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Comment by intortus | Hacker News Reader

I love how grudging this is. It's like when someone apologizes for you feeling a certain way, rather than for what they did. Half the "code" is claiming that nothing is wrong and the kernel is perfect because reasons, and the TAB is 80% white guys. Isn't meritocracy perfect?

On the other hand, this is a step in the right direction and I'm not a kernel developer, so I shouldn't nit pick too much.

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Why are you judging the TAB members based entirely on their ethnicity and apparent gender?

"80% white guys" - yes, and if you don't know who's gay, who's transgendered, or how these individuals handle conflict, then this observation is kind of irrelevant.

Being racist and sexist isn't going to help an already toxic environment.

There is a well known and studied lack of diversity in the open source community, and particularly in linux kernel development. Putting this code in place is meant to address that, so it's reasonable to point out the various half-measures.

And these real social problems are going to be resolved by empowering the people who are poorly represented, not by bringing people down because of something they are.

You're in your right to disagree, but the answer to wrong has never been more wrong. Educate. Raise awareness. Encourage. But snarky remarks about the race and apparent gender of people? Not helpful.

I'm totally being helpful. If you increase the sincerity of the code (and remove the stupid non-apology and change the spiteful name) and provide more diverse oversight then you will have an immediate positive impact.

It could be seen as spiteful, or it could be seen as a compromise. Bear in mind that not all kernel developers have the same views on civility, codes of conducts, etc. and some will not want to lose face by being seen to "capitulate completely to SJWs" (as some of them would probably see it). Arguably it's better to have this kind of compromise than nothing at all.

Perfect is the enemy of the good. Change is made by small steps, not giant leaps.

That said, if you know people in the Linux community who are more qualified than one or more of the people in the TAB, totally encourage them to apply and encourage TAB to accept them.

i find quite sad that the same people that say that you shouldn't judge people for the color of their skins and that we should have diversity also take people down for being white.

nobody chose to be white, just like nobody chose to be black. you shouldn't define a person for their skin color, gender or sexual preference, you should define a person by what they are.

Whenever someone says "There are too many [white people|men] in XXX", it sounds like there's an implicit "... so we should kill some of them" in my head. That's how offensive it sounds to me.

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