Item — HN Reader

I think that's because black people have historically been "unluckier" than white people in the US.

Do you feel the same way about the sexist component of this? Should I be annoyed that "Boys code" would be persecuted but "Girls code" is all good?

(I'm not saying there are any correct answers to my questions)

4 comments

I think if some demographics are heavily underrepresented in a field, it makes some sense to target programs specifically to them.

This does happen with regards to men as well, if that's the worry—in areas where men are underrepresented. For example there is a professional association specifically to support men in nursing and recruit more men into the profession: http://aamn.org/

> I think that's because black people have historically been "unluckier" than white people in the US.

"Have historically been unluckier than", "are systematically objectified socially and repressed economically by"--I understand your typo, though, the keys are so close to each other on the keyboard.

(The tenses are important, too. It isn't new, but it isn't dead.)

Tell me about it. I was just trying to put it in blue pill white people language

I figured as much. =) It is something that I think is difficult to soft-pedal, though, and still encompass what it actually means.

I tend to think most of HN hasn't even the slightest idea, which makes me a bit sad.

I tend to give sexist language a pass because of how gendered English is (although not as gendered as many other languages). However, in this case "Kids code" seems like a viable option, so on thinking about it, the gendered nature of the title also annoys me, although my habbit of ignoring gendered language makes this a largely intellectual annoyance.

Also, the "black" in the title has the added problem of being superfluous feeling. "Code" does not convey what the group does. "Girls Code" conveys pretty well the this is a group of (female) children programmers. "Black Girls Code" conveys no additional information other than the fact that is is aimed at black girls specifically.

Also in general poor neighborhoods are fairly segregated by race, in the US, so just by picking specific cities you're accomplishing much of the racial discrimination. I don't think it's a big deal in this case, but in general poor people in Detroit are black; poor people in inland empire are white/hispanic.