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People insinuate this is some sort of racism, but it actually has more to do with the incentive. People tend to be heavily influenced by their environment as t
by cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
People insinuate this is some sort of racism, but it actually has more to do with the incentive.
People tend to be heavily influenced by their environment as they grow up. And if the majority of your peers see X as being "cool", that's what a lot of people will try to achieve.
For example, during high school years, the "popular kids" are the jocks who play sports, not a geek who plays with code all day (although this has shifted a lot lately). If you look at it this way, the guys who go on to play an the NBA do it not because they are "underprivileged" and racially profiled to be kicked out of studying, but because that IS the valuable route they want to choose. Likewise, the current state of the music industry is heavily influenced by black culture. You could say pretty much everything is black culture influenced, from rap to r&b to Jazz to dance music. So a lot of black kids look up to those artists and creative people, and they strive to excel in those areas. I think that's great.
There's a reason why fighting arcade games and strategy games like Starcraft, WoW, etc. are dominated by Korean pro gamers. Nobody said blacks shouldn't play Starcraft or Tekken, nobody told white guys to stop playing. Koreans were simply heavily socially incentivized to be good at it.
Same goes for football (soccer). Nobody said Brazilians are the only privileged race on earth who are allowed to play football. They were just heavily socially incentivized to do so because that's what's considered of value.
Once you stop thinking as a victim and start thinking more positively, there are many explanations to the "mystery" you just can't seem to figure out.
p.s.
Just to be clear, I am not denying that racism exists. I would however like to point out that the people who keep blaming everything to racism are the ones who are actually subliminally racists.
- pessimizer 6y agoSo it's not racism, it's a lack of positive thinking?
- Impossible 6y agoAs they said, racism is still an issue, but lack of role models and exposure is possibly a bigger issue. Lack of exposure and role models is a symptom of long term systemic racism though, but it doesn't manifest in the same way many people think of racism. Lack of positive thinking isn't quite the right term here, because it assumes that if Black kids just believed in themselves and thought differently it would fix all issues. It goes back to a stereotype that Black culture doesn't value STEM or intelligence, which isn't the case.
- GoodJokes 6y agoSo it is racism then? Its ok to say it. Its racism. OC was racist too.
- Impossible 6y agoI agree. My comment was worded in order to avoid confusing people that equate racism with individual bigotry and prejudice
- Impossible 6y agoIn computer science, access to computers and being able to freely use, modify and program them is critical. Many Black adults had no or limited computer access as children. Even kids that did need to know that's it's possible to create software , which might require an adult that knows it also, and importantly be allowed to actually do so. Computers are expensive enough that many Black families would keep kids from using them for fear of breaking them. People do overcome this and go onto become software engineers or take other jobs in tech, but common stories of Black people in tech include early computer access, many had parents that are software engineers even. I fear that the popularity of mobile means many more kids have a computing device, but it's not readily available for programming. This is probably offset by a bigger educational emphasis on learning how to code.
- jazzyk 6y agoI disagree - many inner-city youths are into super-expensive sneakers ($300 and up), golden chains and other status symbols dictated by the social environment they grow up in. Computers are just not cool enough. Yes, there are exceptions, but the stereotype - unfortunately - mostly holds.. More money helps to a point, but what these young people need more than anything is appropriate role models (engineers, scientists, etc). Yes, I know, easier said than done...
- Impossible 6y agoHow many "inner-city youths" do you actually know? Or are you playing into a convenient stereotype? I grew up with "inner-city youths" that loved computers, and kids now have significantly more access. You're just wrong here. Also I knew many well off urban and suburban white and Asian kids that did not think computers were cool, so your stereotypes are unfounded
- CyberDildonics 6y agoThis seems like a stereotype from movies and TV rather than a generalization of real systemic information. Do you have numbers to back this up?
- selimthegrim 6y ago
- Out_of_Characte 6y agoGlad to see someone adhering to simple moral philosophy like the presumtion of innocence. These days I see people proclaiming racism and sexism before even considering it could all be coincidental rather than harmfull intent to a specific sex or race.
- GoodJokes 6y agoOnce you just admit that racism pervades everything in the US you will stop making comments like this. Yea, maybe STEM wasn't cool, but why was that? What created that envirnoment. Who are these people that keep blaming everything on racism. Can you point them out or are you just creating a boogeyman to protect your fragility? Subliminally racists? WTF? All white Americans are racists. You can choose to be anti-racist, or you can pretend to explain away racism like OC.
- klyrs 6y ago> People tend to be heavily influenced by their environment as they grow up. Are you referring to the country's history of slavery, segregation and mass incarceration? Because I'd agree that "the environment" that black people are raised in is definitely shaped by racism, past and present. That you acknowledge its existence as a footnote makes me think you're underestimating the impact of 400 years of treating people as sub-human.
- cocktailpeanuts 6y agoThat you insinuate i'm being racist even as you acknowledge my acknowledgement of the existence of racism just tells me that you're here to fight and not willing to have a civil discourse.
- klyrs 6y agoWhat I said is that your analysis is missing historical context; that your acknowledgement is inadequate given that context. I certainly didn't mean to insinuate that you're racist, and I don't see what would give you that idea. Are you sure that I'm the one spoiling for a fight?
- aparsons 6y agoPeople get angry when the possibility that culture has something to do with black (vs asian, for example) success in America is floated. They will scream racism without even allowing the conversation.
- the_omegist 6y agoYour convenient explanation doesn't explain why more and more black people are accessing to the middle-class and above. Neither does it explain why, in Europe for example, where there was no slavery, you probably see as few black people in STEM as in the US.