6 ms·

No way. Being white is definitely a leg up. Well, at least for me, a white guy, no college degree. Life is much easier. I don't think there is any support missi

No way. Being white is definitely a leg up. Well, at least for me, a white guy, no college degree. Life is much easier. I don't think there is any support missing for us, that actually sounds hilarious. We need to work on lifting others up.

SunlightEdge 5y ago
Yeah. I think its really difficult (impossible?) to know what its like for the other gender/other ethnicities - even if there is more cultural outputs/conversations out there about different groups its still really hard/impossible to know what its like for others. Having said that working class (poor) white males are known to have amongst the worst educational performance in the UK. This is different from employment. If I had my time back I would seriously consider not going to uni/get a masters and just become a plumber/electrician. I reckon I would be as happy/if not happier then doing an office job.
icare_1er 5y ago
Based on the number of "affirmative-action" initiatives that I see all over the US, in many tech-companies (I don't know about other fields), I'd say that being a women, or black, is definitely a huge plus to get your foot through the door, with many recruitment programs blatantly saying they are only for minorities, which sounds to me like pretty much segregation in reverse, but that indeed seems to be the agenda of some leftists.
- circlefavshape 5y ago
  > with many recruitment programs blatantly saying they are only for minorities Really? I understood that it was illegal to discriminate based on gender, race, etc in the US
  - icare_1er 5y ago
    It is widespread in big-tech. This is an-ex Google engineer talking about one he saw and created a video about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pizXzR7ZQ8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pizXzR7ZQ8Q
  - Avicebron 5y ago
    i have never heard of anyone doing anything illegal
  - pclmulqdq 5y ago
    It is illegal, but that doesn't stop people from doing it. In the US, things like this have to go to court to actually be struck down, and there haven't been any sympathetic plaintiffs suing over these laws yet. When "positive discrimination" makes it before a judge, it usually gets stuck down.
- Miner49er 5y ago
  Maybe a few tech companies are like this, but the rest of the country isn't.
- happythen 5y ago
  > foot through the door Yea, but we got no problem getting to that door. Minorities might get pulled over and get a knee on the neck. Women might get assaulted on their way. Being a white dude, I'll get a taxi there, no problem. So if I have to try harder to get the position, pretty understandable, since I got the head start. Not saying life is easy for anyone, saying it's so much easier being a white dude with a nice hair cut. You know I used to be so broke I had to "beg" for gas money at a gas station to get to my first day at a new job, first person I asked gave me a $20. Life. is. easier.
  - exporectomy 5y ago
    > a knee on the neck. Women might get assaulted You've been reading too much news. That doesn't happen to normal people in real life. Blacks have a huge disadvantage of poor upbringing by their own family and community and women have a huge "disadvantage" of not wanting to be a computer programmer.
    - happythen 5y ago
      No, I just get outdoors and live with real people, and see it myself. I've been pulled over in a car with two other dudes, and watched the darkest skin guy get the crap kicked out of him because they thought he is a gangster, while we had to sit on a curb and watch. Where I went to school, counselors tried to get me to take AP classes, which I didn't want, while my friends with darker skin, and better grades, had to go on the wait list. I lived in an area where 13 year old pregnancies were regular. Guys raping chicks while they are passed out drunk in high school was regular. Jumping the gay kids were regular. I got to watch it, empathize with my friends, but I never had to bear the burden. My burden was folks like you, denying there are any problems because you are so safe, can't fathom life being different, even when it's across the street. > normal people Point exactly, when you say normal, you are thinking of white dude America. And yes, this does not happen to them.
