The Fine Perspective

Found this keeper of the flame at /. On himself At Amherst, I did a double major in Comp Sci and Afro-American studies, with a minor in Women's Studies (if you know what I mean). Since I graduated in 1995,I've worked at several big name computer companies. Presently, I'm out of work, but I'm in the process of helping to found an organization to fight against racism in the high-tech arena. I'd be happy to hear from all the brothers and sisters on Slashdot and what your experiences have been like in the tech-industry. PS: From now on, I'm going to be posting a series of articualte and meticulous essays in response to stories on Slashdot. My essays will critique and look at issues from my, the African-American, POV (point-of-view). The tentative title for my essay series will be 'The Fine Perspective'. So, look out for my essays under that title. I think you may find my essays both interesting and enlightening. Thank you. As ever, I am, Fine Tyrone J. Fine On the Sony PS2 Let me put it to you this way: The obsession with the Playstation 2, an expensive game console that most minorities won't even be able to afford, is disgusting. That fact that this site, Slashdot, would choose to focus so much attention on such a topic when there are people (especially African-Americans) starving in the streets and/or not getting an education, it's a shame. It shows that the people running Slashdot are either racist or ignorant or both. African-Americans in the United States, have to struggle just to get by. They don't have the luxury of buying luxury items like the PS2. Slashdot is once again showing a strong slant against the African-American by posting many stories about the PS2, and ignoring African-American and minority issues. This cannot stand. The fact that the PS2 game console is going to be mainly in the hands of Caucasian suburbanites, is once again evidence of the increasing discrepancy and disparity in wealth distribution in the US. This diseven spread of wealth is a direct result of slavery, and reparations are the only answer. Forty acres and a mule is a start, but only a start. I want mine with interest. My ancestors were kept down for centuries, and there has to be some kind of reckoning. That's what reparations are about. The blood and sacrifices of my anncestors and antecedents can't be allowed to go unpaid for. Maybe if these snotty Caucasian kids would give their 500 dollars to African-Americans instead of wasting it on a nintendo, that would be a start. Only a start, though, mind you. On Gnome being too racist for Linux If indeed your allegations are true, we have a problem on our hands. It's unfortunate that something like this would come to pass in the open-source movement, it is not surprising. The only possible surprise is that the racism is directed against Asian-Americans instead of African-Americans. And since African-Americans bear the brunt of discrimination in this country, especially in the high-tech industry, it's likely that where there is smoke, there is fire. That is, where there is discrimination against Asian-Americans, there is almost certainly discrimination against African-Americans, perhaps at the source code level. I do not have time, myself, to read through the source code and make sure the comments (not to mention the source itself) is free of racist content. But I urge any right-thinking person to do so, so we can root out this problem at its source. On the new Mars missions The way I look at, why are we sending missions to mars when we could be putting the money to better use right here at home. What are these missions going to do for me, and African-Americans in general. That's the question you gotta ask yourself. Even if these missions lead to the eventual habitization of mars, you think they're going to be taking any African-Americans? I don't. If America doesn't even think it's got enough money to pay reparations to those of African ascent for the harms done by slavery, why do we have enough money to go to mars? Answer me that. On top of that, there are even more ways we could use this money. For starters, we could expand the war on poverty. And there are many social programs that are underfunded. And if it turns out that we can fully fund all these programs and have money left, why not put it to a GOOD use, one that will benefit us here on earth. Like, funding fro the arts and education. [Edited by renots on 10-28-2000 at 03:38 PM] __________________ My ancestors BUILT this country on forced labor. Now don't YOU tell ME what I should do to be American, sucker. I am, Fine __________________ What a load of crap by a jackass with his whiny head up his stank ass. This pos troll would rather sit there and try to be a victim than do something about his pathetic life. My soul brother is in the high tech industry and can buy Playstation 2's over and over again. My soul brother is earning 85k a year and is underpaid. Right now he's down in Florida for more training. He didn't sit around in college while getting his aerospace engineering degree. I saw him busting his ass in the wind tunnel at University of Maryland. This attitude that black people can't be successful is a bunch of ****. [Edited by sbp on 10-28-2000 at 11:13 PM] __________________ well, he was 'a keeper of the flame'[i.e. flamebait Mavi forum