Rent a Minority

Discrimination isn't always blatant. Sometimes it's more ignorant. As a minority here's some ways I've encountered forms discrimination and racism.

* People ask "What are you" (As my ethnicity isn't super obvious).

* If they don't believe me I'll next get, "No really, where are you from" .

* Been asked if I speak Korean and Spanish (two separate occasions) because they needed a translator (not Korean or Hispanic at all) .

* Been on a few dates where they've said "Normally I'm not attracted to Hispanic men" (Not hispanic!) .

* Went to a bar (that served normal bar food). After sitting down, overheard from a group nearby "Does it smell like rice in here?"

Same here. 9 years in the industry; not once have I experienced outward racism or discrimination (that I know of). I do believe that some get discriminated against, however. I also believe that some use discrimination as an excuse when none really exists.

It's damn funny. But a site full of white people like HN will be way too uncomfortable to laugh at this.

I'm sure it will satisfy both sides:

One who see's corporations only disingenuously adopting formal policies to hire minorities, only doing it in marketing and for public appearance to appease other white people, rather than offering minorities meaningfully positions of power.

And the other who see these policies as ineffective and bowing down to special interests groups without providing any meaningful benefit to the minority group while simultaneously harming the parent company by hiring people based on their appearance rather than intrinsic value they provide the company.

Attempting to eliminate biases by force or social pressure is always going to be fraught with risk and aversion.

>someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from"

As someone who absolutely hates the place I am "from" and pretty much everything about it this questions always made me uneasy.

I've gotten the "where are you from?" question a few times - I'm multiracial, so I look ethnically ambiguous and talk with a slight accent that isn't possible to place. I just answer "Boston".

If they want to drill into it more, I say "Well, my mom's from NYC, my dad is ethnically Cantonese but was born in the Philippines, and I grew up in Boston. My maternal grandfather was Irish Catholic and my grandmother was a WASP." Usually at that point their eyes start to glaze over though.

I disagree. Its referring to a very specific kind of white man who tends to flock to these things like moths to a flame and very much does try to reframe things to make white men look like the real victims.

I say this as a white man who calls out racism regardless of whether its directed at minorities or the cis white man.

My read on it is that is it anticipating this kind of response or reaction in advance and telling you up front "Yeah, no." It is actually pretty common for white men to come in and derail conversations in a really terrible way and make it all about their feelings. (Not all white men do this, but it is a thing and it causes a lot of problems in internet discussions.)

Though I think the way women and POC typically respond is part of the problem. They often fully cooperate with the derail by all piling on to reply to him rather than sending the message that "the entire world does not revolve around you" by refusing to let the entire discussion revolve around that one guy.

You're totally misrepresenting the point of that item. It's referring to the knee-jerk yellers. We have them here on HN as well. Look at any article regarding women's experiences, for example, and you'll find a few comments trying to shift the topic to how hard men have it.

I'm a straight, white man and the FAQ item makes total sense to me. I don't do that, but enough of my 'brothers in arms' do. It's derailing and annoying.

I think I understand where you're coming from: feels a bit ironic that a site devoted to equality is marginalizing a group of people.

At the same time, I think you've hit on the crux of the point the site is making. You might find it interesting to explore the idea at one level deeper.

I don't know if you identify as a straight, white male, but if you do, you can see how frustrating it feels to be categorized in this way.

Now imagine the majority of panel discussions you attend, board members you see, politicians, etc. all in minor ways, perpetuate that same level of marginalization.

A panelist always seems to be making jokes about how brogrammers are unconsciously racist, the boards of companies are all wearing Muslim garb (with a token white guy thrown in every once in a while), and the number of "people in power" who are supposed to represent you never seem to have the same skin color you do.

If we (I'm a straight, white male) are able to tap into the frustrating that FAQ generates in us, it may help us understand the perspectives of others better; which I personally believe, is the key to doing something about it.

Trying to pretend we're all equal hasn't worked, because we're not all equal - the ecosystems we live in are never a level playing field. Trying to pretend they are exacerbates the problem.

If instead we try to empathize, and understand the experiences of others though, maybe we can be open to making the changes in ourselves necessary to making the playing field a bit more level.

Which is why I appreciate your comment - it represents your true perspective, which makes intuitive sense. I think if you're willing to take the author's argument the next logical step, you might find her/his perspective some makes sense as well.

I hear that this is totally a real thing in China with white people. Supposedly you can make pretty good money just putting on a suit and going around pretending to be an American business partner at meetings.

"booth babes". what is wrong with women with a sex positive attitude profiting from their hard work?

Perhaps the question is: why are there no booth bros. Well, there are, they're just not in a booth. They're standing bare chested in front of Abercrombie tries to get the lady folk through the door.

Sexiness is sexiness, it is human nature to be attracted to the physically fit, millions of years have literally hardwired our brains to act a certain way. It is nothing to be ashamed of.

> ...why not provide your view of how this is helping anything?

Because humor is a good mechanism for talking about topics we might not otherwise talk about, but should be.

By "adversarial discourse", do you mean the site or the HN comments?