Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Black History Month Heroes: August Gorman from "Superman III"

Finally, Superman delivers a Black computer programmer. No more waiting!
NASA shouldn't have to go to the ends of the earth to find a capable Black scientist. Hollywood has already given us Miles Dyson from Terminator 2; Dr. Ed Brazzelton from The Core; the genius Black hacker from Die Hard and the computer hacker from Transformers; not to mention Luther Stickell from Mission: Impossible.

Weren't they based on real people

Yet less than one quarter of one percent of the computer science professors in America are Black, a cause for major concern over the future of computing in general. The lack of Black participation in the creating of computer science is, of course, never brought up in polite conversation, for - paradoxically - their being non-participants wasn't a hindrance to its creation.

It's still a crisis that we must take seriously. Data on diversity in undergraduate degrees awarded in computer science can be found here, with links to post-graduate information here.

The great search for a Black scientist should start and end in Hollywood, an incubator for creating a false paradigm of positive Black intellectual giants pushing the bounds of man's perception of technology. Color Monitors: The Black Face of Technology in America is a book that discusses this very theme:

Following up on Ralph Ellison’s intimation that blacks serve as "the machines inside the machine," Color Monitors examines the designation of black bodies as natural machines for the information age. Martin Kevorkian shows how African Americans are consistently depicted as highly skilled, intelligent, and technologically savvy as they work to solve complex computer problems in popular movies, corporate advertising, and contemporary fiction. But is this progress? Or do such seemingly positive depictions have more disturbing implications? Kevorkian provocatively asserts that whites’ historical "fear of a black planet" has in the age of microprocessing converged with a new fear of computers and the possibility that digital imperatives will engulf human creativity. 

Analyzing escapist fantasies from Mission: Impossible to Minority Report, Kevorkian argues that the placement of a black man in front of a computer screen doubly reassures audiences: he is nonthreatening, safely occupied—even imprisoned—by the very machine he attempts to control, an occupation that simultaneously frees the action heroes from any electronic headaches. The study concludes with some alternatives to this scheme, looking to a network of recent authors, with shared affinities for Ellison and Pynchon, willing to think inside the black box of technology.
 Race in American Science Fiction is another (brand-new) book that discusses similar themes. The small percentage of Black students who actually take the AP exam in computer science, calculus and physics notwithstanding, one can imagine what a minute number of Black students across the nation have ever had a Black professor of computer science in college. If less than half of all Black college students have had a Black college professor (Black professors are normally clustered in Afro-American studies) one could logically surmise that less than one percent of one percent of Black students enrolled in computer science have had a Black computer science professor.

Those Black students who attend Auburn University help bolster that number significantly.

With lower scores on the mathematics portion of the SAT, Black students are at a severe disadvantage that no amount of proper cultural infusion through hip hop could ever remedy. Could this be why Black people aren't found in Silicon Valley?:


"Saying the Silicon Valley tech industry needs to do a better job of hiring native-born blacks, Latinos and some other minority groups, minority leaders picketed Google's Mountain View headquarters [Thursday], asking the Internet giant and other large valley companies to disclose their workplace diversity data," Mike Swift reported Friday for the San Jose Mercury News.

"The protest, organized by the Black Economic Council, the Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles, and the National Asian American Coalition was sparked by a series of reports in the Mercury News last year.

"Hispanics and blacks, the newspaper found, made up a smaller share of the valley's computer workers in 2008 than they did in 2000, even as their share grew across the nation."  

Jorge Corralejo, chairman of the Latino Business Chamber of Greater LA, told Journal-isms that the group had met with members of Congress and with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and intended to continue to press their case in those quarters.

Faith Bautista, president and CEO of the National Asian American Coalition, said in a news release, "On the surface, everything is well for Asian Americans at Silicon Valley since up to 50 percent of their employees are listed as Asian Americans. Sadly, up to 90 percent are improperly classified as Asian Americans but, are in fact, H-1B visa workers from abroad."

