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Comment by ryandvm | Hacker News Reader

The world would be a better place if people spent less time figuring out ways to be offended.

Let me guess, you're white and male? Me too, and for a long time I thought to myself "Gee, I can't believe people get offended at stuff like that." Then after a bit, I really put myself into other people's shoes. How would you feel if your credentials were constantly being second-guessed just because of how you looked, talked, or your gender?

The thing is, as white (or white-looking arab or jewish) dudes, we _never_ have to run into that. The closest I ever came was immigrating to a different country and constantly getting singled out over my accent — so much so that I changed it.

I'm white and male and live somewhere I can't speak the native language very well. I'm singled out all the time.

I agree with the parent post - people should stop trying so hard to be offended about stuff. Being singled out or second-guessed doesn't harm one.

but the singled out that you will get as being white and male aboard is very different to that that most others, who are female and black for example, experiance. the fact you see both types of 'otherness' as being the same speaks more of the hegemony of your viewpoint.

This is exactly why these types of posts are so common and actually proves her point. A developer expresses her disappointment that a prominent Mac/iOS conference includes a surprising amount of crude and sexual humor? Most of the responses consist of "quit being offended", dismissals, and flat-out ignoring it ("this doesn't represent the community even though it's at a popular convention!"). There's even a guy in these comments suggesting being singled out "doesn't harm [anyone]".[0]

[0] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3217486

Maybe, but it would be an even better place if developer conferences are kept free of dorm-room-level jokes.

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