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Comment by RingwormOne | Hacker News Reader

Small town Iowa is probably not very well represented on most internet forums, so the commenter was happy to see that it was being referenced... That's all. Not sure where your negativity is coming from

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White middle class suburbanites aren't well represented on internet forums?

Don't mean to be negative, it's just insane how insular and specific this community is and how little recognition that is given here.

Cedar Falls isn't a suburb. 2 hours to Des Moines, 3 to Minneapolis, 5 to Chicago.

I take it to mean any place that isn't urban but also isn't rural.

It's pretty close to rural. 40K citizens and corn fields a mile or so from campus. Not sure what your overarching point is though--what's wrong with remarking on the improbability of a submission from a tiny university in Iowa?

I grew up in a town of 6k and we were the big one in 20 miles. 40k is suburban IMO.

Edit- and I was ridiculing the idea that the mention of a wealthy, homogenous suburb indicates how inclusive this community is. Pretty much every story here deals with things from a young, white, wealthy perspective.

To be clear, no one argued that "posts from Iowa" == "inclusive"; you're arguing against a straw man. But more importantly, it seems your beef with HN is based on the assumption that everyone from a town of 40k or more has the same experiences. This is such a distorted idea of "diversity" when you consider that it includes people from major metropolitan areas, silicon valley, red states, blue states, and all over Europe (and yes, all of those groups are well-represented on HN). The fact that you're here from a town of 6K and I'm here from a town of 2K is testament to the OP's point, and it contradicts yours.

I'd imagine life experience for people living in small town Iowa is very different from that of people living in major urban centers on the coasts. You're assuming that if someone is white and not rich or below the poverty line that their life experience is equivalent to that of other white not rich/not poor people. That's a false assumption.

Diversity should be celebrated regardless of whether it's within or between different races. The OP was just celebrating a bit of diversity that they noticed and was relevant to them. They were not diminishing other forms of diversity that you may be more concerned with for whatever reason.

The idea that you're calling middle class suburban experience "diversity..." woo boy.

Again, small town Iowa is very different from elsewhere in the country. It's not what you would expect on a site focused on tech where most probably hail from coastal urban or suburban enclaves.

Of course if you refuse to believe anyone who is white could contribute to diversity of a community, well then I guess you're just racist.

>Again, small town Iowa is very different from elsewhere in the country. It's not what you would expect on a site focused on tech where most probably hail from coastal urban or suburban enclaves.

He lives outside of a town of 40k, it's not particularly small. For reference I grew up in a town of 6k- I'm not trying to play small-town olympics here but he's hardly from the boonies. The University of Iowa is there...

>Of course if you refuse to believe anyone who is white could contribute to diversity of a community, well then I guess you're just racist.

Heh, what a way to frame my words... who would think that? Nobody would, which is why strawmen are useless rhetorical tools.

My point is that on a website dominated by suburban, white, middle class software developers, a reference to suburban Iowa is not diverse. It's insane to think that a reference to that community shows how inclusive HN is. It's extremely exclusive.

I don't think I've ever met anyone from Iowa. Most people on this site are probably from the coasts. So I would consider it an example of diversity.

What ethnic / socioeconomic background are most people here from?

You're really grabbing on to physical location to justify ignoring the fact that that person is perfectly representative of most of the folks here.

You're really grabbing on to race and socioeconomic status to justify ignoring the fact that that person is not representative of most of the folks here.

See? We can both play these games.

Race and socioeconomic status are two of the most important factors in your probability of success in the US. Ignoring them makes you look willfully ignorant of your privileged position in society. There's little / no correlation between geographic location and success, at least not relative to race and socioeconomic status...

And I'm happy to see someone from Iowa posting here. If someone from a different minority group posted here I would be happy as well. There are many ways to be diverse.

You have kind of an absurd definition of diversity.

You only care about diversity involving people from socioeconomic or racial groups associated with poverty or historical oppression.

That ignores so many other kinds of diversity in the world.

Your definition is far too exclusive and narrow minded.

What types of diversity can you have amongst racially, socially, and economically homogenous people? What are you talking about? What is your grand, open-minded idea that ignores what actual diversity is?

Again, it seems you're assuming that just because someone is "white" and not rich/poor they're the same as other "white", not rich/poor people. That's offensive and naive.

I'm glad you asked! Diversity in musical tastes, religious and political ideology and affiliation, food preference (because new cuisine is always great to discover), experiences as a result of living in a primarily rural vs urban setting, occupational diversity, etc etc. I could go on. You care about diversity in things that don't really matter. When I walk into a room full of people I don't really care about their income, or the color of their skin. I care about them as people, their interests, their unique life stories. You should stop obsessing so much about race and economic status. This is a free to use internet forum. No one is barred from joining based on their race or wealth.

1 point by lobf 1 hour ago | edit | delete [-]

I'm very sorry for offending you by not recognizing that "diversity in musical taste" provides for greater diversity than racial, social, and economic status. Silly me, I've been thinking about diversity all wrong. You're right, HN is very diverse- we have middle class white guys who like Metallica, and others who like show tunes. We have middle class white guys from suburban Iowa, and others from suburban Massachusetts. This is a very diverse website, I was very confused before.

>You care about diversity in things that don't really matter.

Race, social, and economic status don't matter. Musical tastes matter.

This place is so out of touch with reality. I'm glad I moved out of the bay area.

So you care about diversity in the color of someone's skin but not in what really defines them as a person? Or you think skin color defines people? And that all white people are pretty much the same? You're showing yourself to be quite racist.

Right, recognizing race is one of the most important factors in deciding your status in this country is racist. Pretending race doesn't exist isn't racist.

Again, you guys are so laughably out of touch. This is a poe's-law level discussion.

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