biases by force or social pressure is always going to be fraught with risk and aversion.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
haxton 9y ago
Pretty much a blatant rip-off of: http://livingcivil.com/disturbing-craigslist-ad-for-renting-a-nigga/ http://livingcivil.com/disturbing-craigslist-ad-for-renting-...
csours 9y ago
Some of the stories on the stories page [0] are pretty egregious, but some of them are just how the brain works. When you meet or see someone, you automatically try to categorize people. For now at least, that includes trying to figure out gender and ethnicity. Many of our parents or grandparent had very distinct prejudices. Also, for better or for worse, ethnicity still has a huge impact on someone's circumstances. It was only a couple years ago that someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from" to me. Before that, I would never have thought of it being objectionable. I also think context is important here. There's nothing wrong with finding out the ethnic ancestry of your friends, but maybe it's not an appropriate question when you first meet someone. I'm sad to say that I don't actually know many of my Indian coworkers full names, simply because they are so different from people I was raised around. 0. http://rentaminority.com/stories/ http://rentaminority.com/stories/
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  >someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from" As someone who absolutely hates the place I am "from" and pretty much everything about it this questions always made me uneasy.
  - csours 9y ago
    That's understandable. It still helps give context to you as a person. I understand that may be lost on someone who first meets you, and it may be too much to explain on initial context.
    - Retra 9y ago
      It's better to have no context than misleading context.
- nostrademons 9y ago
  I've gotten the "where are you from?" question a few times - I'm multiracial, so I look ethnically ambiguous and talk with a slight accent that isn't possible to place. I just answer "Boston". If they want to drill into it more, I say "Well, my mom's from NYC, my dad is ethnically Cantonese but was born in the Philippines, and I grew up in Boston. My maternal grandfather was Irish Catholic and my grandmother was a WASP." Usually at that point their eyes start to glaze over though.
personjerry 9y ago
From the FAQ: >I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME? > I'm sorry that your feelings are hurt. I have listened to your feedback and, in response, am currently working on rentamajority.com. Stay tuned. In the meantime, thank you for your interest in maintaining the status quo. I mean, 'equality', it's overrated, right? This part seems uncool to me. It's posturing straight white men as very self-absorbed, and precluding any concerns or opinions they might have about this, dismissing them merely for being a straight white man. Which seems quite hypocritical, right?
- cbryn 9y ago
  lol
- livingparadox 9y ago
  I disagree. Its referring to a very specific kind of white man who tends to flock to these things like moths to a flame and very much does try to reframe things to make white men look like the real victims. I say this as a white man who calls out racism regardless of whether its directed at minorities or the cis white man.
- Mz 9y ago
  My read on it is that is it anticipating this kind of response or reaction in advance and telling you up front "Yeah, no." It is actually pretty common for white men to come in and derail conversations in a really terrible way and make it all about their feelings. (Not all white men do this, but it is a thing and it causes a lot of problems in internet discussions.) Though I think the way women and POC typically respond is part of the problem. They often fully cooperate with the derail by all piling on to reply to him rather than sending the message that "the entire world does not revolve around you" by refusing to let the entire discussion revolve around that one guy.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
usuallybaffled 9y ago
This adversarial discourse doesn't help anyone. EDIT: Instead of downvoting, why not provide your view of how this is helping anything?
- CharlesW 9y ago
  > ...why not provide your view of how this is helping anything? Because humor is a good mechanism for talking about topics we might not otherwise talk about, but should be. By "adversarial discourse", do you mean the site or the HN comments?
  - usuallybaffled 9y ago
    The website seems to implicitly say that white men equals bad and any attempt made by white men to improve the situation must be half-hearted and just a PR stunt. Thus all the sarcasm. This view is not unique to this website (if they are even trying to make this claim in some form) but runs through a lot of these initiatives. Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad (with some people even suggesting they should refuse those donations to make a point), which seems completely nonsense. How far does it have to go for these attempts to raise awareness of a problem to turn into racism themselves?
    - vacri 9y ago
      > The website seems to implicitly say that white men equals bad vs > Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad So... you complain that the website is generalising, then go on to imply that a clear outlier is also the general case?
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
mankash666 9y ago
I've stated this multiple times on HN. As a minority, I've not witnessed any discrimination in my 12+ years in the US/SV. While my experience might be an anecdote, I still find claims of discrimination based on minority status a little hard to believe in silicon valley, taking the experience of my friends and family into consideration. However, I do find women, regardless of race/religion, to be more subjected to discrimination and harassment. Additionally, the response to [1] in the FAQ by the site author is the most unadulterated form of (reverse) racism that continues it's meteoric rise in acceptance in the media. Tragic! [1]: "I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME?"
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- analogmemory 9y ago
  Discrimination isn't always blatant. Sometimes it's more ignorant. As a minority here's some ways I've encountered forms discrimination and racism. * People ask "What are you" (As my ethnicity isn't super obvious). * If they don't believe me I'll next get, "No really, where are you from" . * Been asked if I speak Korean and Spanish (two separate occasions) because they needed a translator (not Korean or Hispanic at all) . * Been on a few dates where they've said "Normally I'm not attracted to Hispanic men" (Not hispanic!) . * Went to a bar (that served normal bar food). After sitting down, overheard from a group nearby "Does it smell like rice in here?"
  - voidr 9y ago
    I don't get it, I'm an immigrant, and I enjoy people asking about questions about where I'm from and my culture, it feels flattering, it feels they want to get to know me. I don't understand why people take offence to this. I'm fairly certain the natives ask each other similar questions if they are from different regions.
    - analogmemory 9y ago
      I used to feel the same as you. But now we have Google to learn about other cultures. I'm tired of strangers trying to have a conversation with me solely because of the color of my skin. That's why I take offense.

