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Comment by aneth | Hacker News Reader

Ugh.

If an 11 year old black child pitches me an incredible startup idea, I would not join their team. Calling me racist for that is racist in itself. I don't think an 11 year old is competent to run a company or manage a product.

This article is a rarity in being such a clear example of reverse racism. Get over yourselves. The fucking president of the United States is black. Do you think attendees of startup weekend are more racist than your average American who voted for Obama?

If a competent black adult pitched a startup, they would have had no more of a problem assembling a team than a white or asian.

This sort of self-important racism by people fixated on the past is exactly what holds black culture back.

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I didn't hear the author call anyone racist. In fact I think you are only supporting his point. These kids were minorities in at least two ways, race and age (for the girl there is a third). I would say that age was clearly the biggest deterrent for people joining their efforts and the tone of the article to me was more about age than race. Even look at the title, it says '11 year olds learn hard lesson', no mention of race. Two white 11 year old kids would have had the same tough lesson.

These kids are minorities at this event mostly because they are minors. That'll fix itself in time and I commend the author for trying to help keep their spirits up so that this was a positive experience for them instead of a let-down.

There is also something interesting to say here about the psychology of voting without commitment. If the voting at this event was your true ranking of which team you wanted to join (i.e. you rank all ideas and join the top one that makes the cut), then no one would have picked these kids. When there was nothing on the line, no one wanted the kids to feel bad so they got some 'mercy votes' or maybe 'cute kids, nice try' votes, but when it got down to voting with your feet, no one thought their ideas or abilities were attractive enough over the alternatives.

The title is actually "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend"

I think it's pretty clear "minority" here means black. By indicating the audience made their decision based on race, the author is implicitly calling them racists.

We do not live in a post-racial society. It would be nice if that were true. Here are some other things that "hold black culture back."

Subprime mortgage rates are nearly double for black and hispanic households: http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snap...

Black males are 10 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offences than whites: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0309web_1.p...

Black sounding names are less likely to get a callback, despite identical resumes: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/29/national/main57568...

This is not an issue that is solved by a single election, or by making it sound like a "moral" failure on the part of blacks or whites. It is complex, systemic, and we all have our internal biases that are difficult to recognize, let alone root out.

I'm not suggesting there is no racism, although I do think back has been broken and dwelling on cases where racism remains is counterproductive. The problem now is more within these communities than without.

My main point is that presuming racism where there is none is as bad as racism itself - because it IS racism and it perpetuates racism. If you say I'm racist because I'm white and I don't think an 11 year old black child is fit to be my team leader, then you are the racist.

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