Hacker News Reader

Comment by speeder | Hacker News Reader

I am Brazillian, mixed race, my dad family is from europe, my dad has green eyes, and I can apply for EU citizenship.

My mother family is mixed of black and native american.

Almost every single time I faced discrimination, was because I was "white", for example open hostility by 100% black people assuming that I was "white" and evil or something, or when I was informed I should not apply for affirmative action because I was too white looking, or many, many times I was called racist as soon people saw a picture of me during some argument or another.

To me it is obvious that further segregation and racism, is not the answer to segregation and racism.

View on HN

I've faced all these things too; I pass for white and have similarly been told I'm not hispanic enough. It's not a simple yes or no kind of situation. It simply can suck in some ways to be all mixed up.

I can't even pass as white, and I'm still excluded from most diversity programs because my race (South Asian) is overrepresented in tech.

However, overrepresentation in tech in Silicon Valley does not necessary translate into societal privilege, or even extend to all places in the US. Like sure, Google's CEO is Indian, but the entire upper layer of management at the company I work at (and a lot of other companies in Middle America) is 100% golf-playing white males with no way to break in. So I'm kinda SOL both in the diversity programs in Silicon Valley / more progressive tech places as well as the golf-and-whisky club at work.

Would like to hear solutions or experiences from other brown South Asians working outside Silicon Valley.

I am in a similar situation, where I have a last name that is clearly "not local", mixed origins, but I'm very white by most standards.

Any sort of intervention will have some negative effects. I'm sorry you are being disadvantaged. Seeing how hostile people can be to others, especially in cases where they are wrong (like yours), shows how bad things have become, imho.

That said, we have to do something. If helping get parity in CS means a few guys get disadvantaged, or some people get otherwise mislabelled, it still helps a ton of people, helps break the systemic issues. In many situations, it's dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. You and I are still very privileged in the end (ex: dual citizenship).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com