> I rarely see talented developers doing this because they're too busy working.
I love the privilege on display here. You can ignore racial inequality issues because "they are too distracting," meanwhile I have to wake up each morning, read yet another one of my brothers and sisters has been killed by police, and I still have to run my business. Your mediocrity exist in your complacently to the status-quo. On a daily basis we innovate, build, ship, and push tech more than you could ever hope -- and we don't need to ban "political discussions" at work.
If a business chooses to condemn something without backing up that solidarity with meaningful resources and capital, they should be criticized.
> meanwhile I have to wake up each morning, read yet another one of my brothers and sisters has been killed…
Unless they have the same parents, they are not your brothers and sisters more than OP is. Imagine an us-vs-then based on skin color is extremely racist and should be criticized.
Roughly 3/4 of people killed by police in the US are not one of your "brothers and sisters" if by "brothers and sisters" you are referring to humans who share your melanin content and location of ancestral origin (of course all humans are descended from African humans, but to suit the purposes of demagogues, we can ignore that and just stop at the arbitrary point in lineage where we can maximize division to reap power).
As you read this, it is extremely likely that you cant name a single one of the non-black people killed by police last year, can you? Of course not. Or even in the last 5 years, can you? There are 3 times as many of these people as the group you are ethnocentrically focused on.
Let's also talk about the "sisters" aspect. Statistically, women killed by police are minimal. The referenced website, run by activists, removed the filter for women, but you can download the data yourself to see that it's a minimal amount.
Based on the logic of this movement created by people who don't understand basic stats, the discrepancy between men and women must mean that police are systemically sexist against men, right? Because only the outcome matters, and all explanations except bigotry must be ignored.
A big difference these days is that when a non-black person is wrongfully shot by police, the complete lack of national media coverage allows the police to get off scot free.
See Daniel Shaver, who was recorded on camera being executed, unarmed in his underwear, begging for his life, by a psycho cop.
Unlike Chauvin, said psycho cop was exonerated and dismissed with a full pension, as if he honorable retired. Where were you and BLM? Nowhere, because it's a bigoted, ethnocentric movement designed to divide rather than unite.
You should ask yourself why you used the phrase "brothers and sisters" about people who share your ethnnicity, and why you don't use it for all humans, like I do. Ask yourself if you've been sucked into the precursor to pure racism, ethnocentrism. Ask yourself if you've allowed yourself to be misinformed by media designed to monetize your confirmation bias, rather than inform you.
Please don't lie and spread hateful rhetoric like the idea that BLM is "bigoted" (against whom, the police?). BLM activists actually were involved in a lot of the Daniel Shaver activism. It is a travesty that the cop that killed him wasn't held accountable, but trying to blame the BLM movement for that when then, and now, they're actively trying to make changes to that system, in ways that are helpful to people of all races, makes me think you're being driven by an irrational hate and fear of the BLM movement.
> ethnocentrism
This word doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. "Ethnocentrism" is an antonym of cultural relativism, which I guess could be seen as a sort of supremacy ideology, but not in the way you seem to be using it.
> Based on the logic of this movement created by people who don't understand basic stats, the discrepancy between men and women must mean that police are systemically sexist against men, right? Because only the outcome matters, and all explanations except bigotry must be ignored.
Certainly there are ways that society fails men, yes. It frames them as more violent and dangerous, and because of this I would indeed expect that (and the stats back up) that men are killed, by police disproportionately compared to women, basically no matter how you measure.
> See Daniel Shaver, who was recorded on camera being executed, unarmed in his underwear, begging for his life, by a psycho cop.
Literally the only substantial voice that stood up and went to bat for Daniel Shaver was BLM. You're right, police violence is far from isolated to Black people. Most BLM activists would agree that stopping police violence has multi-racial benefits!
First off it's been over seven years, it's not hard to understand that black lives matter is a decentralized movement that is not centrally represented.
The website is not the movement.
Second, both of those "opinion pieces" have references to high profile black lives matter activists (deray, shaun king, etc) speaking out about Daniel Shaver, so that's about as official as you're going to get.
Third, that "facebook post" documents an actual event organized by the family of Daniel Shaver, thanking the local blm chapter for their support.
If you have a more substantial voice that has done more than blm in bringing attention to this issue in a productive way, feel free to bring that forward.
This is a very naive view. Black people are responsible for higher share of murders, for example, than their share of population. We should look at the frequency of interactions with the police, not at the population shares.
I don’t have data to link to but I’m almost certain that if men and women are 50/50 then crime, or police interactions, are more like 80/20. Add onto that math that males have a higher level of aggression and physical ability to pose a threat and I feel the majority of your delta is explained.
