I don't need White Boys Code. I'm a white male who learned to code when I was about 12 years old, at an NYIT summer program that my parents paid for. My high sc

I don't need White Boys Code. I'm a white male who learned to code when I was about 12 years old, at an NYIT summer program that my parents paid for. My high school had enough coding classes (including AP) that I could take one every year. My parents could afford to buy me a computer and they and others didn't stigmatize me for spending hours on it. I don't need White Boys Code and neither do white-boys-in-general. I guess this is a lot of stuffy white dude HNers' first interaction with a little thing called identity politics. Surely no white bystander questioned why the Black Panthers weren't called the People Panthers (and they did provide a plethora of community services, they weren't just a militia group[0]); we're at a time where, after black radical politics was systematically destroyed by the US government and police , white-people-in-general sort of exude this attitude of "you seem to have won [read: lost], stop rioting [i.e. Trayvon] and trying to organize around identity because we live in a post-racial society now and any mention of race, or exclusion of whiteness, is Racism." But actually: “Just as the capitalist system is not a capitalist plot, so racial oppression is not the work of “racists.” It is maintained by the principal institutions of society, including the schools (which define “excellence”), the labor market (which defines “employment”), the legal system (which defines “crime”), the welfare system (which defines “poverty”), the medical industry (which defines “health”), and the family (which defines “kinship”). Many of these institutions are administered by people who would be offended if accused of complicity with racial oppression.” (that's Noel Ignatiev). So, the ultimate solution for those who recognize race as a force of institutional violence and marginalization (rather than an outdated idea, because hey explicitly racist speech and laws are impolite now!) would be to dismantle those exact systems and rebuild without any idea of whiteness at all -- "white skin would have as little social importance as big feet." But if you try to do that, at best you're lonely, and at worst you're killed (Obama can assassinate terrorists on US soil, remember). So Black Girls Code is doing what can be done right now to help a severely marginalized, invisible group (you have to remember the experience of young girls in the US [1][2][3]) get into a field that is basically guaranteed employment if they develop interest and go with it long enough. If you're white, especially a white guy, no one cares about your Very Reasonable And Logical opinion or how this makes you Very Uncomfortable on the Internet. [0] http://www.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/programs.shtml http://www.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/programs.shtml [1] http://reelgirl.com/2013/11/im-not-a-pilot-im-a-pilots-wife-says-3-yr-old-girl/ http://reelgirl.com/2013/11/im-not-a-pilot-im-a-pilots-wife-... [2] http://www.metafilter.com/121190/teenage-girls-they-havent-been-living-theyve-been-performing http://www.metafilter.com/121190/teenage-girls-they-havent-b... [3] http://sodisarmingdarling.tumblr.com/post/34106027759/what-its-like-being-a-teen-girl http://sodisarmingdarling.tumblr.com/post/34106027759/what-i...