[Ancapistani]

While bias in hiring is certainly an issue, I don’t believe that its the primary factor.

Most of this disparity is due to differences in opportunity. Blacks in the US are less likely to have the resources at their disposal to enter our field. They are less likely to have two parents at home, to be able to afford college on their own, to have the familial financial and emotional support system necessary to have the required risk tolerance to attempt their own venture, and most of all - less likely to have escaped the pressures of devoting all of their energy to financial survival in the first place.

Assuming the above statement is true, the only way to solve that problem is the address the root causes: stable families, educational opportunities, easier access to decent wages, and lower housing costs.

[umvi]

> the only way to solve that problem is the address the root causes: stable families, educational opportunities, easier access to decent wages, and lower housing costs.

That first one seems much more difficult than the others. How do you go from pervasive single-parent households to consistent two parent households? You can't simply throw money at the problem and expect the next generation to bootstrap itself into stable marriages. A lot of these single parent families start in middle/high school.

And you can't just say "teach it in school" either, because truancy is rampant among black impoverished youth. So even if you have the best school in the world, it does no good if the kids aren't attending.

[Ancapistani]

> How do you go from pervasive single-parent households to consistent two parent households?

I can’t. I’m a white dude and completely outside that experience, to the point that I would have to drive more than an hour to get somewhere it’s happening.

I believe cultural is by and large a result, not a root cause. As a society we must identify the causes of the negative culture, work to change those things, wait, and modify our approach based on observation as time goes on.

In terms of concrete ideas I would say:

1: judicial reforms. All else being equal, Blacks receive longer sentences than Whites. Stop that, through any means necessary. For the immediate future, the President and state governors should look for Black offenders in particular that are serving time and grant clemency and pardons as appropriate.

2: legislative reforms. Crimes that are predominately committed by Blacks have harsher prescribed punishments. Cocaine possession versus crack cocaine possession is a great example of this. Mandatory minimums should be significantly reduced or eliminated. We should consider some means of reducing the latitude that judges have for determining sentencing.

3. social support. This doesn’t have to mean the government spending tax dollars - it could, and that could be effective, but I’m sure you can infer from my username that that’s not what I want to happen. The biggest thing here would likely be the people who “made it” staying involved in their local communities. A child who grows up seeing all of the adults around them either struggling to survive in a dead-end job, incarcerated, or actively involved in criminal activity and apparently better off for it has the deck stacked against them.

I live in a poor, rural area. I take every opportunity I get to show kids what I do, how I got here, and what it would take for them to take a similar path. AFAIK, that’s simply not happening in most poor Black communities.

[jknz]

Truancy: the action of staying away from school without good reason; absenteeism. (Had to google it! Thanks for a new word)

Truancy can be dealt with by providing food to the kid at the end of the school day, food meant to be brought home.

There are of course arguments against this, e.g., school are not meant for this. Well, schools are not meant to operate with absent students and whatever can fix should be considered.

[whammywon]

Some schools do provide food for students' evening meals. I don't have a statistic to provide, but my wife's school is one of them. It's also worth noting that her school is the low socioeconomic school district in our town (out of 3 total).

[burfog]

Perform a trick to get a food reward?

It sounds like training dolphins.

I don't even know if that is a good sign or a bad sign, but... wow.

[adwn]

Sure, you can turn up your nose at this "trick", shrug with resignation, and tell yourself "Well, nothing we can do about it!"

Or you can get off your high horse, try something new, and see whether it solves this problem.

[shakezula]

It can't be addressed directly, it's a latent expression of the problem. Address all the other things and you'll see increased stability in the average family.

[athms]

>Blacks in the US are less likely to have the resources at their disposal to enter our field.

What is "our" field? Food service? Car repair? Carpet cleaning?

>to be able to afford college on their own

No college is needed to be an entrepreneur.

[Twixes]

I imagine grandparent meant the broad field of software. Where you do need at least somewhat performant hardware and an environment to focus in to enter it.

To be an entrepreneur, you do need connections and a cushion (like savings or family with means to support you) though.

[threatofrain]

What's sad is that all these kinds of investments would take two decades to see fruit, but in tech years that's forever.