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There were at least 3 african-americans in my batch (which was large so I'm probably missing some). But I am not sure whether they'd want to be identified as an

There were at least 3 african-americans in my batch (which was large so I'm probably missing some). But I am not sure whether they'd want to be identified as anything else other than as hackers/founders. Feels weird to even try and count in my head, as I see my batchmates as simply batchmates. I don't think explicitly adding ethnicity to the YC app would be good for anyone .. for one, these are (mostly) teams of 2 or more. Accepting or not accepting a team/idea/application doesn't reflect judgement of the individuals within the team, regardless of their background(s). Since there is only 1 application per team, it may also introduce unnecessary and awkward questions between the founders even prior to YC's evaluation.

acjohnson55 13y ago
That's good to know that there have been more black folks than just the one lone guy PG mentioned. I was worried for a minute. Every black person is an individual obviously, but I think it's safe to say that most of us don't have the luxury of thinking of ourselves as "just another person", as much as we may like to. You tend to notice when you're the only black person in a mostly non-black room (just as the average white person would probably feel out of place in a mostly black event). That's been my experience in the vast majority of my life, and even though many of the most important people in my life are not black, the feeling of being the lone black representative in these situations is never really far away. All this to say that "colorblindness" sounds great in theory, but in reality, it's a privilege that not everyone has. I think you're right that there are practical issues of when and how to collect voluntary ethnic information...but seriously, how awkward is that discussion between founders really, compared to things like equity split and job titles? It could just as well be left to the individual team members to identify or not. But my overall point is that even if YC decides it shouldn't actively do anything about its minority imbalance (if it, in fact, exists), it would be nice to do some from an informed position, rather than a blind assumption that meritocracy is working as hoped.
- argumentum 13y ago
  > It could just as well be left to the individual team members to identify or not. This is not possible the way it works now (one HN user submits the application for the whole team). Asking isn't any more awkward, but it is unnecessarily so, in the sense it does no benefit to the team (vs the equity question, which forces a discussion thats likely been put off too long). I'm not white myself, but I'm more concerned about people with ambiguous ethnicity (mixed, adopted, immigrant etc) who may not like such questions (particularly as many applicants are quite young). Nonetheless, I agree that's a minor quibble. But I just don't see YC as having much of a role in solving such social problems other than how it already does so (by funding startups and (now) non-profits to "make things people want"). YC may have an outsized influence in tech, but it's really a tiny, quirky little band of ~20 people (>(1/2) of which are part-time). Clearly YC would benefit if more underrepresented minorities learned to code and started companies, but it seems the best way to do that is to make those things easier for everyone. I.e. fund startups that improve education (clever, code academy etc) and startups that make it easier to start startups (fundersclub, wefunders etc).

acjohnson55 13y ago

That's good to know that there have been more black folks than just the one lone guy PG mentioned. I was worried for a minute. Every black person is an individual obviously, but I think it's safe to say that most of us don't have the luxury of thinking of ourselves as "just another person", as much as we may like to. You tend to notice when you're the only black person in a mostly non-black room (just as the average white person would probably feel out of place in a mostly black event). That's been my experience in the vast majority of my life, and even though many of the most important people in my life are not black, the feeling of being the lone black representative in these situations is never really far away. All this to say that "colorblindness" sounds great in theory, but in reality, it's a privilege that not everyone has. I think you're right that there are practical issues of when and how to collect voluntary ethnic information...but seriously, how awkward is that discussion between founders really, compared to things like equity split and job titles? It could just as well be left to the individual team members to identify or not. But my overall point is that even if YC decides it shouldn't actively do anything about its minority imbalance (if it, in fact, exists), it would be nice to do some from an informed position, rather than a blind assumption that meritocracy is working as hoped.

argumentum 13y ago
> It could just as well be left to the individual team members to identify or not. This is not possible the way it works now (one HN user submits the application for the whole team). Asking isn't any more awkward, but it is unnecessarily so, in the sense it does no benefit to the team (vs the equity question, which forces a discussion thats likely been put off too long). I'm not white myself, but I'm more concerned about people with ambiguous ethnicity (mixed, adopted, immigrant etc) who may not like such questions (particularly as many applicants are quite young). Nonetheless, I agree that's a minor quibble. But I just don't see YC as having much of a role in solving such social problems other than how it already does so (by funding startups and (now) non-profits to "make things people want"). YC may have an outsized influence in tech, but it's really a tiny, quirky little band of ~20 people (>(1/2) of which are part-time). Clearly YC would benefit if more underrepresented minorities learned to code and started companies, but it seems the best way to do that is to make those things easier for everyone. I.e. fund startups that improve education (clever, code academy etc) and startups that make it easier to start startups (fundersclub, wefunders etc).