Nothing interesting's going to come from changing the topic to VC in general, and certainly not if you do it snarkily and with a shallow dismissal—both of which are also in the site guidelines, so this comment is a sort of trifecta.
Census Date: Total US Asian population
1970: 1.5M
1980: 3.5M
1990: 7.2M
2000: 10.6M
2010: 15.2M
2020 (proj): 19.7M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_racial_and_ethnic_d...
We might earn more on average and might expect to live longer, but there's plenty of historical baggage. It's not a competition, but there's plenty of baggage. The internment camps of WWII are literally still in living memory. Personally, multiple times throughout K-12-college, in the most liberal cities in the US, I've been told to go back to where I came from. I don't let it bother me - I can't let it bother me - but it's still very real.
> If you search for it, any group can find areas where they feel they are being mistreated, but on the whole, your parents’ strategy has succeeded spectacularly.
It did, but there are some very important caveats:
1. My parents' strategy had to be built on top of the hard-earned victories by the black communities in the US in the 60's and 70's.
2. I personally benefited from my race's perception as "civil, unlike the other minorities". You don't get to choose which side of that fence you're born on.
3. My parents and their fellow immigrants were the product of extensive resources poured into their educations in their home countries. They were educated enough to perceive and understand the cultural "game" played by the American middle/upper classes. That's not a repeatable strategy for most people in the US, period, let alone for minorities.
4. In practice my upbringing, and that of my fellow immigrants and ABC's, wasn't just by our parents, it was a whole community's pooled time and energy. Just look at how Chinese American communities handle college admissions.
5. My parents understood, whether tacitly or explicitly, that as Chinese Americans the children would have to assimilate into mainstream American culture, and by doing so they could mostly pass as "white". My parents outright told me that it was necessary for my future career. Imagine telling that to a black person. Good luck doing that when your skin color literally doesn't let you do it.
> I think this is in part, because it was a win-win strategy. We were able to make our lives better without making another race feel bad or making their lives worse. Nobody had to lose for us to win.
That's not true. Chinese American communities, for example, enthusiastically engage in "opportunity hoarding". (https://belonging.berkeley.edu/richard-reeves-opportunity-ho...) The losers in this are usually other minorities. The effect is indirect, but it's real. A great example of this is the fact that Chinese Americans suddenly become politically active the moment there's even a whiff of anything remotely like affirmative action. We might frame it as a matter of meritocracy or fairness, but we also know it's not a win-win situation. We know it's about winning the game for our team to the detriment of other minority groups.
The GP comment probably wouldn't have been downvoted if it had been more substantive. It's a bit hard to read where it's coming from, "this is such a defeated mindset" has a touch of name-calling about it (which is against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), "you're welcome to it all you want" has a touch of personal attack about it, and "some of us aren't willing to settle" would make a fine opening for saying more—like what that means, and why, and above all, sharing some of the experience that has led to that position—but it doesn't make a good closing for a one-liner.
Posts like that aren't acceptable on HN, so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules from now on, we'd be grateful.
First off, black people confronting racists about their racism has significant risk of emotional and bodily harm. Even when it's unconscious bias from an otherwise well-meaning person, bringing it up is a risk.
For example, I don't tell my boss to stop staring at my tits. I do my best to grit that one out. He's otherwise an ally, and losing his support would mean losing my job. And winning unlawful termination suit is a mug's game: you might score a few grand, which is taxable income, your employer gets to write it off, and good luck finding a new job with the story "I sued my employer".
As I said before, not every black person wants to be an activist. And why should we expect that of them? If we have that expectation, it's extra work they need to do on top of the work required for their actual job / interests. What you're asking for is tantamount to asking for unpaid overtime. That's a great recipe for enlarging the wage gap, not shrinking it. People who aren't burdened by this crap get to otherwise spend their time and energy on career-boosting side projects, hobbies or other enjoyable activities and their mental health is improved as a result. I'm summarizing what I've read from black activists -- people who have devoted themselves to this. Here's a couple of articles by black authors on the topic. Please read them in an empathetic mindset.
https://www.mic.com/p/being-black-at-work-right-now-means-do...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/17/black-peo...
> I'm not in any "camp".
As I said, that was a gross oversimplification of the situation. But you are absolutely a participant in this society, and you fall somewhere in a gradient spanning the range that I described. On reflection, your assertion that you don't belong to any camp puts you squarely in the third camp: people who are well meaning, and don't see that they're part of the problem. That's an okay place to be. You're showing genuine curiousity about this issue, and you might read up on it and wake up one day with the understanding that you're responsible for taking up the work yourself.
> Nor was I looking into what I need to do in this situation, but rather commenting on ... particularly black people ...
Perhaps you should focus on what you can do about this situation, and not what you think black people are supposed to be doing. Like I said, you can only control your own actions.