Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Gives $120 Million To Historically Black Colleges (nytimes.com) 60
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated $120 million to the United Negro College Fund, Spelman College and Morehouse College, the largest-ever individual gift to support scholarships at historically black colleges and universities. The record donation comes amid protests after the police killing ofGeorge Floyd, and the national conversation about how to end systemic racism. That conversation has included discussions about how to provide more education and job opportunities for African Americans. Unlike the Ivy League universities that have endowments in the tens of billions of dollars -- Harvard University's endowment tops $40 billion -- the top historically black colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s, have endowments that are hundreds of millions of dollars. Spelman's, for example, is around $390 million. Mr. Hastings said he and Ms. Quillin wanted to help change that.
They have made education a primary focus of their philanthropy, and have given smaller amounts in the past several years to the same institutions. "I think white people in our nation need to accept that it's a collective responsibility," Mr. Hastings said. Mr. Floyd's killing and the emotional outpouring that followed were "the straw that broke the camel's back, I think, for the size of the donation," he added. Mr. Hastings said he hoped that the donation would lead other wealthy individuals to give to H.B.C.U.s. "Generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation," he and Ms. Quillin said in a statement announcing the donation on Wednesday. The report adds that 7 percent of Netflix's employees in the United States are African-American, "as are 8 percent of its company leaders, which is among the highest in the technology industry (but still only about half the share of African-Americans in the overall population)."
They have made education a primary focus of their philanthropy, and have given smaller amounts in the past several years to the same institutions. "I think white people in our nation need to accept that it's a collective responsibility," Mr. Hastings said. Mr. Floyd's killing and the emotional outpouring that followed were "the straw that broke the camel's back, I think, for the size of the donation," he added. Mr. Hastings said he hoped that the donation would lead other wealthy individuals to give to H.B.C.U.s. "Generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation," he and Ms. Quillin said in a statement announcing the donation on Wednesday. The report adds that 7 percent of Netflix's employees in the United States are African-American, "as are 8 percent of its company leaders, which is among the highest in the technology industry (but still only about half the share of African-Americans in the overall population)."
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Re: Not racist in any way! (Score:4, Insightful)
So Jim Crow wasn't racist because they weren't legally slaves? Fascinating logic.
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The average lifespan around 1800 was 40 years at the high end, so to rephrase that, the United States let multiple generations of people live in slavery, and even had language in its Constitution written with that in mind.
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While the measured IQ difference is correct, the testosterone one is a myth. That may partially explain the much higher violent crime rate by sex, but not by race.
Having spent significant time in both Africa and the US, I can tell you the aggressive posturing and masculine displays seen in the US appear to be cultural.
For example, while African-American men tend to speak with deep voices, Africans had surprisingly (to me) high-pitched speech and laughter. They share genes, but not behaviour. Yes, some
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Having spent significant time in both Africa and the US, I can tell you the aggressive posturing and masculine displays seen in the US appear to be cultural.
I am not an expert on Africa, but that is a big continent, so I would expect some variation among different communities. Most African-American are from some areas of Western Africa, who knows where they picked their culture, even though, most probably, African-American "culture" is a made up thing by African-Americans to recreate a lost past and distinguish themselves.
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There's a lot that people that are black have contributed. But white people have, too. Black people are not the sole foundation of our society, that belongs to so many people of different races. So, please stop being racist.
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I don't know how you think that isn't completely racist. Is the $40 billion Havard endowment also a waste of money?
Or is just a waste of money because they are black.
Seriously, that is 100% racist and the people that mod you up are either trolls or racist or both.
Re: Not racist in any way! (Score:2)
Is the $40 billion Havard endowment also a waste of money?
If Harvard had received a $40 billion endowment specifically for being a white school, after white people rioted over being killed by black people, then yeah, I would say that would be very racist. Is that what happened? I'm not actually familiar with the funding history of Harvard, so maybe you can fill me in.
