[kroy]

This is really fascinating. This part particularly struck me:

"[Americans'] sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins. Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am clearly conscious"

As a non-black person of color, this has been my access point to issues of race and oppression. Thinking about the (relatively) minor prejudices and indignities I've experienced made me a lot more receptive to the idea that things just aren't right for a lot of people. That oppression is real. And it's also made me aware of the privilege that I do enjoy as a college-educated male who's the son of college educated parents.

This is a very prescient and relevant piece by Einstein. I'm glad it's on HN!

[washedup]

Couldn't agree more that the opposition is real. I have witnessed much of it living in a divided city like Chicago. The most difficult question about it is what we can do to shift government attention and resources? Not in the form of police cameras, squad cars, or militarization, but in the form of education and infrastructure projects. This is only a small part of the question, however. A bigger issue is not where the government spends money, but zoning laws, tax incentives to move to certain areas, and other laws that have been built up and influenced over time to create the situation we have today.

People have been noticing this and pointing it out for a long, long time. Surely Einstein would observe similar treatments as well, particularly because of his fresh perspective.

[doomlaser]

One of the biggest peaceful protests on this issue is happening today, across the nation, but you wouldn't know it from the Hacker News frontpage.

It's been troubling seeing any links about the Ferguson and Eric Garner protests wiped from Hacker News before they attract very many upvotes. The issues being debated encompass government action, fundamental technology and privacy rights, as well as race, but they're being ignored here for the most part and I don't understand exactly why.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/us/thousands-march-in-wash...

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2014/dec/13/police-k...

[dragonwriter]

The intent of Hacker News is to be news of particular interest to the "hacker" (defined in a somewhat unclear and unusually broad way, but still) community, not particularly news of general interests that is of interest to members of that community for generally the same reason and to the same extent as of the more general community.

There are plenty of other forums with different intended purposes where such discussions are less ephemeral than on HN.

[rockmeamedee]

I argue that a good hacker would be interested in these things. First, hackers care a lot about issues of justice, power and bias. Here people are being strangled on camera and their murderers are getting away with it. And, even the 'body cameras on all cops' idea we were clamoring for didn't help. That's a conversation we have to have: bodycams won't be helpful if America keeps on working this way.

Plus, how can we talk about wanting to have a 'diverse' Silicon Valley and ignore black people getting killed in the streets?

[fsloth]

Previous discussions about why not to discuss current issues in politics in HN have included the conclusions a) they are off topic and b) usually result in low quality discussion, sadly.

[lukifer]

> And it's also made me aware of the privilege that I do enjoy as a college-educated male who's the son of college educated parents.

What's scary about privilege is that it's usually invisible.

I think it's fair to say that the majority of humans experience both prejudice and privelege, albeit of radically different quantities and qualities. But while we can't help but be keenly aware of the former, the latter tends to hide itself in our definitions of "normal".

[kroy]

That's a really good point. To me privilege and oppression are two sides of the same coin though. To recognize one is to, by deduction, recognize the other.

[mekoka]

To me privilege and oppression are two sides of the same coin though.

No, they're not. A child may benefit from the privileges of parents' favoritism, it doesn't imply that her siblings are oppressed.

Privilege and Oppression are 2 distinct coins with 2 faces each. There's privilege (+1) and lack thereof (0), and there's oppression (-1) and lack thereof (0).

Being well aware of your privileges won't necessarily make you see people in "the norm" as victims, but it may give you pause when trying to form a hasty opinion of them.

Unfortunately, as stated, it's much harder to recognize one's own privileges, than it is to identify a form of oppression. So people keep presuming to know what everybody else should be, should do, should think, should eat, etc, because they presume that the apparent lack of prejudice signals a levelled playing field.