[bennysomething]

I can sympathize with feeling of needing this. But I can't help thinking, what if my daughter wanted to go to this with say a black friend, she wouldn't be allowed. It sort of feels like it will ultimately create division rather than heal it.

I'd prefer kids were taught that they can try anything they dam well please. They just need to try.

Btw this is all hypothetical, my daughter is two and we live in the UK.

[vharuck]

>But I can't help thinking, what if my daughter wanted to go to this with say a black friend, she wouldn't be allowed.

I don't think that's the case. Quoting from a description of one event hosted by Black Girls Code:

>Who can participate in the hackathon?

>The Hackathon is open to girls of all experience levels. All are welcome and encouraged to register, whether a participant has previous coding exposure or is new to coding and app development!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bgc-and-nike-virtual-hackathon-...

If your daughter wants to go with her friend, I don't think the staff at the event would mind. Heck, they might love it to know a little girl in their target demographic had a coding buddy.

>I'd prefer kids were taught that they can try anything they dam well please. They just need to try.

They should also be taught that, but they're only human like the rest of us. Discouragement is often irrational, but that doesn't make it irrelevant.

[KingMob]

I've volunteered at a few NYC BGC events, and can confirm that sometimes girls bring a non-black friend, so it's definitely ok.

[dolni]

Isn't this line of thinking sort of excusing the thing that the very program is supposed to address though?

More concretely, the need for this program is described as a welcoming environment for black girls to get into STEM, because black girls are discouraged being that they are "outsiders".

Why would a white girl not feel like an "outsider" as a program specifically for black girls?

[utucuro]

As a minority in the country I was born in, I know what it means to feel like an outsider my whole life. It's fine for a kid to learn what it feels like to be an outsider for once in her life, it builds empathy.

[Viliam1234]

In this case, a better solution could be to organize the activity at a place where black people live, but allow anyone to join.

Okay, this addresses the race, not sure what to do about gender. Maybe choose a stereotypically girly topic and make posters in pink color, but again allow anyone to join, I guess. Send a signal, don't close the door.

[whimsicalism]

This is a good solution and also a pretty common one, since public school districts not under a court order aren't allowed to explicitly consider race.

I grew up attending a "Saturday academy" sort of STEM program where I was the only white kid in a cohort of perhaps 50. It was open to anyone, but because they reached out to Black families and were in a Black neighborhood, they were able to target without having strict, exclusive rules.

Just targeting places with lots of Black people is definitely a huge improvement over what we currently do.