The Mercury News story continued, "The protest drew about two dozen people to the Googleplex, as minority leaders criticized Google, Apple and 20 other Silicon Valley tech companies that refused to share their workforce diversity data with them. The leaders called on the federal government to review the H-1B work visa program that tech companies use to hire engineers from abroad, unless the companies comply.
"The groups are filing a complaint with the federal government, saying of 34 Silicon Valley tech companies from which they requested workforce data, just 12 agreed to share it. The groups are asking the government to force the companies to disclose their data. They said they singled out Google for Thursday's protest because of its growth and visibility."

As reported last year, the American Society of News Editors, recognizing that Internet companies are increasingly hiring journalists, added "online-only newspapers" to its annual diversity census of print newspapers. A Yahoo spokeswoman later told Journal-isms flatly, "We do not release our diversity statistics."

The nondisclosers are not all in Silicon Valley. Huffington Post did not participate, and neither did AOL, MinnPost.com, Salon.com, Talking Points Memo (TPM Media LLC), the Daily Beast, Bloomberg or Politico. All but MinnPost.com are based on the East Coast.

In its news release announcing the demonstration, the groups said, "The available data demonstrates that no industry may have a worse record in California in the hiring of Blacks, Latinos, Southeast Asian Americans and women than Google, Apple and Oracle. Based on data from the 12 Silicon Valley companies that [publicly] released their EEO-1 data, the minority groups' expert states that Google's Black employees, for example, could be at just one percent, Latinos at two percent and women at the 20 percent level. In contrast, Stanford, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, has an entering freshman class that has 17.2 percent Latinos and 11.1 percent Blacks.

How in the world can we ever expect to have advanced technology - courtesy of Black people in Hollywood blockbusters - if so few Black people are employed in the private sector helping bring innovation through diversity that is so sorely needed?

That we have reached a world blessed with the technology we have today despite Black participation in the creation of these technologies is a miracle. Silicon Valley's lack of Black people is an obvious indicator of culturally biased education system that will always be Waiting for Superman. Without Black people how can we expect to have innovation in Silicon Valley?

All of the great inventions - including the Super Soaker - are courtesy of Black people. Right? That's what movies have taught an unsuspecting American population through an ingenious form of behavioral modification.

Remember Superman III? That's okay, most people don't. Richard Pyror, one of the top entertainers of the day, starred as, well, a bumbling idiot who had an uncanny knack for computer programming:
August "Gus" Gorman (Richard Pryor), an unemployed ne'er-do-well, discovers a knack for computer programming. After embezzling from his new employer's payroll (through a technique known as salami slicing), Gorman is brought to the attention of the CEO, Ross Webster. Webster (Robert Vaughn) is obsessed with the computer's potential to aid him in his schemes to rule the world financially. Joined by his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson), Webster blackmails Gorman into helping him.

His scheme is described in greater detail here:
He develops a piece of software that activates whenever the company makes a payment that involves a fraction of a penny. The program rounds the payment down to the nearest cent, and shuffles the fraction into Pryor’s secret account. Across the entire company, the fractions divert thousands of dollars into Pryor’s hands. Managers at the company discover the scam, but conclude that its designer is so clever he would probably never do anything to reveal himself. At that moment, Pryor arrives at work in a brand new Ferrari. (This process — called salami slicing because you steal only a tiny slice at a time — was recycled with hilarious effect in the movie Office Space, which every manager ought to see if only to inoculate themselves against turning into Initech Division VP Bill Lunbergh, pictured.)
Gorman's scheme is apparent because he got "nigger rich" and showed it off. In reality, setting himself on fire with  crack pipe was the pinnacle of Mr. Pryor's real-life technological ability, a move that made Prometheus cringe.

There are of course Black students who excel at math and enter into a career in computer science. That number is low.

There are a lot of popular movies that highlight this small percentage of Black computer scientists in prominent roles. A lot.

August Gorman is one of those Black Fictional Heroes that help paint a false picture of the world. Movies play an important role in behavioral modification; and any time a dearth of prominent Black dentists, scientists, medical doctors, computer programmers or all around nice guys are depicted on the big screen, trouble ensues.

As to the question of why there are so few Black super villains, the answer to that should be obvious. Black people are always good!

Richard Pryor's Superman III scene is found here.



22 comments:

Desiree said...

