
Oh Shit, I’m A Racist - aaronbrethorst
http://uncrunched.com/2011/10/28/oh-shit-im-a-racist/
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RossDM
If you click on Soledad O'Brien's name in the second paragraph, you get this
link:
[http://uncrunched.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/soledadobrien....](http://uncrunched.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/soledadobrien.jpg)

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burgerbrain
How delightful. What a wonderfully responsible news organization...

Is there any chance of somehow getting a copy of the entire unedited
interview?

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kposehn
That would mean you'd have access to the truth.

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Zimahl
Never say anything to the major news outlets, it's not their job to tell the
truth, it's their job to spin. They'll pick and choose the sound byte that
works best and use it no matter the context. This goes for Fox or CNN, they
are just out for eyeballs and don't care about the truth.

Only do press with reporters you know are fair - they do exist, it just might
take a little bit to find them.

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trustfundbaby
Very disappointed in Soledad, I'm black and I don't know that many black Tech
entrepreneurs myself. I guess that makes me racist right?

Playing this gotcha game has become standard fare in politics other walks of
American life, but bringing it into the Tech space is only going to hurt the
very people its meant to help.

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JulianMorrison
I don't buy the color blind thing. That just means the only color you see is
white.

I think the trick for doing anti-racism right is exactly the opposite. Learn
to be _surprised_. Hey, that's odd, why no black people in the board room? Why
no women? They're half of humanity, why aren't they here? Isn't it a bit odd
that everyone in the room is straight, white, male, conventionally masculine
and upper middle class?

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viraptor
Is anti-racism and reverse-racism the same thing? If we actually want to use
those terms, I think you're both right. Anti-racism would be actively working
on not being in a room of straight, white, male people. Reverse-racism would
be promoting minorities when you hear about them / when they come to you.

Then again I'd call anti-racism something else entirely. Most people are
against racism, but I see that's not the context in which you're using the
phrase.

I can definitely believe the colour-blindness though. (slightly related -
reminds me of the southpark episode where everyone was alarmed that kids
didn't find the flag with black man being hanged racist - while they just saw
a group of people hanging another guy)

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JulianMorrison
No, see what I said. Surprise is important. It's not just that you're working
to "not be[...] in a room of straight, white, male people". It's that when you
walk into such a room, you learn to _see the black people who are not there_.

This is meant to be a behavior-driving, meta-level change. So for example when
you're promoting people, you realize that your candidates are skewed, and
maybe you apply your own reverse-skew, maybe you go investigate why black
candidates aren't making it to you - you don't just colorblindly take the
situation as it comes, as if were unbiased happenstance.

I don't consider it reverse racism to try to skew back a biased pool of
candidates towards what an unbiased one would look like. It is perhaps, a bit
quixotic to try to repair a society wide disease with local affirmative
action. But it does help.

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rafedb
this is ridiculous - why do ignorant people have to always resort to using the
race card to stir up controversy over nothing. people need to get the hell
over themselves imo and realize no one cares about that stupid shit this day
and age.

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mikeryan
Here we go, grab the popcorn.

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rsanchez1
It was CNN. It was "In America". It was Soledad O'Brien.

I guess he didn't see it coming because a man like him is too busy to watch
TV, but it was pretty obvious to me.

