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Prince Quietly Helped Launch a Coding Program For Inner City Youth (qz.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Though many would say Prince changed the world through his music, the artist also took a hands-on approach to changing the world beyond music. The global superstar was the inspiration behind YesWeCode, an Oakland nonprofit, which works to help young people from minority backgrounds enter the tech world. The idea for the program came from a conversation between Prince and his friend Van Jones, who heads Rebuild the Dream charity, following the 2012 shooting of teenager Travoyn Martin. "Prince said, 'A black kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a thug. A white kid wearing a hoodie might be seen as a Silicon Valley genius. Let's teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg.'" Jones told CNN. The program is aiming to teach 100,000 low-income non-white teenagers how to write code, and was launched at the 20th Anniversary Essence Festival in New Orleans in 2014.
"Let's teach the black kids how to be like Mark Zuckerberg"
So, thugs?
Because the tech industry doesn't have enough self-absorbed dousche bags as it is.
He was amazing!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
>> young people from minority backgrounds enter the tech world
The whole "special access due to skin color/gender" bit is getting a bit old, when what's really probably needed is "special access to people from impoverished backgrounds." When you've never seen anyone in your family working in a corporate office, it's a little hard to see understand what a career in IT/legal/other-cushy-white-collar-job could be, and there are plenty of "non-minority" kids stuck in that world too.
But if it's only for non-white teens, that is the definition of racism.
You're absolutely right. White minority students in California (a minority-majority state) wouldn't qualify for this program.
The program is aiming to teach 100,000 low-income non-white teenagers how to write code,
I guess poor white people don't matter? What if we changed that from "non-white" to non-black? Non-Mexican? Or non-gay? That would suddenly make this program racist or homophobic.
The way we've been treating each other in the US or on the planet, for that matter, has been embarrassing for most of my life as far as I can tell. But the recent trends do not give me much hope. It's a step in a different direction, but I'm not entirely sure it's a good one, just different.
Because, certain groups are incapable of bigotry.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
1. A white kid walking around at night in a hoodie looks like a thug also. He does not look like a tech billionaire.
2. All low income kids need help regardless of race.
3. Sure programing and tech can be a good way to make a living but studies have shown that people that go to vocational schools leave school with jobs and little debt.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
No. Yours is merely another form of the argument that granting equal rights to minority groups deprived of those rights is somehow actually granting that minority special rights, because now the non-minority group is no longer advantaged over the minority.
Structural racism exists and severely disadvantages these minority students.
Correcting that distortion, undoing that structural racism, is not then racist itself.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Listen, as one of your duly enshrined plutocratic oligarchs its my duty to insist upon you coding. Code. Do it. Come one come all and learn the code. Seriously it wasnt this hard to get you to start eating fried processed chicken "nuggets" or pick up another credit card, and yet here we are toeing the line again. Weve installed "code" into all your pop culture, even the prince, in a very transparent attempt to get you start doing this for us. We've even taken the initiative to market gender-specific coding pitches to males and females, as you've grown so fond of for everything from food to deodorant. Code is in your movies, your TV series, your cartoons, and your social media. The faster you start coding, the faster we can get to shuffling "programmer" and "system engineer" back to the bottom of the dung heap of salaried wageslave positions.
Im serious. im getting really tired of dealing responsibly and reasonably with employed programmers and sysops just because they have 4 job offers at any given time to pick from. I want..no..I need a world where I can get up at 10 AM, shit on a man for screwing up an egg mcmuffin, and then turn around and with the same disregard for humanity shit on a man for arguing the need for patching before features. Its just what ive become.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Only if you're not white. We have enough rich white bastards, we need more diversity among the rich bastards.
Beats me why, but I keep hearing good things 'bout it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Doesn't seem so quiet if it makes the news.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A Guide to White Privilege For White People Who Think They’ve Never Had Any
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The reason the rich send their kids to Harvard and Stanford is not that they receive a better education there, but rather that they make contacts with the kids of other rich families that they have a good chance of getting hired by or starting a company with. So I agree, a lot of being successful is WHO you know, not WHAT you know, and that cannot be taught. On the bright side, I've seen some very talented lawyers and other professionals mentoring poor minority kids, and that assistance may be more valuable than going to an Ivy League school.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
On the bright side, California is now instituting affirmative action programs so that white students can now get admitted to the UC system, which before was filled entirely with Asians!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Oh. OK.