There are of course Black students who excel at math and enter into a career in computer science. That number is low.

There are a lot of popular movies that highlight this small percentage of Black computer scientists in prominent roles. A lot.


What I'd just quoted from your piece can also be used to discriminate against women and is used to discriminate against women.

Everything is set up to be measured against what white men have set as the 'standard', ie. things they are good at.

I do believe education in this country is crumbling because white people, who have always harped on how intelligent they are, etc., are just not able to keep up with their own standards they have kept for themselves. It's like a slow decline.

I was discussing IQ with two white women recently and they both disbelieved in its merit. One of them astutely noted, 'IQ measurements and tests are set up exclusively for people of white privilege.' Granted, she's a liberal feminist but I'm glad it's not just me--a mere black mortal--believing it is crap.

If a white woman sez it, you gotsta believe it!

Really, you are a little too obsessed with blacks. Dude, get it together. It must be terrible to have to deal with all of that crazy.

By the way, are you a republican/conservative/right-winger? This site and the others mentioned on here are really far right... White conservatives scare the shit out of me (we won't even get on their minority puppets!). Their eyes are cold and glassy. Freaky.

South East Asian said...

Why waste time to find black mathematicians and black scientists when you have so many available asians to pick from?

Anonymous said...

I always find Desiree's posts sadly amusing. Everything is set up to the White men standard because the White man dominated everything (with the exception of some sports selections of course).

And no, I don't believe what a White libtarded feminist says. I think they are even worse than you Desiree, because they work to undermine THEIR OWN RACE. You "people" are on the outside trying to destroy us while DWL are on the inside trying to destroy us. They are traitors.

Anonymous said...

Actually no, anything said by liberal feminist white women is not to be believed as they are hostile to white men and western civilization in general. They are as much an enemy to me as the marching hordes of Moslems.

As to this post, what these simple black and mestizo agitators fail to realize is that companies such as Google or Apple don't make money by making blacks and mestizos feel good about themselves. Unlike Stanford, who exists because of state and federal handouts, if Apple or Google or any other company staffs itself with low intelligence, highly unqualified employees that don't know how or want to perform work, the company loses money and eventually ceases to exist. The private sector is still somewhat results oriented, therefore they want employees that can give results. Blacks and other minority groups do well in governmental agencies where little attention is paid to achieving a result.

BUBO

D J said...

Responding to SE Asian: hiring black scientists keeps the OEO and the justice department away.

Anonymous said...

"I do believe education in this country is crumbling because white people"

Blame-whitey-blame-whitey-blame-whitey...

Same old negro song and dance.

Anonymous said...

"I was discussing IQ with two white women recently and they both disbelieved in its merit. One of them astutely noted, 'IQ measurements and tests are set up exclusively for people of white privilege.' Granted, she's a liberal feminist but I'm glad it's not just me--a mere black mortal--believing it is crap."

Yes, Diseree, as I have said, blacks like you can pull stats out of their asses (or other people's asses) and they instantly become truth. To hell with real facts and figures, let's focus on the colorful and diverse ideologies and opinions of people pulled off the street! If you close your eyes and count to three, black people will instantly be smart and successful.

Look around!!! You don't need stats to see the pathology, it is right in front of your eyes.

Which reminds me, ever look deeply into the eyes of a dumb black male teenaged thug? Emptiness. Nothing there. No emotion, no human connections, no brain activity, no intelligence, nothing spiritual. Not even rage, just nothing but pants on the ground.

Oh, and how about all of the little neglected black children who can't speak English or read books by third grade? Nothing going on behind the eyes. Now that is scary! Ask any white teacher in America.

By the way, did you tell those two white women that they were put on a pedestal by their white female privilege? Did you tell them they were whiny victims with shiny smooth hair and don't deserve to live? You have mentioned such things several times here. If those two white women had read your hateful and racist posts here, they would have told you to go straight to hell.

And by the way, this country was designed, built, and funded by the conservative white man, you foul retard, and so of course we get to set the standards, and we will continue to set the standards. White people just need to realize that is is not our job to create the dumbed-down negro version of everything at our expense, including education. That is the negro's job, and if left up to the black man, it will never happen. Time to move on.