      - exporectomy 5y ago
        > the darkest skin guy get the crap kicked out of him On his way to a job interview? And also for many of your other darker skinned friends on their way to job interviews? And your female friends on their way to theirs? I'm not denying it happened in some isolated cases, but that it causes normal people to not get to "the door". It didn't even happen to normal people among your "dark-skinned" friends.
- spamizbad 5y ago
  I'm a white guy and I bootstrapped my career with no degree and little college (dropped out of community college) by simply padded my resume doing some basic contracting gigs for friends and their professional networks and parlayed that into full-time work. I'm now an engineering manager at a unicorn. I will also say that for all this talk about how easy Blacks and women have it, I don't buy it, and I think people spinning tales about how "My company only hires Blacks and women" aren't involved in technical hiring. We are desperate for experienced talent and are under tremendous pressure to build an effective team. We don't have the luxury to be picky about demographics. And my team isn't unique: It's the same story from my peers both inside and outside my company. Likewise, the pipeline itself doesn't have very many women or Black candidates from what I can see, so even these people got automatic interviews I doubt it would change team demographics significantly. And finally: if this is indeed "segregation in reverse" (which it's not: it would just be segregation with the roles reversed), where are these tech companies where the majority of their engineers aren't White or Asian men?
  - datavirtue 5y ago
    This. Everywhere I have been as a team lead has had issues hiring. I don't remember ever having two desirable candidates in the pipeline at the same time and getting one felt like striking gold. We didn't give two shits what your gender or race was.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- thatfrenchguy 5y ago
  You must not have a lot of women friends in tech to say this, all of my women friends in tech have had one hell of a bad time breaking in. The default attitude of recruiters and interviewers when they interview a women is to assume they know nothing.
dnissley 5y ago
Can you hear yourself though? Can you put yourself in the shoes of a young white man? They are recipients of this message on a regular basis. When many of them end up having a difficult time despite being told how easy they have it, and how if they received help that would just be resources being taken away from less privileged people, it's easy for them to think something's wrong with themselves, to feel unwanted, depressed, and to end up taking the route outlined by the article.
- happythen 5y ago
  I was young once, and I am white. Yea sure, I understand it. And this is no way new, I had plenty of other white people feeling sorry for me because, "the country is being taken from the white man". That is ooooold, old, old. Fear based racism been around. But to your weak sauce point, some folks are just going to have a hard go at life, but is it easier being white through life, no matter what? Yea, for sure. No one says it's an easy life, but it is easier being light skinned. > unwanted, depressed I think there used to be some organizations that helped with that. Specifically white men. You know, the kind that would give them a purpose, make them feel wanted. You got a hood and everything.
  - dnissley 5y ago
    My observations are not racist, or rooted in fear. They are, however, rooted in compassion for my fellow human beings who find themselves in the crosshairs of reactionary political ideologies, even if they wear labels like "progressive", "feminist", or "anti-racist". I'm mixed so I can generally wriggle out of such accusations by playing the race card. The only situation I ever feel good about doing so are ones like this.
    - happythen 5y ago
      > crosshairs of reactionary political ideologies You feel sorry for young white men because they have to deal with politics? "Ferrari owners pay an unfair amount of car insurance."

