Comment by jlawson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jlawson | Hacker News Reader

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"That I'm a white cis male who dresses in dress shirts and dress slacks(and have done so since I was 19)has given me a passport into conferences,events and more.I crashed conferences without paying during high school that I would have been barred from if I looked any other way"

How does he know? Is there any evidence for this? Were women or blacks 'barred'? Because if so, I would expect someone to sue and win easily.

The rest of the tweets are a stream of similar and all-unsubstantiated accusations. But we can't dispute any of what he said, because he made his accusations without enough specificity for them to be checked in any way. He chose not to name the 2010 conference.

There's nothing trifling about such accusations. Just because nobody is in a position to respond doesn't mean you're not hurting people. Whether the accusations are made against individuals, specific groups, or a whole ethnic group. If you're gonna slag someone you should have evidence, and you should be specific.

In any case, he chose a good strategy to maximize his personal outcomes. He'll benefit greatly from this. D on fairness and principle, A on strategy.

It's outrageously easier to fly under the radar if you're white. If you want to look at it in a ridiculously objective way just consider being a black rock on a white sand beach. Even without the concept of racial bias, which is absolutely at play in these situations, you'll be subject to more scrutiny just by not being the norm.

On the flip side there are positive racial biases.

i.e. if you're the only non-white but otherwise fit the part / especially if dressed on the smarter end some people are less likely to question you because they don't want to be seen applying a bias. Actively questioning the one black guy is a lot more obvious than actively not questioning him.

lucky them not being treated like anyone else

> less likely to question you because they don't want to be seen applying a bias

Many people aren't immediately conscious of their biases. This isn't the same situation, but I thought this article about being a black CEO was illuminating. I've seen the similar bias-exposing mistakes happen to women.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/16/for-black-ceos-in-sil...

They're easy mistakes to make (I made an similar mistake by assuming a young woman was a nurse and not a doctor), but the most important bit is to learn and be aware.

It's outrageous to fly under the radar if you look like you're supposed to be there. Being white makes it easier in most cases, but it was not required.

It's easier to fly under the radar when you act to blend in with your environment. If you went to an economics conference in cargo shorts, you are going to stand out. I am pretty sure that a lot of biases are towards how people dress and act rather than skin color, in this given situation. I've snuck into conferences before, generally there are so many people that as long as you are dressed the part and act appropriately you will not even be noticed. Many of the most prestigious economists in the world are people of color, so I have to say what he's saying is largely nonsense.

Anyhow, MMT is a very popular thing right now, so it's obvious he would get attention regardless of his age, gender or race.

He didn't say it was 'easier to fly under the radar'.

He made a vastly more hurtful claim - that everyone else was 'barred'.

You're simply not responding to the charge that's been made, you've chosen to try to argue a far weaker claim (which is trivially true) instead in the hopes that nobody notices the difference.

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