Christopher Allan Webber

just your morning cup of racism in tech news

Christopher Allan Webber at

It is not okay that this is near the top of hacker news this morning.

Sandy Bucket likes this.

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) shared this.

Show all 10 replies
Now in the web client I see the headline. That might have clued me in on what you were talking about. :-)

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) at 2015-10-16T20:58:15Z

Firstly, racism and stereotypes are two different things. This article shows the author may believe some rather silly stereotypes about black people. And that is it.

Secondly, it is you who's being "racist" when fried chicken makes you think the article has anything to do with any race.

Thirdly, the article's very premise and conclusion goes against the idea of the author being racist. To recap: areas with many chicken shops (or black people if you're "racist") are places that the author considers established, not "up and coming", with higher house prices. This can only be interpreted as "places with many chicken shops are worth more money." Conversely, areas with many coffee shops (or white people if you're "racist") are places that the author considers "up and coming", with lower house prices. This can only be interpreted as "places with many coffee shops are worth less money and are gaining value as they gain chicken shops."

Therefore, if anything the article is racist against white people, since it insinuates that wherever there are fewer black people the houses are worth less money. The article is obviously about hipsters, with the mention of bicycles, quinoa, and "the street price of coriander" being maybe a clever way of saying marijuana.

In conclusion: You're obviously reading too much into this. Namely, you are reading a racial agenda into a silly article full of pseudoscience.

cc: @clacke Your initial assumption was right, with the addition of "as soon as there are more fast food restaurants than coffee shops hipsters no longer want to live there." And that's the joke.

Jacob Barkdull at 2015-10-18T07:45:36Z

@Jacob Barkdull At the very least, it was poorly thought out... there are a lot of fast food genres to choose from that don't carry well known racial stereotype associations, and could have been chosen.

Christopher Allan Webber at 2015-10-18T14:46:19Z

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠), X11R5 likes this.

That's not how the model in the article works. It looks for high coffee, low fried chicken, because neighborhoods with fried chicken are already lost to the plebs. Low cost is explicitly checked for.

It does not predict a rise in chicken with value. Quite the opposite.

You're right, it is a joke. And it may not have been a conscious racist choice of fast food chain, but it could have been a conscious non-racist choice of fast food chain.

Claes Wallin (韋嘉誠) at 2015-10-20T12:38:27Z