

Ask HN: Why Are No Black People In Y Combinator? - citizenkeys

Y Combinator's website has a slideshow on it: http://ycombinator.com/ .  I always notice there's exactly one black person out of all those pictures.  Do black people just not apply to Y Combinator?  Is the posterous video link to remove any black candidates?  Do they just not have black people where pg's from?  What?
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jhowell
Unless you know they guy in the photo or the circumstances behind it, the term
"token" to me sounds derogatory and possibly diminishing. Labels suck.

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nbpoole
You might be want to read <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2349477>

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citizenkeys
I read that. I was bothered by the fact that pg himself didn't comment on it.
I was able to conclude there's one, maybe two, black co-founders that have
ever made it into Y Combinator.

I'm currently taking a human resources recruiting class for an MBA program.
Although there's no discrimination laws on private investments, it still
bothers me that a private investment firm asks people to submit a video with
their application for funding. It seems discriminatory and the effects of YC's
selection process clearly indicate "disparate impact".

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burgerbrain
Far more disturbing, I notice the stunning absence of flaming redheads with
fantastic fros.

 _"it still bothers me that a private investment firm asks people to submit a
video"_

Oh give me a break... Does it also disturb you that companies generally demand
in-person interviews before making a hiring decision?

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citizenkeys
No, because the decision to interview is made subsequent to a presumably non-
biased application. Asking people to show you their skin color (and age, and
gender, and disabilities, etc) on a job application is, if nothing else,
against the federal Civil Rights Act.

Although YC isn't hiring for jobs, screening people for funding based on skin
color, age, gender, and other physical characteristics on the application
itself is still wrong. In YC's case, if they don't like the look of you then
you don't even get an interview. YC's decision to interview is based on
natural bias of whether you look like paulg, paulb, robert, jessica, harj, or
trevor. There's a word for that: "prejudice".

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burgerbrain
_"In YC's case, if they don't like the look of you then you don't even get an
interview."_

You have absolutely no evidence for these accusations, unless you have data
which you are not sharing with us. In a more serious discussion avenue, the
post you've just made could be considered libelous.

