Is that something to be encouraged or discouraged?

> By gathering people with the same upbringing together to work toward a common goal,

People of the same race have the same upbringing? What am I even reading?

> I'm sure you feel the same way as well when you are in an 'ethnic' neighborhood or gathering.

Are we as a society supposed to indulge that feeling? Pampering that feeling creates more racial fracturing than it fixes.

> Is that something to be encouraged or discouraged?

I think you're reading way too much into what I'm saying. I'm just stating how I think it is. Whether you like it or not, when a homogeneous group gains power anywhere, people will be suspicious, just like if a company was run solely by Republicans, the Smith family, or black people.

> People of the same race have the same upbringing? What am I even reading?

Fine, I'll be more specific, under-privileged African-Americans, 2nd generation Latinos, Southern rural white people tend to have have similar upbringings with regard to family, income, culture, and education.

> Are we as a society supposed to indulge that feeling? > Pampering that feeling creates more racial fracturing than it fixes.

I'm not offering any solutions. But for the topic at hand, when black girls come together to code, that's not saying they shouldn't hangout with white people. You're implying a false conflict. That wouldn't be the case with something like affirmative action or racial quotas which does cause conflicts.

Another view is that private groups should be able to do whatever they want, and discrimination is only a problem when it's a problem. If "black girls" grew to dominate the industry or significantly change things, then it's become problematic. Obviously that's a rather subjective measurement hence all the "debate".

But then I never felt quite right about chick groups either, if only because it isn't the REAL tech scene. It's just another subculture with its own idiosyncrasies. You can stay there as long as you want, and still be intimidated by the larger tech space where all the big stuff is happening, thus making no substantial dent in anything.

So I do believe the problem they're trying to address is a real and important one; this way of dealing with it just doesn't seem ideal to me.

Maybe you should just appreciate having that luxury rather than criticize those who do not have it.

The presence of this part of your comment indicates that you already know the answer to what you've asked, and are really just trolling by 'playing the innocent'. Please don't do that.

You have a very, very low bar for 'rabidly attack'.

Actually, taking you on face value, it's curious that you didn't make the same criticism to the parent comment, who is 'rabidly attacking' the group in the article who are 'challenging the status quo when it comes to sociological issues'.

Why on earth do you play off "think before you down vote" as a negative?!

Oh, please. It was 'playing the innocent'. Pandering to such trolls keeps the debate at a very low level. The troll worked, too - look at all the responses.

the parent comment, who is 'rabidly attacking' the group in the article who are 'challenging the status quo when it comes to sociological issues'

The group in the article are doing no such thing. My reading of the current societal status quo is that being discriminatory acceptable as long as you are a member of a protected class doing it for altruistic reasons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

And seriously, how can a comment like the parent, who is explicitly aware of the expected response, be classified as 'perfectly innocent'?

Aaaand now you've stooped to insults. We're done here, and so is the thread.

I imagine it exists for the purpose of making programming more popular among women and particularly women of African American background because at the moment I guess it's not seen as a valid career option for them. I don't know anything about the effectiveness of these programs or anything, but I believe they have a purpose outside of making men people feel welcoming to women in programming.

It's not as if now that you're exposed to racism, that you will perpetuate it, right?

I just think that positive energy put towards solving problems minorities are having can be a good thing. And that energy should not be tossed aside for the idealistic idea of ignoring racism to death.

Also, I think it's wildly speculative that these efforts breed animosity. I would ask you to reconsider if that idea has any base to it, perhaps a call for evidence is in place.

The only evidence I have to offer is purely anecdotal, but I've found with people I know who got involved with political activist groups in southern Africa just got more bitter and contentious on the subject the longer they were in those groups. I've had some Hispanic friends join cultural groups and then begin to focus more and more on the differences between themselves and the Americans around them. I've also noticed in some groups I've visited for South African ex-pats that people get together and just complain about all the things they miss about the culture they used to enjoy. I can think of a couple of groups I've seen (most notably, a polynesian dance group) where people genuinely just got together and had a good time celebrating the culture, and that was positive. But I think I've seen more negative results than positive ones.

Come to think of it, the polynesian dance group did a lot to invite non-polynesians to join in. It was a celebration of that culture, but it was very focused on including everyone - not just helping one group catch up to another.

The first step is to stop snarking at people who dare to ask.

Straw man argument, your 'creating further insular groups' representation of the original idea is not at all obviously equivalent, and you make no effort to support the representation.

> The first step is to stop snarking at people who dare to ask.

It's really not.

It's not a terrible opinion to have, it's just that I think it's counterproductive, for the reasons the other replier(s) are trying to point out to you.

Depending on location and neighbourhoods, or scope of the program they might actually have less success drawing anybody with a less specific target group.