On Being a Black Man
These are interesting. As usual, I have some points from personal experience as a white minority and others just general. His bullet list is mostly good to illustrate what he&#x27;s describing as racial bias affecting him. However, a few got my attention more than others.<p>&quot;Being mistaken for another Black person at work&quot;<p>This is common and should be expected by any minority anywhere if significant differences exist between how two groups identify their members. The reason is that intuitive parts of the brain work based on what input they&#x27;ve received so far. They generalize the patterns out of the data, especially relevant vs data to ignore. Then, they use that for classifying or reacting to new data. Further, what varies the most on Black people is different than what varies the most on white people. Both sides get used to focusing on details important in their area. Simply put, these people probably see very few Black people, look for different traits for identifying them, and therefore suck at differentiating Black people in a casual way (i.e. not focusing).<p>Just need more Black people in Silicon Valley to increase exposure. Then, this problem starts going away. Meanwhile, it&#x27;s somethign that sucks a bit but isn&#x27;t necessarily racism. Just how the mind works that forces a person to work to get noticed &amp; remembered. Happens to me, too, since I intentionally look plain (but nice) to differentiate which people are worth my time. People even trip over me in stores sometimes because they can&#x27;t remember they saw me. Unless I wear a hoodie: almost everyone, esp cops, sees me then haha.<p>&quot;Being asked things like, “So, what’s it like being a Black guy in Silicon Valley?”&quot;<p>May be good or bad. Many people are curious about others&#x27; experiences. Yet, despite this being a problem, he&#x27;s writing an article on what it&#x27;s like being a Black guy in Silicon Valley. He feels better getting it out of his system and possibly hopes to help others understand the perspective. Similar to why some ask. They can&#x27;t ask but do tell.<p>&quot;Feeling out of place when I can’t identify with certain pop culture references or cultural norms&quot;<p>That&#x27;s due to both location and race. It was very hard to keep up with the Black ones as a white minority since both the references and the language itself change so fast. I stayed confused by something even when I got a lot of it. Just nodded, grinned, or looked shocked like the rest. So, I relate to this one as a painful, social barrier that will persist unless he embeds a lot with white culture and activities as I had to do with Blacks. It will still persist but he&#x27;ll have it easier since whites prefer people acting more like them. It&#x27;s the opposite with Blacks, at least in the South, where they often get angry if whites imitate their culture.<p>&quot;Being the most athletic person in a particular group, and having people say things like, “…of course it would be the Black guy”&quot;<p>Black people have been telling me for years they&#x27;re better at sports. All kinds of them young and old. This is one of those things, though, that I wonder if Blacks themselves put into white consciousness. I wondered it myself at one point as a kid thanks to them repeating it nonstop. Especially over basketball and boxing. I&#x27;m not sure how long or far Blacks have been saying it due to lack of broader data. Could be white sourcing, too.<p>&quot;Feeling like I was chosen for certain photo&#x2F;video opportunities at work and during other activities to feign diversity and acceptance&quot;<p>This one is more open for debate as it looks totally racist at first. Then, you have to think of all the lawsuits by Jesse Jackson et al where they look at number of Black people, what they make, what words people used, what relationships were like, and so on to argue for massive, financial damages. These events are probably the rare case but will be on media enough to put them into white, management&#x27;s minds. You also look many Blacks pushing for affirmative action or voluntary quotas to &quot;embrace diversity.&quot; With that backdrop, many will try to reduce liability, improve image, or both by hiring some more Blacks or other minorities. They&#x27;ll also try to show it so people notice. So, this is another case where specific groups of Blacks and&#x2F;or liberals in general act in a way that, combined with media and whites&#x27; own thinking, collectively increases odds Black people might be treated this way. I even warned them it would happen when I opposed most forms of affirmative action &amp; associated liabilities.<p>Those being hired might be anything from &quot;token hires&quot; to the minority member among several qualified candidates. The latter isn&#x27;t so bad but the former can make for very, bad situation. This dynamic sucks for all the races and any solution I&#x27;ve presented came with realistic objections from some party involved. One I promoted a long time ago a combo of blind auditions &amp; performance reviews from third party along with, if even applied, quotas only for qualified candidates that resulted from auditions. Everyone, whether ideal candidate or not, will know they earned their place with race&#x2F;gender having minimal impact. Tricky thing to promote for many reasons. Given that, it was extra-neat for me reading here about GapJumpers putting similar ideas in action. Time will tell...<p>&quot;At a certain point in my life, I realized that I had no positive role models (let alone ones I could relate to), so I set out to become a positive role model for my siblings. I didn’t want them to have to resort to gangs, violence, or go looking for love to find ways to identify with others and gain acceptance. I wanted them to learn to love themselves, and learn to love &amp; empathize with others.&quot;<p>Should&#x27;ve been the conclusion. This is <i>exactly</i> how the most awesome and successful Blacks formed in the down-trodden areas I was in. Probably most from any race if I thought about it more. Just was studying Blacks more as they were the majority. I just noticed, in hateful schools, there were people that were different. They treated whites as well as anyone else, judging on words and actions. Nothing could hold them back academically with some exceeding me with sheer determination &amp; effort. Later learned their parents and role models, including some teachers, were probably the reason. So, I wish the man success on helping his siblings achieve greatness by teaching <i>and showing</i> them. Great stuff.