Nothing but Facts Brother
Why Doesn’t Silicon Valley Hire Black Coders?
- Thread starter theworldismine13
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Nothing but Facts Brother
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
You could say the same for most profitable companies in various industries
Not all programming positions in these companies require doctorates from prestigious schools
Connections/relationships plays a major roll
The problem occurs when there's a lack of opportunity to build these relationships
The plight of an entrepreneur highlights the importance of relationships, now add race into it, then it's another obstacle that is simply based on your access to a number of multi-disciplined social circles, whose apart of those social circles, and the access of wealth, information, mentorship, employment opportunities within those circles
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
Stop making excuses:
- I started building computers (piecing them together, not using kits) in middle school and I don't remember a single black kid being into any of what I was doing back then. No joke, not a single one. Matter fact, what I was doing was considered mad corny and lame.
- Used to watch Triumph of the Nerds (three hour doc about Silicon Valley) and Trillion Dollar Bet (hour long doc about Wall Street) religiously.
- Used to thumb through Fortune magazine every month. Again, corny and more corny.
- Used to order CDs with hacking tools so I could learn the tools and the code. Lame.
- Used to spend hours and hours, days and nights working with and on this stuff.
- Used to spend hours reading about Carmack and Gates, how they code, adopting their work ethic, etc.
- When I got my first job, I went to a Borders and special ordered The Art of Electronics (The Art of Electronics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) for fun. Corny.
- Junior College (during high-school): Only black male in Calculus.
- State School (one of the largest in the country): The only black person in advanced math classes, the only black male in engineering classes (this includes even the intro classes).
- Anytime I met other black males who were about that engineering/computer science, they were from out the country (African or British by way of Africa).
- I go to Blackhat/Defcon events, there are more black males than before but still very few. I'm pretty sure I run across more black woman than men.
Cats working in Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley (New York) or in big tech markets like Austin tend to have a background similar to mine. They were interest in tech before it became a thing to be interested in and they developed their skills by putting in hours and hours of effort. They didn't do it for money or to feel wanted (probably the exact fukking opposite), they did it because they were drawn to it and became good at it.
So now that the money is flowing toward tech all these folks want in and have the nerve to feel entitled. Women with business and liberal arts degrees feel like they deserve a position in tech without realizing who they're competing against. shyt is disgusting.
I'm sick of hearing about women and black folks not feeling "accepted" or "wanted" or whatever, as if the folks who work in tech grew up feeling wanted by their peers.
Do you guys actually believe that all these folks who are damn near at the end of some fukked up mental spectrum are the ideal candidates for employment at all of these companies?
There are so many weird fukks in Tech and Finance man and none of them felt "wanted" or "included" growing up; that's why they're so good at what they do.
We got nikkas in here talking about dudes can't be masculine? Tell that to cats like Stephen Watt (seven foot bodybuilding hacker).
Man, y'all are ridiculous.
Just like you said though, more black folks are entering the field. They have genuine interest and skills. Ideally, hardwork, skills, luck and opportunity should be the driving force behind success and employment, but it's not, as proven by black tech entrepreneurs
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If you know anything about tech companies is that they would KILL for qualified developers that are either female or a minority. Their hiring is very sought after to boost their diversity stats. This is absolute fact. Anyone who works in the industry will tell you that. But they have to be educated and qualified.
You want to know the problem? Walk into any Junior/Senior Computer Science or Software Engineering class at a reputable school and count the number of women, Blacks or Latinos. You'll see that the problem begins there.
You want to know the problem? Walk into any Junior/Senior Computer Science or Software Engineering class at a reputable school and count the number of women, Blacks or Latinos. You'll see that the problem begins there.
This is just simply not true. It's entirely false. Sure, minorities are underrepresented in the field, but even those in the field struggle to get employment compared to their white peers. Major companies literally said it was not a priority when asked last year and Apple's shareholders voted down efforts to diversify earlier this year. A black engineering graduate has the same job propsects as a white liberal arts major. You have to be really good.