And nice to see that you finally admit that the black man cannot cut the mustard in the western world. We already know this, have known this for hundreds of years. The truth shall set you free.

Anonymous said...

I worked with a few blacks at a software company. We had a few Indian and Asian developers, but needed to "colorize" the work place and meet some Affirmative Action racial quotas. We hired a few blacks straight out of college for the technical help desk, and found that they were all incompetent and lazy. They spoke in Ebonics on the phone with customers, liked to congregate together and segregate themselves from the rest of the staff, and one was even running a vitamin water business on the side. She made her sales calls on company time, and had loud verbal arguments with her boyfriend over the phone.

After several bad performance reviews, they were gone. What a waste! It is like the voting in of Obama, at least we tried, now we can move on.

Anonymous said...

The black man waits for the white man to reach down and pull him up, or waits for the white man to hand things down. If the white man does not take the initiative to "share" his resources" or share access, the black man shouts racism and begins to demand equal access. Blacks are always "underserved" and "underrepresented" in all fields and aspects of society because they are a cult of victimologists and cannot comprehend one basic premise.

Whites find the opportunities, and make solid plans to attain their goals. If a white man wants to buy a home, he sacrifices, finds a cheap rental, works hard, saves a downpayment, builds his credit, and waits patiently until his goals are met. Blacks want a home right now and start demanding handouts and a free ride. The white man will pay, right? White people have all the money and need to share. Blacks say that this is only "white privilege" and that blacks are always left out. Until blacks shut their mouths and start to pay attention to how white people operate, they will never find true success in the Western world.

Blacks are lazy by nature with limited natural intelligence, are unmotivated, and not willing to do the hard work required to be successful. Blacks believe in magic and mythology, and that white people are just stingy and will not share. Whites pass the secrets of their success on to their white children and the legacy continues. Blacks teach their children to be victicrats, to always demand things and hold their hands out for an opportunity to be "given" to them by the white man. Blacks demand that standards be lowered, that language be dumbed-down, that the rules become more relaxed so that they can gain "equal access", "equal participation" and "equal outcome" in every segment of white society.

Diseree can help us understand these important differences between white and black. We should all pay attention to her, as painful as it might be.

When my children were small, they asked me to place them in the tree in our back yard because they were too small to climb on their own. I firmly said, "No,you must work harder to achieve it on your own." So they worked harder and practiced, and eventually they found the way up by themselves after falling a few times. They will remember this and teach it to my grandchildren someday. Blacks do not have these same value systems.

We need to just say "No!" as we would to a child.

Anonymous said...

"I do believe education in this country is crumbling because white people"

This is such a funny statement, Diseree! White education is definitely not crumbling. But black culture and black education is crumbling.

Gee, wonder why?

The voucher programs and increased taxpayer spending goes to black students in black schools. Blacks are the ones failing tests, dropping out, falling behind. Black parents are the ones neglecting the basic needs of their black children. Black parents will not even appropriately feed their children or make sure they are prepared to learn and get to school on time.

White kids are doing just fine in my state, the failures happen among the blacks who do not value education. One of the constant themes in black culture is anti-intellectualism and anti-acting-white. Besides, you are supposedly in college, what do you know about crumbling education??

Black culture will continue to crumble unless black people learn how things work in our society, and start to value intelligence and success instead of making excuses for their failures.

Anonymous said...

Blacks volunteer to be poor and enslaved.


"People are poor because they cannot produce anything highly valued by others. They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so. Or, they volunteer to be poor." - Walter Williams (aka Uncle Tom)

Anonymous said...

Actually Desiree, white women invented and pioneered computer programming. Lord Byron's daughter was the first computer programmer (which shows the role good DNA plays, she didn't know her father). The programming language ADA is named after her. She was followed entirely by white women, women such as Admiral Grace Hopper. As recently as 1985 women made up 40% of computer science graduates.

Black people don't even come close to the achievements of white women.

And your feminist friends are idiots.

Anonymous said...

Educating blacks en masse is a failed experiment. Why do we keep doing this to our society?

