Rent a Minority(rentaminority.com) |
Rent a Minority(rentaminority.com) |
However, I do find women, regardless of race/religion, to be more subjected to discrimination and harassment.
Additionally, the response to [1] in the FAQ by the site author is the most unadulterated form of (reverse) racism that continues it's meteoric rise in acceptance in the media. Tragic!
[1]: "I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME?"
* People ask "What are you" (As my ethnicity isn't super obvious).
* If they don't believe me I'll next get, "No really, where are you from" .
* Been asked if I speak Korean and Spanish (two separate occasions) because they needed a translator (not Korean or Hispanic at all) .
* Been on a few dates where they've said "Normally I'm not attracted to Hispanic men" (Not hispanic!) .
* Went to a bar (that served normal bar food). After sitting down, overheard from a group nearby "Does it smell like rice in here?"
Isn't it fair that others may mistake your origins and are interested in them ?
Is it good or bad that you "clearly" look like someone from place X from earth or that people put you origins in the wrong place? Should they surpress their curiosity? Moving somewhere on earth is so easy today, getting rid of your dna totally not
The last one isn't nice though and I'd wish I was so carismatic that others always reacted in a positive way towards me, but they don't. We are all subject to the judgment of others, may it be positive or negative
So, yes, this is a joke. Obviously. You can stop getting angry now. Or get angry, but get angry at what Rent-a-Minority is angry about. The site is a #satire on a type of tokenism that is particularly rife in the tech and media world.
Your remark, on the other hand, not so much.
Your sound like you see yourself as a non-racist, but you probably don't realize that you are actually being racist yourself by making these comments.
Absolute brilliant :)
One who see's corporations only disingenuously adopting formal policies to hire minorities, only doing it in marketing and for public appearance to appease other white people, rather than offering minorities meaningfully positions of power.
And the other who see these policies as ineffective and bowing down to special interests groups without providing any meaningful benefit to the minority group while simultaneously harming the parent company by hiring people based on their appearance rather than intrinsic value they provide the company.
Attempting to eliminate biases by force or social pressure is always going to be fraught with risk and aversion.
When you meet or see someone, you automatically try to categorize people. For now at least, that includes trying to figure out gender and ethnicity. Many of our parents or grandparent had very distinct prejudices. Also, for better or for worse, ethnicity still has a huge impact on someone's circumstances.
It was only a couple years ago that someone finally pushed back on the question "where are you from" to me. Before that, I would never have thought of it being objectionable. I also think context is important here. There's nothing wrong with finding out the ethnic ancestry of your friends, but maybe it's not an appropriate question when you first meet someone.
I'm sad to say that I don't actually know many of my Indian coworkers full names, simply because they are so different from people I was raised around.
If they want to drill into it more, I say "Well, my mom's from NYC, my dad is ethnically Cantonese but was born in the Philippines, and I grew up in Boston. My maternal grandfather was Irish Catholic and my grandmother was a WASP." Usually at that point their eyes start to glaze over though.
As someone who absolutely hates the place I am "from" and pretty much everything about it this questions always made me uneasy.
>I AM A STRAIGHT WHITE MAN AND I FEEL EXCLUDED BY THIS. CAN YOU MAKE YOUR SITE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME, ME, ME?
> I'm sorry that your feelings are hurt. I have listened to your feedback and, in response, am currently working on rentamajority.com. Stay tuned. In the meantime, thank you for your interest in maintaining the status quo. I mean, 'equality', it's overrated, right?
This part seems uncool to me. It's posturing straight white men as very self-absorbed, and precluding any concerns or opinions they might have about this, dismissing them merely for being a straight white man. Which seems quite hypocritical, right?
"Booth babes" are still a thing, stupid and sleazy as that is.
Perhaps the question is: why are there no booth bros. Well, there are, they're just not in a booth. They're standing bare chested in front of Abercrombie tries to get the lady folk through the door.
Sexiness is sexiness, it is human nature to be attracted to the physically fit, millions of years have literally hardwired our brains to act a certain way. It is nothing to be ashamed of.
People shouldn't put down women who work as "booth babes". Nothing wrong with it, everyone needs a job, not everyone is drowning in opportunities, but criticizing their presence at tech events is legitimate. I can't imagine being a woman and seeing that in a supposedly professional setting.
So, IMO we should respect the kind of effort it takes to be a top tier boot babe.
EDIT: Instead of downvoting, why not provide your view of how this is helping anything?
Because humor is a good mechanism for talking about topics we might not otherwise talk about, but should be.
By "adversarial discourse", do you mean the site or the HN comments?
Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad (with some people even suggesting they should refuse those donations to make a point), which seems completely nonsense.
How far does it have to go for these attempts to raise awareness of a problem to turn into racism themselves?
Though I think the way women and POC typically respond is part of the problem. They often fully cooperate with the derail by all piling on to reply to him rather than sending the message that "the entire world does not revolve around you" by refusing to let the entire discussion revolve around that one guy.
I say this as a white man who calls out racism regardless of whether its directed at minorities or the cis white man.
At the same time, I think you've hit on the crux of the point the site is making. You might find it interesting to explore the idea at one level deeper.
I don't know if you identify as a straight, white male, but if you do, you can see how frustrating it feels to be categorized in this way.
Now imagine the majority of panel discussions you attend, board members you see, politicians, etc. all in minor ways, perpetuate that same level of marginalization.
A panelist always seems to be making jokes about how brogrammers are unconsciously racist, the boards of companies are all wearing Muslim garb (with a token white guy thrown in every once in a while), and the number of "people in power" who are supposed to represent you never seem to have the same skin color you do.
If we (I'm a straight, white male) are able to tap into the frustrating that FAQ generates in us, it may help us understand the perspectives of others better; which I personally believe, is the key to doing something about it.
Trying to pretend we're all equal hasn't worked, because we're not all equal - the ecosystems we live in are never a level playing field. Trying to pretend they are exacerbates the problem.
If instead we try to empathize, and understand the experiences of others though, maybe we can be open to making the changes in ourselves necessary to making the playing field a bit more level.
Which is why I appreciate your comment - it represents your true perspective, which makes intuitive sense. I think if you're willing to take the author's argument the next logical step, you might find her/his perspective some makes sense as well.
I'm a straight, white man and the FAQ item makes total sense to me. I don't do that, but enough of my 'brothers in arms' do. It's derailing and annoying.
Well fuck you too. I used to tolerant to all these micro aggressions (that I listed above) for at least 20 years. But now they just piss me off.
The color of my skin is not a conversation starter.
I'm not a sideshow freak here to satisfy your ignorant curiosity.
You want to talk about my origins? Ask permission.
How do you do that?
Talk to me like a human. Ask me about my childhood. Ask me what my favorite authors are. What's a good pizza topping. Get to know me first. I'll share my origins to anyone who actually shows some love.
vs
> Lately, I have even witnessed people complaining that most donations come from white men charities and that this is bad
So... you complain that the website is generalising, then go on to imply that a clear outlier is also the general case?
Just because black people specifically are underrepresented in SV doesn't mean that it's (racially) non-diverse.
Either way, you can't argue that something should be done on the basis that it is legal and works. You can obviously change the laws, and there's lots of stuff that 'works' while externalizing all the damage done.