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Comment by gentleman11 | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been saying this for years, but it’s gradually become almost racist to imply that it isn’t racism that’s the biggest problem.

People hate the lower class. Hate. Look at public policy, how people react to their presence, etc. Essential workers were basically human sacrifices.

And you know who is poor and struggling? A population of former slaves in a country that hates poor people and doesn’t believe in helping them. Or a population that you deny legal rights to so that you can have cheap labor. Or even white trash, I mean, dress like a poor person and watch as staff follow you around while you shop. But yeah, racial groups like African Americans and Mexicans are poor for a reason and yeah people hate poor people

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Calling someone racist will never solve any problems. no one will ever be receptive after that statement. Let’s just agree calling people racist doesn’t affect someone who actually is and only hurts people that are sincere.

It is absolutely considered racist to advocate for focusing on class instead of race. Try saying that in any group of millennial liberals and you will get an earful. It's very disappointing and politically unsavvy.

Because it is reductive and unhelpful. What is happening now is called triage. Of course helping all of the wounded is the goal but you tend to those bleeding out before those suffering from slivers. To stand up in the ER and exclaim “but we are all suffering! We should all be helped at the same time!” is simply counter productive at best.

It is absolutely important to spend time imagining solutions that could help change the system itself to prevent future suffering but to offer them to people directly engaged in immediate disaster response is not productive.

To put this in nerd terms don’t be the guy who suggests switching to Haskell/pure FP as a solution to the problem you are debugging in a production legacy OO system that needs to be fixed immediately. Like logically and long term you are probably right but what was the point beside making you feel smug?

Also: intersectionality.

> helping all of the wounded is the goal but you tend to those bleeding out before those suffering from slivers.

I think this shows your biases. As an example, at my previous company, I was the only one who had grown up on welfare, was a high school dropout, lived near a superfund site, etc.

However, I’m an older, straight, white male, and the millennials I worked with were all from much more privileged economic backgrounds.

But somehow it was okay by the company for them to make public statements such as “we need to quit hiring so many straight, white males", but bringing up class was inappropriate?

Triage doesn't operate on race or category. It looks at the individuals and their individual needs.

You wouldn't operate a hospital triage assuming that someone should go to the front of the line just because they're black, and you shouldn't operate a social triage that way either. Some people have a scratch, and some people are bleeding out

the only real threat to the status quo is solidarity, and that's why it's not popular.

real change can't be popular in the mainstream

Who the hell cares what the kids who can’t even balance their checkbook care about? That’s our problem guys. When do we stop letting the kids drive the car?

Nobody hates poor people. Some people hate criminals, which are disproportionately poor, but that is not the same thing.

Nobody gets hate crimed for being an honest person making 20K a year and supporting their family.

While many surely do their best, nobody supports a family on 20k/yr in the US.

Not well, and usually not without assistance. Lots of people making 20K a year have families.

> Nobody hates poor people

Plenty of people hate poor people.

> Some people hate criminals, which are disproportionately poor

Part (or all) of the reason ”criminals are disproportionately poor” is or seems to be the case is that both law making and law enforcement are biased against poor people, in part because some people hate poor people.

> Nobody gets hate crimed for being an honest person making 20K a year and supporting their family.

Yes, when the victimization is through, rather than prohibited by, the law, its not a crime.

None of which, of course, means that class or poverty should replace race (or sex, or LGBTQIA status, or ethnicity, or anything else) in our concerns—life is too complex for only one of those things to be a concern.

Subset does not generalize. I hate Bob and Bob is a human therefore I hate all humans.

I'm not sure what definition you're using for hate. What year is it describing sounds more like a lack of compassion or disinterest.

I work as lead programmer these days. In the past I worked in a factory / in retail. I am horrified by how well everyone treats me now compared to back then. Everyone assumes good intentions from me now, forgives me, is in a hurry to help me. Back then, they assumed I was lazy, stupid, selfish, untrustworthy. The main difference is my clothes and my car, I’m the same person. Even landlords stopped withholding damage deposits, assuming I was a good guy, hand waving any imperfections in the unit I’m moving out of—this wasn’t true for most of my life

I am frankly not comfortable revealing to my boss or coworkers that I grew up poor because they’ll think of me differently, stop assuming such good thing about me, become wary, etc

I agree that some people have biases about poor people. Surely you agree that hate is an exaggeration?

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