SunlightEdge 5y ago

Yeah. I think its really difficult (impossible?) to know what its like for the other gender/other ethnicities - even if there is more cultural outputs/conversations out there about different groups its still really hard/impossible to know what its like for others. Having said that working class (poor) white males are known to have amongst the worst educational performance in the UK. This is different from employment. If I had my time back I would seriously consider not going to uni/get a masters and just become a plumber/electrician. I reckon I would be as happy/if not happier then doing an office job.

icare_1er 5y ago

Based on the number of "affirmative-action" initiatives that I see all over the US, in many tech-companies (I don't know about other fields), I'd say that being a women, or black, is definitely a huge plus to get your foot through the door, with many recruitment programs blatantly saying they are only for minorities, which sounds to me like pretty much segregation in reverse, but that indeed seems to be the agenda of some leftists.

circlefavshape 5y ago
> with many recruitment programs blatantly saying they are only for minorities Really? I understood that it was illegal to discriminate based on gender, race, etc in the US
- icare_1er 5y ago
  It is widespread in big-tech. This is an-ex Google engineer talking about one he saw and created a video about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pizXzR7ZQ8Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pizXzR7ZQ8Q
- Avicebron 5y ago
  i have never heard of anyone doing anything illegal
- pclmulqdq 5y ago
  It is illegal, but that doesn't stop people from doing it. In the US, things like this have to go to court to actually be struck down, and there haven't been any sympathetic plaintiffs suing over these laws yet. When "positive discrimination" makes it before a judge, it usually gets stuck down.
Miner49er 5y ago
Maybe a few tech companies are like this, but the rest of the country isn't.
happythen 5y ago
> foot through the door Yea, but we got no problem getting to that door. Minorities might get pulled over and get a knee on the neck. Women might get assaulted on their way. Being a white dude, I'll get a taxi there, no problem. So if I have to try harder to get the position, pretty understandable, since I got the head start. Not saying life is easy for anyone, saying it's so much easier being a white dude with a nice hair cut. You know I used to be so broke I had to "beg" for gas money at a gas station to get to my first day at a new job, first person I asked gave me a $20. Life. is. easier.
- exporectomy 5y ago
  > a knee on the neck. Women might get assaulted You've been reading too much news. That doesn't happen to normal people in real life. Blacks have a huge disadvantage of poor upbringing by their own family and community and women have a huge "disadvantage" of not wanting to be a computer programmer.
  - happythen 5y ago
    No, I just get outdoors and live with real people, and see it myself. I've been pulled over in a car with two other dudes, and watched the darkest skin guy get the crap kicked out of him because they thought he is a gangster, while we had to sit on a curb and watch. Where I went to school, counselors tried to get me to take AP classes, which I didn't want, while my friends with darker skin, and better grades, had to go on the wait list. I lived in an area where 13 year old pregnancies were regular. Guys raping chicks while they are passed out drunk in high school was regular. Jumping the gay kids were regular. I got to watch it, empathize with my friends, but I never had to bear the burden. My burden was folks like you, denying there are any problems because you are so safe, can't fathom life being different, even when it's across the street. > normal people Point exactly, when you say normal, you are thinking of white dude America. And yes, this does not happen to them.
    - exporectomy 5y ago
      > the darkest skin guy get the crap kicked out of him On his way to a job interview? And also for many of your other darker skinned friends on their way to job interviews? And your female friends on their way to theirs? I'm not denying it happened in some isolated cases, but that it causes normal people to not get to "the door". It didn't even happen to normal people among your "dark-skinned" friends.
spamizbad 5y ago
I'm a white guy and I bootstrapped my career with no degree and little college (dropped out of community college) by simply padded my resume doing some basic contracting gigs for friends and their professional networks and parlayed that into full-time work. I'm now an engineering manager at a unicorn. I will also say that for all this talk about how easy Blacks and women have it, I don't buy it, and I think people spinning tales about how "My company only hires Blacks and women" aren't involved in technical hiring. We are desperate for experienced talent and are under tremendous pressure to build an effective team. We don't have the luxury to be picky about demographics. And my team isn't unique: It's the same story from my peers both inside and outside my company. Likewise, the pipeline itself doesn't have very many women or Black candidates from what I can see, so even these people got automatic interviews I doubt it would change team demographics significantly. And finally: if this is indeed "segregation in reverse" (which it's not: it would just be segregation with the roles reversed), where are these tech companies where the majority of their engineers aren't White or Asian men?
- datavirtue 5y ago
  This. Everywhere I have been as a team lead has had issues hiring. I don't remember ever having two desirable candidates in the pipeline at the same time and getting one felt like striking gold. We didn't give two shits what your gender or race was.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
thatfrenchguy 5y ago
You must not have a lot of women friends in tech to say this, all of my women friends in tech have had one hell of a bad time breaking in. The default attitude of recruiters and interviewers when they interview a women is to assume they know nothing.

dnissley 5y ago

Can you hear yourself though? Can you put yourself in the shoes of a young white man? They are recipients of this message on a regular basis. When many of them end up having a difficult time despite being told how easy they have it, and how if they received help that would just be resources being taken away from less privileged people, it's easy for them to think something's wrong with themselves, to feel unwanted, depressed, and to end up taking the route outlined by the article.

happythen 5y ago
I was young once, and I am white. Yea sure, I understand it. And this is no way new, I had plenty of other white people feeling sorry for me because, "the country is being taken from the white man". That is ooooold, old, old. Fear based racism been around. But to your weak sauce point, some folks are just going to have a hard go at life, but is it easier being white through life, no matter what? Yea, for sure. No one says it's an easy life, but it is easier being light skinned. > unwanted, depressed I think there used to be some organizations that helped with that. Specifically white men. You know, the kind that would give them a purpose, make them feel wanted. You got a hood and everything.
- dnissley 5y ago
  My observations are not racist, or rooted in fear. They are, however, rooted in compassion for my fellow human beings who find themselves in the crosshairs of reactionary political ideologies, even if they wear labels like "progressive", "feminist", or "anti-racist". I'm mixed so I can generally wriggle out of such accusations by playing the race card. The only situation I ever feel good about doing so are ones like this.
  - happythen 5y ago
    > crosshairs of reactionary political ideologies You feel sorry for young white men because they have to deal with politics? "Ferrari owners pay an unfair amount of car insurance."