I think the casual slur of 'minorities' counts as flamewar material.
Perhaps there's a reasonable discussion to be had (though it's likely beyond HN's tolerance) about how race and gender issues complicate each other, including in the tech world, but a comment like this one isn't it.
> even though the video creator said that she was catcalled by people of all races
> Hollaback! responded to the criticism by noting that this video was only the first in a series of many videos that would document different forms of street harassment, and said it regretted any racial bias in the video.[12][13] An analysis of the video documented that most of the scenes shown in the video were taken in neighborhoods with predominantly black and Hispanic populations, raising the question of whether the video was shot mostly in these locations, or whether harassment was more prevalent in these locations than in others.
What you quoted confirms what I said - the fact that the producers "responded to the criticism" indicates it was certainly a point that was raised by some or many people.
I didn't post a "summary"; if I were to have done, I would have written, "It shows a woman in demure clothing walking through NYC receiving an awful lot of unwelcome attention, which must have been unpleasant for her". But a lengthier discussion of the video would have been remiss had it not at least mentioned that it appears that much of the catcalling and so forth that she received was from people from minorities. The reason for this is unclear, but it certainly is a main point of contention and did serve as a distraction from the real message of the video (that women get unwelcome attention from men on the street).
> An analysis of the video documented that most of the scenes shown in the video were taken in neighborhoods with predominantly black and Hispanic populations
They said they filmed 10 hours of video and then apparently chose the worst instances for their much briefer video showing harassment. It's quite possible that she walked through many different neighborhoods, but those hours of walking simply didn't produce the harassment desired for the video.
I don't see anywhere on this page that someone claims that they set out to make that point. Bshimmin did not say "one of the main points of that video", they said "one of the main points of contention of that video."
It seems to me that the creators of that video were simply looking for street harassment, from any source. They didn't find significant harassment from white men, but they did find it coming from black men. The picked the worst of the harassment for their short video and published it. Then people (no one in this thread) accused them of trying to paint black men as harassers, which they (reasonably) denied.
All of this made the question of racial variance in street harassment a point of contention (a matter of dispute) of that video, as Bshimmin suggested.
And yet you accused Bshimmon with "Your summary is dishonestly inaccurate." in response to "Have you seen [link] ? That statement, slur or no, was certainly one of the main points of contention of that video."
It does not appear to me that Bshimmon was being dishonestly inaccurate in that comment.
"Minorities" is not a slur, it is a normal word that means "people who are in the minority". I don't see how that comment is not part of a reasonable discussion. Just because you don't like the fact being mentioned?
That's not obvious from your post, your statement clearly says it was. It was even quoted. It is obvious from the original post, but it is equally obvious that nothing else was a slur either, the post contained no slurs.
Any words are allowed on HN, as are any comments that are civil, substantive and (sincerely intended to be) intellectually gratifying. With that in mind, the above comment certainly missed the mark.
It seems to me that you and Dang may not agree on Dang's statement. You say that any words are allowed on HN, while Dang said: "I think the casual slur of 'minorities' counts as flamewar material." and I would still like clarification as to whether the word itself - minorities - is considered a slur and inappropriate to HN, or whether it simply considered a 'slur' in this context. If the later, I would like clarification on that.
I'm not aware of any quality studies that address this issue, but it may indeed be a matter of fact that in 2016 in the US, black men engage in a disproportionate amount of 'street harassment'. Its still unclear to me whether HN posters are forbidden from discussing this possibility.
Edit: I find the suggestion that certain demographics should be targeted for anti-harassment training offensive in the extreme and can see why many people would prefer not to have this kind of content on HN. I just think we should strive for objective rules and apply them evenly.