74 points by ammaristotle 9y ago

Mz 9y ago

http://rentaminority.com/hire-us/ http://rentaminority.com/hire-us/ So, yes, this is a joke. Obviously. You can stop getting angry now. Or get angry, but get angry at what Rent-a-Minority is angry about. The site is a #satire on a type of tokenism that is particularly rife in the tech and media world.

aphextron 9y ago
It's damn funny. But a site full of white people like HN will be way too uncomfortable to laugh at this.
- Mz 9y ago
  I'm white. I and my two white sons found it hilarious. Your remark, on the other hand, not so much.
  - aphextron 9y ago
    >I'm white. I and my two white sons found it hilarious. That's good. I'm glad we can all enjoy laughing at minorities together then.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - dang 9y ago
      Please don't do this here.
- cocktailpeanuts 9y ago
  Where do you get the idea that HN is full of "white" people? Your sound like you see yourself as a non-racist, but you probably don't realize that you are actually being racist yourself by making these comments.
  - notfromhere 9y ago
    Given the stats on diversity in silicon valley, not exactly an out of touch statement.
    - livingparadox 9y ago
      HN isn't just silicon valley folks
      - dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
        More than that, part of silicon valley's diversity is (iirc) an unusually high representation of asian men; an assumption of whiteness wouldn't get you far.
    - vacri 9y ago
      SV is significantly overrepresented with east and south Asians, compared to the general US public. If you wanted to make SV match the general US demographics, they'd have to hire more white people. Just because black people specifically are underrepresented in SV doesn't mean that it's (racially) non-diverse.

douche 9y ago

It's hilarious, and to be honest, I wouldn't be all that surprised if there was a startup tone-deaf enough to actually form around the concept. "Booth babes" are still a thing, stupid and sleazy as that is.

mikeash 9y ago
I hear that this is totally a real thing in China with white people. Supposedly you can make pretty good money just putting on a suit and going around pretending to be an American business partner at meetings.
skyrw 9y ago
Booth babes will always be a thing. We are all slaves to the god of biomechanics.
viggity 9y ago
"booth babes". what is wrong with women with a sex positive attitude profiting from their hard work? Perhaps the question is: why are there no booth bros. Well, there are, they're just not in a booth. They're standing bare chested in front of Abercrombie tries to get the lady folk through the door. Sexiness is sexiness, it is human nature to be attracted to the physically fit, millions of years have literally hardwired our brains to act a certain way. It is nothing to be ashamed of.
- wcummings 9y ago
  I don't think there is parity with how frequently men and women are objectified, as you imply. I'm also sure that like most people their job choice is mostly to do with needing to make money, not their personal attitudes about sex. People shouldn't put down women who work as "booth babes". Nothing wrong with it, everyone needs a job, not everyone is drowning in opportunities, but criticizing their presence at tech events is legitimate. I can't imagine being a woman and seeing that in a supposedly professional setting.
  - viggity 9y ago

jlg23 9y ago

Rarely did bring a title such a broad smile to my face. And it turned in roaring laughter when going through the page. Absolute brilliant :)

dmix 9y ago
I'm sure it will satisfy both sides: One who see's corporations only disingenuously adopting formal policies to hire minorities, only doing it in marketing and for public appearance to appease other white people, rather than offering minorities meaningfully positions of power. And the other who see these policies as ineffective and bowing down to special interests groups without providing any meaningful benefit to the minority group while simultaneously harming the parent company by hiring people based on their appearance rather than intrinsic value they provide the company. Attempting to eliminate biases by force or social pressure is always going to be fraught with risk and aversion.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

haxton 9y ago

Pretty much a blatant rip-off of: http://livingcivil.com/disturbing-craigslist-ad-for-renting-a-nigga/ http://livingcivil.com/disturbing-craigslist-ad-for-renting-...

csours 9y ago

Some of the stories on the stories page [0] are pretty egregious, but some of them are just how the brain works. When you meet or see someone, you automatically try to categorize people. For now at least, that includes trying to figure out gender and ethnicity. Many of our parents or grandparent had very distinct prejudices. Also, for better or for worse, ethnicity still has a huge impact on someone's circumstances. It was only a couple years ago that someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from" to me. Before that, I would never have thought of it being objectionable. I also think context is important here. There's nothing wrong with finding out the ethnic ancestry of your friends, but maybe it's not an appropriate question when you first meet someone. I'm sad to say that I don't actually know many of my Indian coworkers full names, simply because they are so different from people I was raised around. 0. http://rentaminority.com/stories/ http://rentaminority.com/stories/

