This is a very interesting stat. Stats of course are always skewed. What’s the reverse stat, what’s the distribution for black Americans?

In Georgia, my suburb was pretty well diverse. I lived between a black family and a single black male. Across the street was a family from Puerto Rico who lived between another black family and a single-parent family from Ecuador.

Truthfully, I regularly interacted with perhaps one white neighbor. Could it have been proximity? Perhaps. I’d like to believe the answer is there is no answer because there was no question; color was insignificant.

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Only once did stereotype ever enter my mind, and to touch on the “culture” reference you made, it came during two interactions with my single neighbor: him wrecking his bike into our yard while drunk and his attempt to follow me into my house when I asked him to turn down his music because it was after midnight.

He made me and my family uncomfortable. From the loud music through midnight, the parties made up of street-bikers and escalades, and the weekly late-night arguments, everyone was weary of him.

Essentially, every cultural stereotype I’ve had the misfortune of viewing throughout my life thanks to television, film, and the internet all coalesced at this man’s home. Those stereotypes have been perpetuated and then associated with guns, violence, and drugs.

Luckily, I know that’s all it is, media stereotyping. It’s important to have conversations about this and to respect the process of change. Working in tech and being surrounded by a sea of white males robs others of the benefits of the work and myself of cultural growth. We should change the messages going out to young people, we need to make technology “cool”.

Because living in a bubble isn’t cool.