Pranesh,
* Pranesh Prakash ([email protected]) [100709 11:43]: > On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 22:37, Jon Cox <[email protected]> wrote: > > ?? Look again and you'll see 3 or 4 Asian people and 1 Indian, > > ?? all of whom seem to be having a good time with their geeky > > ?? friends (which are predominantly heavy-set, male, under 50, > > ?? and a bit slovenly). > > Well that's just swell. Bless their geeky hearts. :) > > ?? Given the history of India, I'd think you might feel a little more > > ?? circumspect making disdainful statements about insular subcultures. > > Not sure what the first part of this means, but what came across as > disdain was more of a humourous observation about my expectations of > the xkcd subculture being wrong. Got it. It did sound disdainful, which seemed unfair. Thanks for the clarification. > I mean, I *would* have expected at > least a little bit more slovenliness. And I would have expected the > geek-(and-non-geek) xkcd-reading subculture around San Francisco to be > slightly more varied. A lot of what's funny about xkcd is its treatment of various neurosis and the sense of alienation that's so common in the USA, particularly on the East & West coasts. San Fran is ethnically diverse, but are the engineering departments? Nope. I probably interviewed over 1000 people for various engineering positions when I was in Silicon Valley; two were black, and none were Mexican or Latino. When you look at national statistics it makes a sort of grim sense. Poorer minorities don't often go to the sorts of schools that lead them to high-tech social circles that enjoy reading comics about romance, sarcasm, math, and language. Randall Munroe (author of xkcd) lives in Somerville, a densely populated sprawling, vaguely surreal suburb of Boston. There, you'll find Virgin Mary statues covered in thick chicken wire to protect her from pigeon shit, postage-size lawns with 6-foot chain link fences, and patios with the owner's initials spelled out in slightly different shades of brick. Not far away, are Tufts, Harvard, and MIT. It's an odd place. > > ?? Do you just not like white people & those who eat mayonnaise sandwiches > > ?? with them? ??What's the real problem here? > > The real problem, as always, is within. Or without? Or stuck in the > middle with clowns to the left and jokers to the right? I do object to mayonnaise itself, but then I grew up on Lebanese cooking! > And just to be clear, I have no problem with mayonnaise sandwiches, as > long as its eggless mayonnaise that's used. And usually not with > people who eat them, unless they're kleptocratic dictators. Do you suspect mayonnaise sandwiches are a gateway food? I guess I could understand that. Cheers, -Jon
