Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

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Downvoting without responding is fine on HN. There are many more downvotes (and upvotes) than comments, which is as it should be.

I imagine these downvotes were because your comment gave what has become the #1 stock response to any such story without showing any awareness thereof or adding anything new; because the edge in it made it sound polemical rather than a sincere request for information; and because polemical stock responses turn into flamewars, which most of us aren't interested in and which break the HN guidelines. To downvote such comments is to be a good citizen, the way putting out small fires would be.

Note that one can make all of the above observations without disagreeing with the position you're implicitly advocating (that resources should target disadvantaged individuals rather than categories like race and gender). It's generally better to assume that downvotes are procedural rather than ideological. It yields better feedback about how your comments could be improved.

I asked a few questions, and I'm honestly interested in the responses.

There may be very good reasons for the racial and gender bias in this program. Political, economic, marketing, correction for past bias by YC, or bias in other VCs, or who knows.

But asking for justification should be the stock response to such unabashed racism and sexism.

You do make a great point. It does baffle me that Obama's daughters would theoretically get special privileges for YC's office hours over, say, an immigrant kid from China whose family earns below the poverty line.

Theoretically they would. However in practice I'm sure the people screening applications would be able to see that they're people who don't really need any special privileges, and prioritise someone else who does. Its not like applications are being selected by a random number generator.

Perhaps, but if the next session were for black and Latino founders, and Obama's daughters applied, would YC really pass up the chance to work with them ASAP?

Looks like you've been downvoted too.

It's interesting how intolerant some people are about even the most reasonable criticisms of racial preference policies. Instead of offering a reasonable response to these criticisms, they often resort to attempts to silence critics.

> even the most reasonable criticisms of racial preference policies

It's not reasonable. It's the same tedious concern trolling that appears in every single similar thread.

Calling it concern trolling is just another way to try to silence critics, and avoid considering the criticism when you have no response.

This discussion has gone on for a while, and included dozens of downvotes and a few rational distractions, but not one response to the original questions.

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