So why exactly do they need to recruit more black people? Instead of like, everyone?
For example: Africa is currently going through a mobile phone revolution. Want to see staggering growth numbers? Look at mobile banking in Nigeria and Kenya. Look at what Sproxil is doing to combat counterfeit prescriptions.
Hell, in lots of places mobile phone air time is becoming as important as local currencies. Think a lily-white Stanford graduate would see a market in top up cards? I bet you they wouldn't!
Maybe you don't realize but your comment is quite racist. So, you think by virtue of being black, every African-American somehow has an inherent understanding of African nations.
Here's a excerpt from Jumpa Lahiri's book The Namesake about similar sentiments for a second generation Indian-American man talking to friends of his white girlfriend about getting sick while visiting India:
"But you must be lucky that way"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you must never get sick."
"But you're Indian," Pamela says frowning, "I'd think the climate wouldn't affect yo, given your heritage."
"Pamela, Nick's American," Lydia says ... "He was born here."
I never mentioned African Americans in my comment. It seems that you're taking "black" to mean "African American", but that's not what my comment said. Nor the article, for that matter.
The article says:
"It's adding black colleges to its recruiting swing this fall, as well as reaching out to groups with strong ties to the black community to increase the pool of applicants, Altman said."
I very much doubt that when Altman said "the black community" and "black colleges" he had in mind people from African countries or black skinned people from India.
African Americans in the US. African entrepreneurs that come to American colleges, like Ashifi Gogo of Sproxil that I mentioned before. "Black skinned people from India"? Sure, them too.
All those groups are underrepresented in technology and could bring valuable perspective to what matters to the African American community, the Nigerian community, the Indian community, the Afro-Caribbean community, ...
But we've gone down a rabbit hole here. The point I was making through example was that underrepresented groups - blacks, Hispanics, women - have different perspectives that deserve attention, because there are damn good ideas there.
A good friend of mine is a female french horn player. Orchestras sometimes do auditions behind a screen with the applicants names anonymous to the jury. This is to counteract the sexism that exists in classical music, particularly in the brass sections.
My understanding is that YCombinator is very hands on and demo days are done in person? The person is judged, not just the product.
Like I said, I do agree with your general sentiment because the situation is way more complicated and a given entity (YC in this case) doesn't have control of all upstream sources of preferential treatment to try and remove preferential treatment. It just seems like the way you phrased it didn't address the actual problem lulzwat perceived. As much as people like to pretend it isn't so they can sit on their high horse, this stuff can be complicated to get your head around (at first glance, it's 110% reasonable to say giving preferential treatment to black people seems just as racist as doing so for white people). It serves no-one to ignore someone's complaint and respond with genericism when they don't understand (or agree with) the nuances of this kinda stuff.
It shouldn't (and often doesn't) matter what you look like, where you came from, or who you are. What really matters is the value produced for others by what you do.
This sounds like a great step in promoting that property to those who may not have experienced it before. I have a feeling it may work out real well for lots of people.