Just knowing the percentage of men owning guns is way higher than women owning guns would change your perceived threat level based on sex.
He seems like a good kid, and very smart. Homeless as a teen, white mom kicked out as a teen due to dating a black man, clearly unstable upbringing which is brutal for any kid.
Taught himself how to code at the library.
He was a recipient of the Thiel Fellowship. You get $100,000 for 2 years of living expenses and you get to work on whatever.
Unfortunately he doesn't seem to blog about that and instead focuses on the time a cop forced his head into a steering wheel because he reached in his pocket.
The human mind gravitates towards the negative, probably due to evolutionary pressures.
The US is such a racist place that a white dude who is a well-known Republican gave him $100,000 to do whatever for 2 years but he ignores that and focuses on the negative experiences in his life with the minority of whites who are bigots, ignoring the kindness he clearly must have come across.
I can relate because I had a similar background to him in the sense where I had a very poor and also drug addicted mother who was in and out of homeless shelters. Eventually when my father was able to locate me I got to have a somewhat normal life compared to that, although we were technically below poverty line income wise.
I don't think he ever got that lucky and I can't imagine what he's been through. He seems to have done great things already. I wish him well, and hope he learns to recognize how fortunate he has been in other ways. If being given 100 grand to do whatever for 2 years isn't privilege, then I don't know what is.
Edit:
Importantly, I forgot to add that he CLEARLY capitalized on that fellowship. He's created a pretty badass startup that leverage video/data streaming to allow playing of console/pc games on iOS/Android/etc. Personally of note for me, his startup created a grpc-like serialization format (bebop) that I looked at months ago for a project I was working on. The lesson/reminder for me is that behind every post on the internet is a human being who I probably have a ton in common with. Plus, anyone who buys an old Camaro and fixes it up themselves is automatically relegated to a higher status in my embarrassingly country boy worldview, lol.
Just because you're passive aggressive doesn't mean I am. I meant what I said and there was no insinuation at all. I don't compliment people's software lightly. I would advise you to take your negative filter off.
>Just because you're passive aggressive doesn't mean I am.
No, it's what you wrote that means you're passive aggressive.
>Unfortunately he doesn't seem to blog about that and instead focuses on the time a cop forced his head into a steering wheel because he reached in his pocket.
>The human mind gravitates towards the negative, probably due to evolutionary pressures.
>The US is such a racist place that a white dude who is a well-known Republican gave him $100,000 to do whatever for 2 years but he ignores that and focuses on the negative experiences in his life
>I wish him well, and hope he learns to recognize how fortunate he has been in other ways. If being given 100 grand to do whatever for 2 years isn't privilege, then I don't know what is.
This is the most condescending thing I've read in a while, and clearly a backhanded compliment.
I read Mr. Sampson's blog, and I literally got tears in my eyes. I regretted engaging with him in the way I did, but HN doesn't let me delete posts. It was also too late to edit them.
He and I had something in common, and it's just extremely rare to encounter fellow coders who spent some part of their childhood in "the system" (shelters, foster care, etc) like I did. I've also seen hardcore racists who disown their children for dating a person of color. I even tried to dissuade a man (he was a boss on a construction site i worked at) one time from doing this to his daughter. The hatred in his heart was so deep that it was like talking to a wall.
I saw a commenter continuing to engage, and I wanted to express my emotions I felt after reading his blog. I understand the anger too. I remembered, especially in my mid to late 20s, having the suppressed memories/emotions come back and fuck up my head, and often consume me. It was an attempt to relate and process, and yes, a reminder that these negative memories cause us to forget about being grateful for the good things and good people we encounter on a daily basis. The dehumanization of people who disagree with us, is bad, and I'm not pretending I'm not part of the problem, including some asshole things I said in this thread, which I regret.
Based on your outright hostility and strong political beliefs (you clearly have politics incorporated into your identity), I doubt you'll believe my explanation, but I'm writing this in the off-chance that Mr. Sampson sees this. He's embarked on a difficult path with his startup, and I sincerely wish him well. That's it.
This is better written and less condescending than your original write-up, except for your last childish insult here which you just couldn't resist making. Whatever, I'll take it. Cheers.
I love the privilege on display here. You can ignore racial inequality issues because "they are too distracting," meanwhile I have to wake up each morning, read yet another one of my brothers and sisters has been killed by police, and I still have to run my business. Your mediocrity exist in your complacently to the status-quo. On a daily basis we innovate, build, ship, and push tech more than you could ever hope -- and we don't need to ban "political discussions" at work.
If a business chooses to condemn something without backing up that solidarity with meaningful resources and capital, they should be criticized.