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
while focusing the discussion on the lack of black STEM students, does not address the plight of the current black tech professionals and entrepreneurs
TUH is completely correct, the notion of there being a significant amount of unemployed black engineering graduates is nonsense
diversity initiatives a corny and worthless, its a good thing apple voted down whatever cornball initiative somebody was pushing
the black tech professional faces the same racism and the same issues that any black individual faces in corporate america regardless of what industry it is
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Interesting. Do you have statistics on this matter? From a programmer/developer standpoint, everything I've experienced first hand and read about in the industry is that these companies bend over backwards to get women and black coders and they just can't find enough. Don't get me wrong, you still have to be qualified. They don't do affirmative action in the sense that if a woman or black developer is just slightly below the proficiency of their Asian or white males they will still make an offer. They don't do that.
At my school, it was hard to find females, African Americans or Latinos in these Computer Science or software engineering courses. It was me, 2 Nigerians, one white girl and the rest were white, Asian males in my graduating class. I hear this alot from my counterparts as well.
But I don't want to be influenced by personal experiences or anecdotal evidence. I'm interested in reading up on this.
Like I said, I can't speak for other engineering displicines. I'm talking about coding.
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
agreed. But the number of black tech professionals vs black corporate professionals are not comparable. The diversity efforts in corporate amercia started decades ago. While the diversity in tech supposedly started already
The lack of quality candidates was not a sufficient answer for the diversity problem in corporate america, the same shouldn't be applied to black tech professionals
diversity efforts in corporate america have been an utter failure, i think we need to start there,
they do not represent what black people should be pushing for
the next step is to finding other solutions that work better than "diversity" initiatives
as far as candidates, i really would like to meet these unemployed black engineering graduates, ive never heard of them or met them
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
just like you said, most of the racism experienced by black tech varies slightly across industries. So gaining employment was not the only measure of diversity successes. But also quality of promotions, salaries, investments, and responsibilities factor into whether diversity is successful
Any company that does not have qualified candidates apply could use that as a reason for the lack of diversity, but they are not using that reason because it's BS
where im coming from is that diversity initiatives are destined to fail and/or have marginal impact, people should stop deluding themslves that if they force google and facebook to be more "diverse" it will solve anything
corporate america is racist, period
we live in a system of white supremacy, period
diversity initiatives are not going to overcome those 2 basic facts
i cant speak for other industries but i can speak for the tech industry and i think the lack of candidates is very real and if black people dont realize this we will start putting efforts in the wrong place
ive said this before, if black people started experiencing racism in SV that would be a good thing because that would be a step up from there not being any black people overall
i dont think diversity initiatives matter because any black graduate gets gobbled and hired anyways, i can guarantee you this, any tech graduate that goes to SV will get hired, there are no unemployed black engineers in california
fundamental what's going on is that there are not enough black engineers and enough organized finances to create the critical mass to have black people forming their own tech companies, that is the bottom line
we should abandon diversity initiatives IMO and focus on growing the number of black engineers, i have zero compassion for the black unemployed engineer simply because ive never heard of any
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
pure facts on corporate america and white supremacy.
Diversity initiatives may not overcome those facts, but it does provide the individual the experience needed and exposure to relationships that will allow for the confidence to possibly venture on your own OR change jobs. As I'm sure you know, hands on experience and text book experience are different
Black people have experienced racism going to their local grocery store and seeing the lack of quality foods, but it doesn't stop them from eating poorly and having health problems due to poor diets
Employment alone is not the goal of diversity initiatives, it's also about input from unique backgrounds to make informed decisions
Increasing the number of black engineers is not enough, they need to internalize an urgency and desire to want to eradicate white supremacy, while still having white friends and white investors
we gonna have to agree to disagree, actually increasing the number of black engineers is enough (along with creating more financing infrastructures), to create more black engineers would require a huge shift in how black people raise and educate their children, its not anything simple, and its not a flippant statement
and its like you are not responding the fact that there arent any unemployed black engineers
i think you are stuck on a civil rights/diversity/integration/affirmative actione type thinking that has proven to be a failure