[DoreenMichele]

I generally don't use those terms. I was just saying they exist for a reason.

I appear to be the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board of HN. My gender continues to prove to be a barrier to effective networking here and I have been here nearly eleven years and between my old account and this one I have over 50k karma, which would put me fairly high on the leader board if it were under one account.

I'm not acting like race or gender are "the determining factor," but my experiences in the last decade or so make it painfully clear that a factor like gender can be stubbornly hard to overcome, no matter how hard you try and all that.

I made it my hobby to try to get articles to the front page of HN while I was homeless. I hit the leader board about a month after I got myself back into housing without going through some program and then I changed my handle. So for various reasons when I share my thoughts and observations on things like poverty or gender issues, some folks here are interested.

[TheAdamAndChe]

I understand that your perspective is vastly different from most people on this site, and I do appreciate your input. Without people like you speaking up, certain issues would never be addressed.

My only request is that you avoid emotional and logical amplification of reality. Using terms like mansplaining and whitesplaining, and using phrases like "And, also, if you had any sense, you would have been born a different color/different gender/richer...etc" exaggerates a bad situation, makes people in those identity groups defensive, and weakens your argument. Reality is unfair enough that just highlighting it will lead to change eventually.

[DoreenMichele]

Using terms like mansplaining and whitesplaining

As noted above, I don't generally use those terms. You are "using" them yourself currently by including them in your comment telling me I am wrong to "use" them.

There's a pandemic on and I haven't slept. I don't really care to discuss this further with you. But for the record I don't think you have any right whatsoever to "request" that I behave in accordance with your wishes while leveling BS accusations in an uncharitable reading of my comment that you refuse to back down on.