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Comment by _jal | Hacker News Reader

This thread is entertaining as an object lesson in white male fragility. Obsessing about a side note in an article because the scrutiny normally reserved for nonwhite-males is glancingly turned their way...

Instead of indulging the sense of alarm you get from this sort of (very mild) scrutiny, try to get outside of your ego and consider that this feeling you have is others' normal state of existence. You'll adapt better as demographics change and the wheel turns, and introspection is good for you.

Smile more, and stop being so emotional. /s

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What about the thread seems "fragile" to you? It didn't seem like anyone was taking personal offense to the comment, only pointing out that it was oddly irrelevant, as though the author went far out of their way to criticize white men. Certainly no "sense of alarm" or "ego". Seems like you've gone well out of your way to conflate an observation with a rather dramatic (and frankly offensive--I don't imagine women of color taking kindly to being called 'fragile', for example) emotional response...

As someone who was born as part of the race and gender being disparaged in the above comments, maybe I should be thankful. Yes, those comments were slightly hurtful, but mostly it was just really weird feeling hatred from another person based on the color of my skin and gender. I haven’t had a chance to feel that very often, and I honestly think the exercise was meaningful. Thanks for putting me in that position to know how much it hurts when people blindly hate based on race and gender. It might help me see things differently in the future (shrug). That being said, I would never disparage another race in the way that you just did. Way to keep it classy.

Oh, there's the accusation of white male fragility. How disappointing.

I'd call this article out just the same if it was calling out black women or lesbian Latinos.

How about instead, let's ask journalists to meet a bar of treating all classes of people equally, and not making pointless comments about someone's race and gender.

I don't think the vast majority of people are oblivious to what the standard archetype of a white man in technology is, why is it so wrong to use that as context?

because its as bad as talking about the stereotypical black man in the same context

people are more complicated than race and gender

Why do you believe that to be true?

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