How SBF(FTX) used his status as the right kind of "White Boy" to con the world.

[xqcgrek2]

Yup, SBF clearly had the whole schtick of "MIT genius tech bro" scam down to an art. It would have never worked if he were not a from a supposedly elite institution (which increasingly, is viewed by many to be a dumpster fire) and was not of the right with the correct socioeconomic status.

[balsam]

Author is Arthur Hayes, founder of the late crypto exchange BitMEX. The essay is less inflammatory than the title suggests, and I read it for the finance insights—- after all BitMEX was accused of frontrunning customers (too?)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/the-rise-and-fall-of...

[FormerBandmate]

Interesting quote from this article:

“ As a student at Penn, I received a crash course education on the finer nuances of whiteness. The Fraternity system allowed the groups of same-caste whites to congregate together. There were Jewish, Southern White, WASP, and International White frats. While they didn’t put a billboard up saying “if you are not this or that, please don’t apply”, everyone surmised pretty quickly which house was which. My house was one of the traditionally more diverse fraternities, at least as far as Penn fraternities go. In the early 1990’s, the house got into a bit of trouble when a member of the WASP frat called a black brother by a racial slur. One of our house’s brothers or pledges retaliated by kidnapping a brother of the WASP frat, tying him to a flagpole in the black West Philly ghetto with a boombox playing Malcom X speeches.”

This dude clearly has serious issues with race. The framing of that is insane, it’s still an interesting article but it is heavily inflammatory

[hackerlight]

Why do you say "late"? They're still around.

[BoiledCabbage]

That was a solid read. I went in all ready to dismiss it, and still wasn't sure in the beginning, but by the end enjoyed it.

Direct and not PC about making its points.

[isthisthingon99]

Same. It wasn't racist at all.

[Steven-Clarke]

"SBF played the game on the meta level, and traded social currency — hoodwinking the Western financial establishment and the crypto industry alike in the process." - Arthur Hayes @cryptohayes

[hobbitstan]

‘Note that I will be using the term “white” to refer to people of European descent, and the term “black” to describe people of African descent.’

SBF is Jewish. The ‘right kind of white boy‘ is an antisemitic dog whistle.

[user_named]

Dang, I flagged this for the offensive title. I've seen you've already moderated a comment here - why do you think this racist title is good for HN?

[bdcravens]

The article discusses issues of privilege and how this is a tool that enables fraud like SBF's. While the title may be a trigger for some, the article itself is well written.

[enochpromo]

Arthur Hayes makes a valid point.

[stevedewald]

The title of this article is pretty offensive. I don’t want to read it. Is there some context that makes the racial slur appropriate here? Or we allow it because racism against white people is in vogue?

[TurkishPoptart]

I agree that it is offensive. He's an elite, based on his education. And I guess he was high-IQ, too. He's probably Jewish, too, and history tells us that (some, not all) Jewish people have only been considered "white" until recently. Lesson: race is relative, and this author of the article is race-baiting for clicks.

[klyrs]

I missed the memo, is "white" a slur now?

[PhasmaFelis]

Are you saying that white boy is a racial slur?

As a white boy, this is pretty funny to me.

[dang]

"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: you've unfortunately been breaking the site guidelines quite badly lately. Could you please stop doing that?

[poxwole]

Do you have a stimulus reaction to anything mentioning whiteness?

[jbirer]

Sad to see Arthur Hayes resort to racism to make his point.