rich-and-poor's comments

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

> alternative solutions

I'll give it a go. I first want to say something about the worldview required to do this sort of racial discrimination.

There is no way of quantifying the relative advantages and disadvantages between identity groups. How much is one group oppressed over another? Suppose that a simple tax would suffice to even things out, exactly how much should that tax be? There is no way of knowing precisely what that tax should be. Our attempts to define oppression are never going to be rigorous. They'll always be vague, which I believe is dangerous, since it will be enforced by some large bureaucracy. We need definition, but there will never be definition accurate enough. Feel free to argue me on this, but I don't see how you can do it.

Second, in separating people into these identity groups, you deny my individuality. Every time I speak, I speak as a member of my group, for my group. My actions are actions of and for my group, as well. With the world view taken here, I cannot speak or act without the presupposition that I'm doing it as a move in a power game between my identity group and other identity groups. Should we accept that a person's ethnicity and gender must always qualify their speech and actions?

I agree that in conversation, one can observe the race and gender of the other person - but the merit of their words is still paramount. You may know that a book author is from Spain or Russia, but that does not affect how you read the book. However, in the worldview in which a racially discriminatory VC fund is socially acceptable, people are defined as members of groups among other groups, constantly vying for power and oppressing one another.

Notice I'm not really going after the racially-discriminatory VC fund itself. I'm explaining the worldview in which the fund was conceived, and in which it is socially acceptable. It boils North America down from a melting pot of ambitious individuals trying to do great things with each other, into identity groups that are constantly holding power over, and suffering under the tyranny of, other identity groups. Obviously, the dominant narrative here is that white males are oppressing women of color founders. But you have no idea about the individual biases of the white males you're decrying. And you also have no idea whether or not they achieved funded status based on their competence. Yet you still assume the system is broken, and you still rob them of their individuality, still knowing nothing of their biases and nothing of their competence.

> Keep in mind that not doing anything doesn't seem to fix these things.

Why must we do something? Where is the evidence that people are not choosing to be founders of their free will? How can you be sure that the lack of founder diversity is evidence of a flaw in the system? I say that the system is operating in a very healthy manner.

Efforts to move power to the disadvantaged that disregard individuality has had tragic, deadly results in history (China, Vietnam, USSR).

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

You find racial discrimination acceptable? Or also virtuous? Is it a good goal to strive for in 21st century society? Do you find virtue in breaking people up into racial and gendered groups, and then applying pre-calculated policies to "even them out"?

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

It is not that they have been systematically discriminated against; it is that they are being systematically discriminated against with this very fund. Let's get this straight: You are not cleared of being racist if you are discriminating against a group you deem as "in power". It is simply your careless redefinition of the word racism to apply not to ethnicity or nationality, but to power. This redefinition clears those not in power from being called racist when they explicitly discriminate on racial grounds.

The reason why the majority of funded founders are white men is because white is the majority color in places where there is the most VC money, and men are less risk averse, especially in the more extreme male personality types.

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

Racism does not depend on history or society, it depends on whether or not there is active racial discrimination. You imply that only the powerful may be racist, and that discrimination towards the racial or gender group "of power" is not only not racist, but a virtuous act.

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

It is at the very least racial discrimination, as it discriminates on the basis of race who should receive funding. You could argue that it does make the claim that non-colored men have relative superiority, otherwise it would not be able to justify it's abject racism towards them.

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: A new $100M fund for women founders of color

If you're a VC fund that discriminates by race and gender in the fight against "racism and sexism", then your definitions of those two terms do not rely on ethnicity or gender at all. The terms "racism and sexism" as used here describe power, first and foremost. Those holding power are necessarily prejudiced, and to discriminate against them cannot be a prejudiced act; by your definition, the minority cannot be prejudiced, and are but victims of prejudice.

The truth is this: To have equality of outcome across race and gender in entrepreneurship is impossible. It's unclear why anyone at all is interested in taking extremely high risk positions as founders of start ups relying on fast growth and with a small amount of burn; to segment that group by racial and gender identity is to shame and belittle the ones deemed "to hold the power". And when they cry out that they are being discriminated against on the basis of race, you are one step ahead of them: Your convenient re-definition of racism to be an act only committed by those of power denies the shamed their rightful defense.

rich-and-poor | 7 years ago | on: GitHub mirror compromise incident report

He should have sat on the password. He should have watched for PRs, and started pushing updates immediately after they had received approval, and then merging. Instead, he panicked and kicked out all the maintainers, who realized the intrusion only 10 minutes after he gained access. And all he did was add `rm -rf /*` to build scripts, and the N word to the readme.

The malicious commits:

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/e6db0eb4

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/afcdc03b

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/49464b73

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/fdd8da2e

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/e6db0eb4

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/c46d8bbf

https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo/commit/50e3544d

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