
Jerry Lawson helped lay the groundwork for all modern gaming consoles - bane
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/02/you-wouldnt-be-able-to-pause-your-video-games-today-without-jerry-lawson/
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jefurii
A few highlights: Black engineer in Silicon Valley. In 1970. _Demolition
Derby_ released months after _Pong_. Fairchild Channel F console had
programmable cartidges and real game AI. Want to know more.

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SloopJon
Interesting that Lawson "wasn't very impressed" with Wozniak (or Jobs) when he
applied for a job. I'm not clear on the timing, but it sounds like this would
have been after they built Breakout for Atari.

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johansch
These kinds of stories annoy me to no end. This guy happens to black, so
therefore we must celebrate him?

How about just celebrating him for what he did. Who cares about his skin
pegmentation?

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lostcolony
Because he did those things while playing on the 'hard' life difficulty
setting.

At any rate, you're presenting a false dichotomy. It's not an either/or
proposition. They -are- celebrating what he did; it's all the more impressive
that he did it while being black, in a time and place where that was a major
obstacle.

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johansch
He lived in the exact right place for this though. From my point of view he
was privileged.

A lot of e.g. white western Europeans would have spent a lot of money to get
into this position.

(Note: I am not advocating a handicap system for Europeans! :) )

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lostcolony
I bet he would have spent a lot of money to get into that position too. Except
he and his family were of very limited means.

Really, if you want to play the "other people have it harder" game, I will
readily bow out; of course there are.

But within the confines of "here's someone who had a major influence in his
profession", to dismiss his skin color as not being of note, to ignore the
additional obstacles society would have placed in front of him, is to deny him
some credit for having overcome those obstacles. That's why it's mentioned,
that's why it matters. I agree, ideally it wouldn't matter; the fact is is
that because to some people being black is a detriment means that being black
includes extra obstacles, and it's worth recognizing those who overcome them.

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johansch
You seem really intent on not getting my point.

My point is that for this particular thing, location is of supreme importance.
Skin color is really, really far down on the list.

