Comment by kenjackson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kenjackson | Hacker News Reader

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If you go through life believing that any prejudice (sexism, in this case) is dominating your career growth, you will always look for it in the tea leaves, project it onto any situation, and in return invite it. In truth, the person who is prejudiced is you.

For better or worse, disadvantaged minorities always have to consider this. It's probably one of the biggest privileges that white males have in day to day life -- they rarely need to consider if race/gender played a role in any decision they encounter.

There was an interesting experimental study that showed that a white male just released from prison was as likely to get a job callback as a black male with no criminal record [1].

There are typically multiple factors at play for any employment decision, but race and gender loom very large -- large enough that ignoring it is just ignorance.

And note, that the domain matters. Jeremy Lin faced discrimination as a basketball player being Asian. But for most domains, being a white male is preferred.

[1] Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment, Am Sociol Rev. Oct 1, 2009; 74(5): 777–799, http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/ASR_pager_etal09.pdf

First, not everyone here is a white male.

Second, statistics that measure the state are not direct evidence. Individual cases may or may not fit. There may be statistics that measure a company that demonstrate a bias, but unless you have direct evidence of that, it's better to not burden your mind with that negativity.

Third, you aren't a statistic. You have to keep developing and getting better. Don't internalize the statistical oppression. Internalization is the worst form of oppression.

It is incredibly, blindingly privileged to say that internalized oppression is the worst form of oppression. Being oppressed is the worst form of oppression.

And, for people who aren't white men, oppression is a lived reality, not an abstract concept that you can attempt to rationalize away. It is both rational and justified to think that prejudice is a predominant factor in virtually everything, because it is.

Finally, oppression isn't "statistical." The people who cause those statistics have names, faces, and addresses. As do the people who act as their apologists. The personal is the political, but the political is also personal.

If this is true why so many homeless are white men? If this is true why being a soldier, the worst job in the world (because amputations and PTSD are no fun) is done by so many white men? Where is the "privilege" you talk about there?

And there is no intrinsic racism against others by white men, where I'm from (Colombia) everyone is brown-ish but there is still a lot of racism against black people, just for being the majority not for being white.

And why would people say that planes are for flying when there are so many on the ground? Where do you see this "flying" then? And what of broken planes, or model planes, or photographs of planes? Next time you see a photograph of a plane flying through the sky at 20,000 feet you can try again to convince me that racism exists, buddy.

Actually I never said racism didn't exist.

You didn't. I did. Because planes.

Yeah, your attempts to use sarcasm to show your point are not any good.

What are you talking about. Being a white male is easy mode.

I'm a white male. This shit is awesome. I won the genetic lottery.

Does anyone ever assume that I can't speak English - No

Does anyone ever assume that I might have body odor - No

Does anyone ever assume that I am not technical/intelligent before speaking to me - No

Am I ever physically/sexually harassed - No

If I move to any high tech friendly city anywhere in North America will I be in a minority and possibly have difficulty finding friends who understand my culture - No

Do I ever worry about little things like having to search for somewhere special to get my haircut - No (I've heard this is a problem for Black and possibly Asian people, I honestly have no idea)

Every door is open, no doors are closed.

It should be the same way for everybody, but right now it isn't and that is really unfortunate. Is it really too hard to recognize that others have it harder?

[edit - formatting]

You should try to start from scratch somewhere else in the US without using your tech/management knowledge, your current money and current friends. I bet you would change your views about the relevance of your skin color.

Is not hard to also see it in statistics: Men are 68% vs Women; and between races White (non-hispanic) is the largest one: http://homeless.samhsa.gov/ResourceFiles/hrc_factsheet.pdf

I don't disagree that your attitude is more productive, but telling people to ignore statistics and assume that they're a special snowflake would be considered unsound advice in any other context.

There is a big difference between considering prejudice and then assuming it in the face of a plausible, alternative explanation.

>disadvantaged minorities always have to consider this. It's probably one of the biggest privileges that white males have in day to day life

White males can be minorities, too.

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