Ask HN: Why is the hacker scene so hostile to women and black people?

6 points by jd0 ↗ HN
This is a repost because the original post was removed by moderators from /ask

See:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6878994

4 comments

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There will always be hostility against the minority. I'm black and never feel intimidated by that. I can't say that for the rest.
A lot of 'hackers' are emotionally handicapped.
I'm not a mod so take this FWIW.

1. You first post probably triggered the controversy/flamewar penalty.

2. Your original post was probably flagged heavily because of the highly loaded title that has a very off-putting and presumptuous tone. That post's title came with an assumption that a lot of people took issue with (making the assumption that the hacker scene is actively hostile).

3. I seriously doubt a mod manually penalized your original post. Flagging was probably enough to drop it off the ask page. However, I seriously expect a mod to penalize this post because it is a repost. If there's anything the needs to be said, it should be said in the previous post.

My personal opinion is that the hacker scene is not hostile to minorities. Just that the hacker scene is slightly discouraging to minorities for passive, institutional reasons.

I can guess that jd0 has a very limited sample of exposure to hackers. I have lived in three countries and been very involved in cross cultural communication.

I would say the hacker community is very accepting.