Re: Not racist in any way! (Score:1)
Oh, thereâ(TM)s a return on investment alright. It makes you look good with your white liberal friends.
That there are class differences within the black community, and that this money will not go to those who really need it, is hardly relevant.
This has never been about helping poorer blacks. Like many NGOâ(TM)s around the world: you want to appear to be providing help, but you never want to jeopardize the business model that allows you to appear as such.
What about Asian or NativeAmerican colleges? (Score:4, Insightful)
How many employees of Netflix are Asian, European, Russian or ,for all I care, Canadian ?
The collective responsibility should be to provide good education for all people.
Was it his trophy wife who came up with this silly idea?
Hey honey, let's do something to make us look good.
120 million is pocket change. Not even to mention the tax deductions.
Reed Hastings Net Worth : 4.7 Billion USD
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It's his own money, not the company's. He can do anything he wants with it. That's his right.
Now, I do think it is virtue signaling. I also think it's dumb to encourage blacks to attend predominantly black schools. I don't think we should be encouraging people to isolate in a cultural bubble during the years they transition from kids to adults. There's a lot of growing up during those years. A more useful donation would be to inner city mentoring programs. Engage with kids at a young age to make bett
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Why is it virtue signaling. It's a charitable donation, all to familiar around tax time. And why the hell do so many people seem to think there's a problem with virtue and assume that when it happens it is always done to show off to others, and they're trying to turn a good deed into some sort of nefarious action. Why is that that not giving any money to charity causes them to leave you alone but being charitable demonizes you? Maybe they just don't understand the concept of "virtue" or "charity"?
It's his
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when it happens it is always done to show off to others
Because it is. It's perfectly possible to make an anonymous donation if you're modest and don't want to "show off to others" - you don't have to go with the full press release.
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So then, everyone in the past that donated a ton of money to a university, or even built their own, was "virtue signalling"? And if so, WTF is wrong with having virtue anyway? You're just trying to diminish someone else's good deeds.
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And why the hell do so many people seem to think there's a problem with virtue and assume that when it happens it is always done to show off to others
Virtue signalling is just the latest form of political correctness, i.e. an accusation you can level at someone who is trying to change something to stifle them.
It became popular with racists who didn't like the civil rights movement but has since been unwittingly adopted by a great number of useful idiots. Someone interesting in white power and supremacy will obviously be very happy that any time anyone does something to help non-white folk they get accused of virtue signalling.
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"I do think it is virtue signaling"
To the virtueless, every action is mere signaling.
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Re: What about Asian or NativeAmerican colleges? (Score:2)
It's his own money, not the company's. He can do anything he wants with it. That's his right.
That's certainly true. However I suspect you'd be a lot less charitable had he decided to donate $120 million to the KKK, despite that also being his right.
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"It's his own money, not the company's. He can do anything he wants with it."
Sure, but what we are discussing here is if he did something openly racist with his money. It used to be easy to understand that: just change insert_race_here for insert_any_other_race_here and check if the action is racist. If it is, then all of them are.
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Now, I do think it is virtue signaling.
And why do you have a problem with that, what with being guilty of the same crime.
Hopping on to a forum to whine loudly about "virtue signalling" is precisely virtue signalling. You're signalling to all the crazies that you are a virtuous right thinking individual that isn't taken in by this sort of thing, and have better ideas to boot (even though you never lifted a finger to implement them).
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She's not much of a trophy.
Participation/consolation prize. The pretty ones were all taken. But she's not racist, she gave to black kids...
Re:What about Asian or NativeAmerican colleges? (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for a few years for a non-profit that ran programs with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Consortium, and some non-HBCU institutions that had a historical relationship with nearby Native American communities also participated -- Northern Arizona University for example.
There are a number of tribal colleges, although they're often community colleges or offer a limited number of 4 year degrees. They play a vital role and they absolutely deserve more support. The median household income for Indian families living on reservations is only $29,000.