So any program that aims to get women into math and science is sexist because its not helping men get in?
A Guide to White Privilege For White People Who Think They’ve Never Had Any http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Sorry but
1. It is from the the Huffingtonpost
2. It is essentially a book review from a biased author.
3. White privilege implies that it is something bestowed on someone by other people. If you want to treat people equally then stop separating people based on ethnicity.
4. I am not an American. I am a Canadian and a first generation immigrant who happens to be "white" but I experienced discrimination from the "English" when I was in my early grades in school. I also did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. My parents worked hard for what we had.
Basically, this white privilege stuff is an American invention. You guys need to get out of the 18th century already.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
How is this program supposed to actually work?
Teaching students how to think logically rather than impulsively is a useful skill in life.
So convince some shit-kicking country superstar to fund a program in low-income white communities. Maybe you can convince Kid Rock if you can wake him.
You are welcome on my lawn.
But stating that some groups are eligible for something and others are not is not correcting structural racism, it's merely switching the target of it. As long as "correcting" something involves putting somebody else at a disadvantage, there can never be hope of eliminating it.
...and what is America mostly comprised of? Europeans who colonized America. Don't feel bad though, Canada is pretty much the same in that regard.
But really, colonization and white privilege are not the same thing, so your pseudo-intellectualism falls on its face. "White Privilege" hasn't been an actual problem in Canada or the US for decades but a few special interest groups want to keep it alive because it grants them privileges most of us don't have.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Maybe I'm just an extra-capable nice guy with a long memory and experience in many different walks of life.
In short, you need to learn how to be an asshole. Eli the Computer Guy can help you with that problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_YaNGzplbE
So any program that aims to get men into math and science is sexist because its not helping women get in?
Just don't pretend like these kids are going to get jobs writing code without jumping through a very expensive college degree hoop.
Or, if they're interested in computer programming, go to a community college and get a part-time job. As a poor white boy from a blue-collar family, I spent my first year in college picking up recyclables on campus to pay for my classes and books.
Really? They are exactly the same thing.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I don't expect a high level of editing on Slashdot, but you could at least give Trayvon Martin the respect of spelling his name correctly.
It is NOT misleading deflection. I've been told on MANY occasions, that any bigotry by special classes is in fact "earned" and thus "not bigotry". When people of that protected minority can say, do and be expressly anti white, and get a pass on virtually all of it (encourage it in music etc), it is also evidence that is not just a few people believing it, but a large part.
Look, I realize there are bigots out there. And color of skin doesn't stop bigotry, there are white bigots, black bigots, Hispanic bigots, Asian bigots and so on. And when you DO NOT call it for what it is, when you see it, you are just saying it is okay. The simple fact is "Certain Groups are incapable of bigotry" is a sarcastic response to the idea that whites, male, heterosexuals are the sole cause of all the ills in the world. This is bigotry of the left.
Revenge bigotry is still bigotry, and doesn't reduce it at all. Fight bigotry, you must fight ALL forms of it, just not the kinds you don't like.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Or, if they're interested in computer programming, go to a community college and get a part-time job. As a poor white boy from a blue-collar family, I spent my first year in college picking up recyclables on campus to pay for my classes and books.
I suppose I could have done the same if "recyclables" included gold bullion and diamonds. You're being very insensitive to those of us who attended expensive private schools. These microaggressions are just killing me!
No, they are not. Try to keep up. Colonialism is when one political power establishes itself in another country that is not its own. This process may include inequality towards one or more indigenous peoples but it doesn't need to, that's just historically the by-product. Colonialism does not specifically imply "white privilege".
In fact you see the same thing happening all over with non-whites. East Indians do it all the time. So do the Chinese. They move to a country in large numbers, congregate in specific areas, and then exert political and cultural influence.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Come join our hugcircle! Your microaggression is showing.
Coding jobs are not the factory jobs of the modern age. They are highly specialized, need a lot of talent and dedication and coding above a very low difficulty and quality level can most decidedly not be taught to everybody. Please stop teaching these already disadvantaged youth something most of them will never be good at and where the available jobs on the lower levels are in a fast downwards spiral with regards to pay, job security and upwards mobility. You are just screwing them over.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You need Harvard to help with crawling into upper class, but you do not need tit to become a normal middle class coder.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Well, Schindler did this for the first time and under extreme risk and pressure. He had to figure it out as he went, and if he had overdone it or seriously mis-stepped, he could also have saved a lot less people. It is understandable that his first go at the problem was probably non-optimal.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
From experience teaching coding, most students cannot generalize what they learn in coding, hence that is not what is happening. Incidentally, if your argument were true, math in school would have already accomplished that.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Sounds like you never learned to say "no". It is a critical survival skill in the IT industry, as so many people are so incompetent that they spend a lot of time looking for somebody that can do their work for them.
