Ask Black HN: How's it going? | Hacker News Reader

Ask Black HN: How's it going?

5 pointsturadg5 comments

In light of Black History Month, I'm curious about the experience of Black folks in technical fields.

- What do you do and how did you get into it?

- What challenges have you faced that seem to be pigment-based?

- What improvements have you seen in your field?

- What do you want to see but haven't yet?

- What would help the field to get there?

This post is directed at Black people but isn't meant to exclude anyone else. When sharing something subjective, consider including your vantage point. E.g. I'm fairly White and I hope this question isn't too cringe. I felt curious about this and decided to ask.

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As a White guy in tech, I can say that I've worked with some really sharp Black developers. An unfortunately small number, which has always led me to wonder why there aren't more Black individuals in tech. Is it actual racism, whether overt individual level racism, or just systemic racism? Is it the so called "pipeline problem?" Or something else?

With that question in mind, I've spoken to a few of my Black colleagues over the years, and a refrain I've heard more than once is something that can be paraphrased as

"I grew up in the hood and when I started looking at going to college and studying programming, nobody supported me or wanted me to do that. Now that I moved away and work in tech, I get called 'Uncle Tom' or get accused of 'trying to be White'".

I'd be curious to know if this sort of mindset is really common-place. Is there a "thing" that members of (some?) Black communities aren't encouraged to pursue this kind of path, or will even be criticized or shunned for doing so?

That aside, as a White Guy In Tech, what can I do help my (current or future) Black colleagues, vis-a-vis issues related to race discrimination, other than simply "try not to be a racist?"

This is a few hours old and probably won't get more comments. In case anyone else is curious, here are some articles that touch on the questions posed:

- Black developers tell how the US tech industry could do better https://www.infoworld.com/article/3571422/black-developers-t...

- What It’s Like to Be a Black Man in Tech https://hbr.org/2021/03/what-its-like-to-be-a-black-man-in-t...

- Being Black in IT: 3 tech leaders share their stories https://www.cio.com/article/193711/being-black-in-it-3-tech-...

Sorry, but this question is the epitome of cringe. I'm sure it is not intended as such, but it is the exact opposite of the color-blind ideal. You get to color-blindness by ... err ... practicing color-blindness?

Thanks for the soft critique.

I don't hold color blindness as an ideal. I know that human beings are hard wired to quickly determine in-group/out-group and skin color is a salient trait for that distinction. Not the only one of course, but we're never going to be blind to skin color.

What we can aspire to, you might call "color irrelevance". That in any particular endeavor, the relevance of one's skin color goes to zero. I don't believe we'll get there by ignoring the ways in which we individually and collectively, intentionally or not, let skin color shape our behavior and systems.

Is "color blindness" really the ideal though? Perhaps the ideal should simply be "color equality" where we're allowed to recognize "color" but just don't discriminate based on that?

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