As for historically black universities, most of them were founded at a time when universities simply did not admit blacks, and life at the few who did was intolerable [wikipedia.org].
Today, while admissions at white schools are more friendly to blacks, historically black colleges still have important missions. For example many of them focus on affordability, important in a country where median black household income is less than half of whites, and median household is almost exactly 1/10th.
Historically black universities have been open to all races since their founding. Today some have a have a large Hispanic contingent. A few are even majority white. They've been about universal access to education from the start, and the reason they're *historically* black is that blacks historically faced the greatest barriers to education.
Re:What about Asian or NativeAmerican colleges? (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time you delineate anything by skin colour, except the likely hood of getting sunburn you are a racist. People are not defined by the colour of the skin except in racist communities, people are not the skin colour, their skin is a colour. So make donations to low income university don't be a fucking racist and call the black universities or white universities or yellow universities or red universities and just to make sure, don't call them 'brown' universities (even though there is one, so racist tee hee).
Stop it already you fucking seppos, stop defining people by the fucking colour of the skin. Make donations to low income universities and fuck off with the skin colour delineations you are the problem America and you spread it all over the fucking globe, STOP THE SKIN COLOUR FUCKING BULLSHIT.
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"Historically Black Colleges and Universities" aren't delineated by race. They are historically back because other colleges and universities were delineated by race, so blacks went to schools that did not have racist admission policies.
Noticing the racism of others is not itself racist, and not noticing the racism of others doesn't make them not racist.
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You run around accusing everyone of being racist and of trying to obliterate history, then do exactly that yourself.
It's not racist to notice skin colour because in the world we live in it does matter. Would be great if it didn't but right now it does and ignoring it won't change that, only addressing it will. To understand why you need to understand history.
That's why ignoring the history of these universities are majority black, and the fact that unlike the actually racist universities that kept black peo
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Back when I lived in Minnesota, the average income for the Mdewakanton tribe (Mystic Lake Casino) was just over $1 MILLION per year. Same tribe that repeatedly dropped a few hundred grand here and there (politicians) when other tribes were trying to get their own casinos opened anywhere within a few hundred miles ... and strangely failing to get approval for said casinos ...
Most of the children from the tribe went to first-rate universities across the entire US. There was a motion - within the tribe - to
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The median *household* income for Indian reservations is about $29,000. However that reflects several family members working, the *per capita* income is around $10,500.
Indian casinos aren't some kind of velvet glove reparations. They only benefit a tiny fraction of Indians.
So patronizing (Score:2)
"I think white people in our nation need to accept that it's a collective responsibility," Mr. Hastings said.
Black people can take care of themselves, they just need people to not oppress them (and their necks).
Try not to think about it. (Score:1)
"The record donation comes amid protests after the police killing of George Floyd, and the national conversation about how to end systemic racism."
I'm not sure how promoting systemic racism helps bring about an end to systemic racism, but there are always reasons that seem good enough if you just don't think about it too hard.
Affirmative action and double standards for great equality!
Re:Try not to think about it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Try not to think about it.
Well you obviously succeeded.
How is donating money to certain universities that have historically had large number of black students "racist"?
The only thing you have ever done to try and make the world a better place is go on the internet tear down people who are donating time or money. Be better.
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How is donating money to certain universities that have historically had large number of black students "racist"?
Of course the answer to this is just always to flip it around. What would you a "historically white" institution that continues to make that their brand even in $current_year, and solicited funds towards "whites only" scholarships? Are you going to tell me there isn't racist discrimination in the admissions process?
End Systemic Racism!
* terms and conditions apply, some are more equal than others. This message brought to you by the United Negros College Fund.
Be better.
Ok, Karen. Canceled anyone today?
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Ok, Karen. Canceled anyone today?
Who's Karen and I find it funny that conservatives get pissy when free speech and the free market doesn't go the way they want.