It does not need to be a blunt "no". It can be, "sure, I will be delighted, what cost object do I book this on?" or "sure, we will be happy to do that for you under an additional contract" or the like. That way, you can fend of people that just want your time and expertise for free and if they are willing to pay, you have the needed data to demand a raise.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I have never known anyone that made more than maybe 15$ for an 8-hour day collecting cans.
This was in the early 1990's. I typically spent an hour a day after classes to pick up recyclables from the trash receptacles around campus to fill up a burlap bag, five days a week during the 18-week semester. I made $300 to $400 per semester (about $3 to $4 per hour), which was enough to get through me a semester at school while living with my parents. The only support I got from my parents for college was a ride to the recycling center. I did that for two semesters before I got a job at the campus bookstore and worked 30 hours a week to move into a five-bedroom Victorian frat house with 12 other guys.
Incidentally, if your argument were true, math in school would have already accomplished that.
The public schools taught me nothing. I had a college-level reading comprehension in the eighth grade because I wanted to learn more than what I could get at school. I had to go to college to get a real education.
You need Harvard to help with crawling into upper class, but you do not need tit to become a normal middle class coder.
Eh...not really. I know a lot of people with >120k/yr salaries who have nothing more than community college degrees. Hell, at the rate I'm going, I'll be there soon-ish, and that's all I have. (I'm at about $80k only two years out of community college.)
>. I know a lot of people with >120k/yr salaries who have nothing more than community college degrees
That's not upper class. Not at all. Trust me.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Teach all those Ivy League/Government Intelligence/Google interpersonal networking connections that one is typically born into?
Aka "the old boy's network". Yeah, good point. Apart from that, we don't actually need more huge internet services - that train has already arrived - and left again. What we really need is people who understand bio-technology, bio-medicine, advanced genetics and genomics, advanced materials (like graphene, phosphene, meta-materials etc), and a long list of other, advanced technologies; plus the fundamental research that goes before all of this, which must be independent of industry ties. We have enough, bloody useless entertainment services already.
Fight bigotry, you must fight ALL forms of it, just not the kinds you don't like.
Firefighters who fight forest fires by consuming their fuel in small controlled fires might disagree with the analogy: "Fight fire, you must fight ALL forms of it, just not the kinds you don't like."
Cite the laws which discriminate against minorities.
One set of laws was an apartheid regime called Jim Crow, which was in place in several U.S. states in the early to mid twentieth century. Though apartheid became unenforceable in the United States in 1965, their effects continue because of other laws, such as property law and inheritance law. Parents who had been impoverished by apartheid had less wealth to hand down to their children. Having to work harder to make ends meet caused families to sacrifice education in favor of survival.
Drug prohibition is another one. Michelle Alexander argued in The New Jim Crow that African Americans are disproportionately arrested for possessing recreational psychoactive substances compared to their proportion of users of such substances.
If you want to treat people equally then stop separating people based on ethnicity.
Tell that to white police officers who disproportionately arrest people of color for nonviolent offenses.
Hate begets hate. Let me know when bigotry leads to love. You are excusing hate on one side, not realizing hate begets hate. The only answer is to denounce hate and bigotry for everyone, equally, starting now. Not supporting bigotry because of some past wrongs.
Or, as my daddy used to say, "Two wrongs don't make it right" My addition is "Two wrongs is worse the one".
I hate bigots, and I don't give a shit what their color, creed or sexuality is. Bigotry is nasty and evil. All of it.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
But you're also the one excusing the soft bigotry of low (or non-existent) expectations. Lets raise the bar, instead of just moving it to a new location.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Though apartheid became unenforceable in the United States in 1965, their effects continue because of other laws, such as property law and inheritance law.
It's 2016 get the fuck over it.
Said other laws make it difficult for families to "get [...] over it." Even if all genetic causes of prejudice were eliminated, socioeconomic status is still heritable despite not being genetic.
Same here. But this is not the norm and a "coding camp" would probably just bore you out of your wits.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.