Serious, not intended to flame bait question: Why is race/gender featured so prominently in this technical post?
Would it be appropriate to open a post with “black men in tech had a twitter meltdown”?
At least in the US there never was widespread slavery of white people because they are white, or widespread ideas of white skin color being associated with lesser intelligence, culture or whatever.
It is, however, very important not to get hung up in racist terminology. For example it only serves the racists' cause to argue who is actually black or who is actually white, or how much of each.
It's not like the average heckler on the street asks somebody where he is from, his religion, what he is doing for a living or what his ancestral gene mixture is!
When you're treated better the lighter/whiter you are, then it makes sense why people would argue about it
I will never understand this mindset that racism is only a problem if there is some nasty history involved.
Racists can often behind ignoring that distinction. It's called a dog-whistle.
One shouldn't use history to justify their own racism.
> Racists can often behind ignoring that distinction. It's called a dog-whistle.
That's simply not what a dog-whistle is.
And yes, ignoring nasty history is dog-whistling. You can say certain things, which are clearly perceived as racist by racists and the offended, and then avoid responsibility by claiming "it's only because the history".
Example: It's not antisemitic to blame George Soros (a jew) for political influence through his money, except that there is a broad and infamous history of such conspiracy theories. Same for "dual loyalty".
It's not racist or insensitive to use black-face as a disguise, except for the long history of mistrel-acts of making fun of Afro-American (slaves) for being lazy, uncultured and stupid.
It's not necessarily racist to suspect a Muslim of being a terrorist. Hey, there may actually be valid and objective reasons for such a suspicion. But especially because of the context and the history of Muslims being accosted as such and being targeted all the time, such claims better have substantial proof.
The idea that there is a discrimination against white people in "traditionally white" countries is absolutely ridiculous. Ethnically motivated violence, for example in the US, is also quite one-sided.
If the inverse became fashionable in 10 years, the same kind of people (if not the same people) would do a 180o.
I don't know about "react-gate" yet, but I'm sure to find out in a few minutes.
Downvotes, however, are not moderated...
It would not be appropriate to post with the title “black men in tech had a twitter meltdown” but it is at least this okay with white dudes for the same reason why it's fine to make fun of The Mountain if he can't hit a squat in the gym but it's not fine to make fun of your buddy who's trying to make a change in his life. Of course how much better The Mountain is than your buddy at lifting heavy stuff is probably a larger discrepancy than the gap between white men and and minority women's abilities to affect the course of the developer landscape but that's the mechanism.