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
>someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from" As someone who absolutely hates the place I am "from" and pretty much everything about it this questions always made me uneasy.
- csours 9y ago
  That's understandable. It still helps give context to you as a person. I understand that may be lost on someone who first meets you, and it may be too much to explain on initial context.
  - Retra 9y ago
    It's better to have no context than misleading context.
nostrademons 9y ago
I've gotten the "where are you from?" question a few times - I'm multiracial, so I look ethnically ambiguous and talk with a slight accent that isn't possible to place. I just answer "Boston". If they want to drill into it more, I say "Well, my mom's from NYC, my dad is ethnically Cantonese but was born in the Philippines, and I grew up in Boston. My maternal grandfather was Irish Catholic and my grandmother was a WASP." Usually at that point their eyes start to glaze over though.

personjerry 9y ago

From the FAQ: >I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME? > I'm sorry that your feelings are hurt. I have listened to your feedback and, in response, am currently working on rentamajority.com. Stay tuned. In the meantime, thank you for your interest in maintaining the status quo. I mean, 'equality', it's overrated, right? This part seems uncool to me. It's posturing straight white men as very self-absorbed, and precluding any concerns or opinions they might have about this, dismissing them merely for being a straight white man. Which seems quite hypocritical, right?

cbryn 9y ago
lol
livingparadox 9y ago
I disagree. Its referring to a very specific kind of white man who tends to flock to these things like moths to a flame and very much does try to reframe things to make white men look like the real victims. I say this as a white man who calls out racism regardless of whether its directed at minorities or the cis white man.
Mz 9y ago
My read on it is that is it anticipating this kind of response or reaction in advance and telling you up front "Yeah, no." It is actually pretty common for white men to come in and derail conversations in a really terrible way and make it all about their feelings. (Not all white men do this, but it is a thing and it causes a lot of problems in internet discussions.) Though I think the way women and POC typically respond is part of the problem. They often fully cooperate with the derail by all piling on to reply to him rather than sending the message that "the entire world does not revolve around you" by refusing to let the entire discussion revolve around that one guy.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

usuallybaffled 9y ago

This adversarial discourse doesn't help anyone. EDIT: Instead of downvoting, why not provide your view of how this is helping anything?

CharlesW 9y ago
> ...why not provide your view of how this is helping anything? Because humor is a good mechanism for talking about topics we might not otherwise talk about, but should be. By "adversarial discourse", do you mean the site or the HN comments?
- usuallybaffled 9y ago
  The website seems to implicitly say that white men equals bad and any attempt made by white men to improve the situation must be half-hearted and just a PR stunt. Thus all the sarcasm. This view is not unique to this website (if they are even trying to make this claim in some form) but runs through a lot of these initiatives. Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad (with some people even suggesting they should refuse those donations to make a point), which seems completely nonsense. How far does it have to go for these attempts to raise awareness of a problem to turn into racism themselves?
  - vacri 9y ago
    > The website seems to implicitly say that white men equals bad vs > Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad So... you complain that the website is generalising, then go on to imply that a clear outlier is also the general case?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

mankash666 9y ago

I've stated this multiple times on HN. As a minority, I've not witnessed any discrimination in my 12+ years in the US/SV. While my experience might be an anecdote, I still find claims of discrimination based on minority status a little hard to believe in silicon valley, taking the experience of my friends and family into consideration. However, I do find women, regardless of race/religion, to be more subjected to discrimination and harassment. Additionally, the response to [1] in the FAQ by the site author is the most unadulterated form of (reverse) racism that continues it's meteoric rise in acceptance in the media. Tragic! [1]: "I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME?"

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
analogmemory 9y ago
Discrimination isn't always blatant. Sometimes it's more ignorant. As a minority here's some ways I've encountered forms discrimination and racism. * People ask "What are you" (As my ethnicity isn't super obvious). * If they don't believe me I'll next get, "No really, where are you from" . * Been asked if I speak Korean and Spanish (two separate occasions) because they needed a translator (not Korean or Hispanic at all) . * Been on a few dates where they've said "Normally I'm not attracted to Hispanic men" (Not hispanic!) . * Went to a bar (that served normal bar food). After sitting down, overheard from a group nearby "Does it smell like rice in here?"
- voidr 9y ago
  I don't get it, I'm an immigrant, and I enjoy people asking about questions about where I'm from and my culture, it feels flattering, it feels they want to get to know me. I don't understand why people take offence to this. I'm fairly certain the natives ask each other similar questions if they are from different regions.
  - analogmemory 9y ago
    I used to feel the same as you. But now we have Google to learn about other cultures. I'm tired of strangers trying to have a conversation with me solely because of the color of my skin. That's why I take offense.