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Comment by seneca | Hacker News Reader

> Can you explain where the veiled racism is in that?

Sure. It implies his success is because of his race. It also implies his bad behavior is because of his race. Both of these statements ignore his agency and individuality, and suggest white people are, as a group, poorly behaved and undeserving of the success they work for.

Attributing negative stereotypes to people based on group characteristics is bigotry, and doing so based on race is racism.

Imagine it were attributing his succeed to being jewish, or his bad behavior to being black. It should be pretty obvious that those would be socially unacceptable. The fact that it's currently popular among some groups to hate white people doesn't make it any less racist.

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Implying that his success is about his race is not exactly a racist sentiment though. In order for it to be racist it needs to be discriminatory (heck, by your own definition of racism, success is not a “negative” stereotype). Such an implication points out to the fact that society gives an unfair advantage to some people just because of their race.

> Implying that his success is about his race is not exactly a racist sentiment though.

Agreed. I also agree that the comment can point out privilege. I do think more often than not when people say "white tech dude" they mean it in a negative way, implying that all white guys in tech are the same and bad. Do you ever see this phrase in a more positive light?

No, but that would be because racism or inequality is impossible to see in a positive light unless you actually like it. I still don’t see why seeing racism/i equality as bad is inherently racist in itself.

> more often that not when people say “white tech dude” they mean it in a negative way, implying that all white guys in tech are the same and bad

This is why we’re talking about the specific tweet in the article and not other uses of “white tech bro” that we cannot account for. Context matters. The usage of “white tech bro” here was referring to the archetype of straight white American male in a position of power, which actually comprises majority of people in power in America, which is a long shot from “all white guys in tech are the same and bad”. It’s really just pointing to the privilege and you’re infusing a far-fetched racist connotation to it.

I never said seeing racism is a bad thing. seneca nailed in above.

I was replying to your question about ever seeing the phrase in a positive light.

> It implies his success is because of his race

That's not racism.

It may be describing (either simple or structural) racism as a contributing factor, but acknowledging racism isn't racist.

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