4 ms·
I'm guessing you're a straight white male. Imagine how different you'd feel, be perceived and interact at a sports bar almost only by White people versus night
by biznerd 17y ago
I'm guessing you're a straight white male. Imagine how different you'd feel, be perceived and interact at a sports bar almost only by White people versus night club almost exclusively attended by Black people.
It's uncomfortable to be in the extreme minority. That's one reason why many small liberal arts colleges actively pursue Black students, they know that a small minority population will further hamper recruitment efforts.
- mdemare 17y agoI agree. Being in the extreme minority means that you'll draw a lot of attention. That's great if you are an attention-seeker, but developers are often the precise opposite.
- notauser 17y agoA lot of hackers go through the experience of being in a minority(1), the only difference is that it's not illegal to pick on the geeky kids hanging out in the labs. The constant attempts in this community to segregate it into small groups of aggrieved protagonists drives me nuts sometimes. The mentality of us against us seems even dumber than the mentality of us against them. Better to just get on with building things. (1) No more self selected than being gay, albeit easier to hide than being black.
- biznerd 17y agoI'm sorry but being of a minority race is completely different than being bullied because you're a nerd. It's amusing to me though that people on YC have upvoted this view so much. For some reason I'm getting the feeling that there are a lot of white nerds on YC and not many minorities and women. "Better to just get on with building things." I perceive a religious undertone from this. Racism and sexism can be solved by the PG/"Hacker" mentality "building something".