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Comment by hackinthebochs | Hacker News Reader

To imply that this is "racism" is just pure insanity. People really need to stop diluting the meaning of words to suit their agenda.

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How is calling this racism a dilution of the word. The name clearly suggests that it is treating black people differently from non-black people. The fact that the word "racism" has been stigmatized to the point where an activity must be both racist-proper and harmful to a recognized marginalized group is irrelevant. We can argue about wheather or not the racism in this group is significant or even negative, but that is irrelevant to the fact that, at least the name, is racist.

>The name clearly suggests that it is treating black people differently from non-black people.

That's not what racism is. And don't bother digging up the 4th definition in some random online dictionary as your "proof". Dictionaries chronicle common usage, they are not the arbiters of meaning. One can understand the meaning of a word by comprehending its usage in culture and literature over the span of many decades. Once you do that you won't be able to claim that racism is "treating races differently".

Diluting the meaning of "black" or diluting the meaning of "racism"? The meanings of those words seem pretty black and white to me.

I am afraid this is a lost cause already. Too many are already trained to stop thinking and react in knee-jerky-white-knighty way to any mention of race or gender. This is sad, bet the worst is that it stops people from rally digging into problems and solving them.

It's racism by definition.

Love this argument: um, I looked up the word 'racism' in the dictionary and it says to exclude based on race, so that's what this event is: racist!

To that, I say, how convenient it is that you've just turned off the critical reasoning process in your brain for just this issue. Thanks for completely ignoring the history of racial subjugation and discrimination in this country and in the world.

Your right, the problem is in how you define rasism. I personally have a problem with including in the definition of most words "and is bad", as that inherently complicates the issue. I much prefer to answer the question "is this racist" without involving the question "is this bad". I cannot think of any reasonable definition of racism that satisfies this, and does not include "Black Girls Code" as an example. Now, can we talk about the "is this bad" question?

You are absolutely right; the question of whether this is racist is a red herring. The question is really: "is this bad". You seem to think it is. How about you begin the discussion by stating how this is bad.

Well, please, lets. Is it bad? No, it is not. It's meant to expose and encourage some kids who, statistically, are otherwise unlikely to be exposed to computer programming in the same way that other kids have been by providing a comfortable environment filled with others like them.

I suspect, however, since there's more comments than upvotes here, that a significant amount of Hacker News readers have a problem with that. I read comments like, 'oh, they should allow kids of all colors and sexes in there', and I think to myself, are you really so blind to the reality that the kids in this highly underrepresented demographic would be crowded out by other kids who already have the privilege of and exposure to computer programming.

No one is trying to prevent anyone from being programmers with Black Girls Code. They're just trying to create some comfortable space for these kids so that they can grow their computer skills as they grow up and become tech-literate adults in our ever-increasing information economy and culture that can compete on a fair playing field. That so many people here have a problem with that is highly concerning.

I didn't turn off critical reasoning for this. It's still racism, by definition. Now, if we want to discuss if this racism is good or bad, then it's another subject. The definition of racism is not "bad racism", it's racism.

Ignorance, not insanity.

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