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I'm still waiting for the reason why "United Negros College Fund" to give students scholarships on the merit of being black is ok, and "United Caucasians College Fund" is racist and white supremacy.
I'd like to know how promoting racist preference and double standards, leads to less racism and less double standards. Noone has given an answer as to how contributing to systemic racism is supposed to bring about an end to systemic racism.
I do know that as soon as someone on a stage asks these questions, a fire
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Here, let me google that for you.
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
The problem isn't college (Score:5, Insightful)
It's that a large percentage of black kids aren't graduating high school in any way prepared to be successful in college and beyond. Their test scores and graduation rates are horrific on average compared to all other racial groups. There are multiple reasons for this, but handing out tens of millions of dollars of freebees at the college level isn't going to fix things any more than Google or some other [big_tech_corp] saying they're committing hundreds of millions to hire black engineers: by the time these young folks get out of high school, it's too late to help them, and they're playing catch up against all of the other kids (mostly white and Asian BTW, you know, the "privileged" ones) who have been seriously preparing for college for the past four years or more. What good does it do anyone at that point to let them in on some scholarship which lets them slide with a lower GPA ? Statistically (again), they're much more likely to wash out in college than -- you guessed it -- their white and Asian peers.
If you want to seriously fix this, it starts at home, when the kids are young. All kids have the best outcomes when they are raised in a stable, two-parent household (regardless of gender of the parents -- meaning straight or gay doesn't matter). They need someone to instill in them the value of education instead of demonizing it. They need someone (their parents!) to stay on their ass to work hard at their schoolwork. SCIENCE and decades of studies tells us this. You can throw hundreds of millions of dollars around all you want, but until you quit pretending that it doesn't matter that most black kids grow up in a single parent household, and that it's somehow horribly racist to ever dare to bring it up.
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College can be part of the solution. Once they are adults they can be helped to live independently and study and build a future for themselves away from family problems. Moving can be a fresh start and by that age they probably recognize that they need to do something to turn things around, having matured into adulthood.
It sucks that it has to be that way sometimes but the opportunity to get a college education, even if it means working to catch up because of poor schooling, can be a real game changer for s
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"most black kids grow up in a single parent household, and that it's somehow horribly racist to ever dare to bring it up."
No, it's racist to bring it up without mentioning that the fathers are disadvantaged by a system which systematically attacks them. If they don't have a job then their children are better off without them in the household because at least there is assistance available so they can eat.
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The welfare system is a problem itself - it encourages fathers to leave instead of struggling and finding some way to make it work. Kids then grow up without fathers, which is a huge disadvantage, so the kids tend to be poor, and the cycle continues.
UBI is a good way to fix the system- give everyone enough to eat and get rid of the means testing that e
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Sure, I agree, and I am pro-UBI. But if black men weren't unfairly targeted for arrest and also for prosecution then the problem would not exist to such a broad extent to begin with.
Hmmm.... (Score:1)
> The report adds that 7 percent of Netflix's employees in the United States are African-American, "as are 8 percent of its company leaders, which is among the highest in the technology industry (but still only about half the share of African-Americans in the overall population)."
Interesting and Kudos to them. I wonder, though, what is the breakdown of personnel and students at HBU's? Does is align with the population breakdowns? What about the many national associations for the advancement of colored pe
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> I refuse to feel any guilt or shame for something I didn't do
Neither should you. I agree.
> and the real shame belongs to the people who think I should.
Yep. That is my point. Do we really want to go down the "reparations" road even though we're not calling it that? I'm pointing out that that is what is being demanded without naming it. Is that really where we want to go as a society? Really?
I (and apparently you) think the answer is a resounding, "NO!"
Apologies to P.J. O'Rourke (Score:4, Interesting)
Giving money and power to college administrators is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P. J. O'Rourke
Might as well set fire to dollar bills for all the good it will do college students. Rather give a hand-up to those who prove themselves worthy. They can let colleges compete for those dollars.
How about do away with HBCs? (Score:2)