We need to mandate birth control shots in exchange for welfare payments after the first unplanned pregnancy. At the same time, we must phase out all tax-payer funded welfare payments to lazy individuals who have babies out of wedlock and do not provide their basic needs.

We also must offer to pay black men $1,000 cash to get a voluntary vasectomy after age 18. This could be part of the "jail to work" program too.

Anonymous said...

"Really, you are a little too obsessed with blacks. Dude, get it together. It must be terrible to have to deal with all of that crazy. "

The craziness in our society is caused by blacks. Whites are obsessed with helping blacks because of white guilt. Yes, it is crazy, I totally agree. Wake up white people!! Listen to Desiree, you are crazy for trying to help blacks!!!

Whites, being charitable, mostly Christian and compassionate for human life, will help blacks to their own demise. Blacks will turn on them and steal, cheat, lie and abuse whites who try mistakenly to help.

Whites will drink the Kool-Aid of diversity and equality, and help to destroy their own nation and marginalize their own people. It drives whites crazy because they don't realize that they are fighting a never ending battle to save and uplift the black race. Only blacks can do this, and it is not likely that they ever will. We must do some damage control and stop the madness.

If white people would use their hard-earned money to promote their own families and the American agenda, to provide protection for Americans and reinforce our borders, we could remain the super power nation of the world instead of allowing low IQ American blacks and miscellaneous brown immigrants to turn us into a third-world country.

Anonymous said...

"IQ measurements and tests are set up exclusively for people of white privilege."

Then why do Asians score highest, you dumb fucking whore?

Anonymous said...

Talked to the white handyman who is working in my house today, he brought up the plight of the "inner city", ie. poor blacks. He is a christian man, early 50's, blue-collar, friendly, high school grad at best. A white man that one might assume is a bigot and racist (drives a big pickup truck, is Republican and conservative, and wears flannel shirts, LOL).

His church has sponsored black families, purchased and delivered Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas gifts for them, cleaned up their filthy yards shoveled their walks and raked leaves. He drives them to the grocery store and the doctor's office. He often provides plumbing services for these people free of charge. He invites them to church on Sundays where a free hot meal and recycled clothing and housewares are always available.

He mentioned that despite all of the genuine attempts his parishioners have made to help poor blacks, they are just not able to function very well, not able to overcome their self-inflicted miserable poverty. A few have stolen from him, or never said a simple "Thank You." He is a simple man, but had realized that no matter how much you give to blacks, poverty resides in their hearts and they will take and take and never give back, and never learn the universal lesson of human generosity.

This not the first time I have heard such a story from a confused and dismayed helpful generous white person. This must be the description of the "Crusading White Pedagogue".

Black culture has become a sucking black hole of emptiness which can never be filled.

~AV~ said...

...snip...I do believe education in this country is crumbling because white people, who have always harped on how intelligent they are, etc., are just not able to keep up with their own standards they have kept for themselves....end snip

So Desiree....White America fondly remembers segregated schools as being the good old days...when white children weren't distracted by blacks from single family welfare moms, and the criminally corrupt neighborhoods...white standards where focusing improving white society...instead he have been distracted by the black heathens who have destroyed yet another community norm that was once held in high esteem by white America.

Funny...prior to intergration, no white person even CARE to measure the accomplishments of a black person (good or bad)...

4 decades ago...we WERE smarter and some of us knew...mingling closer to blacks was going to destroy this country...WE KNEW...

and you confirmed...

Anonymous said...

"...instead we have been distracted by the black heathens who have destroyed yet another community norm that was once held in high esteem by white America."

Well said, AV. This includes all facets of our society, including neighborhoods, architecture, public spaces, and the freedom to move about without fear for one's own life. All have been corrupted by multiculturalism.

We have removed the barriers to entry, and so we no longer have the protection of a safe society.

Anonymous said...

White feminists seem to care about promoting infanticide and nothing else. If something is terrible for Western Civ. then feminists will support it. Encouraging irrational black behavior is something white feminists do in order to collapse our house.

There is also a coalition between blacks and feminists as they are both victim groups that hope to bilk money and exert influence to help themselves at the expense of everybody else.

Anonymous said...

"at least we tried, now we can move on."

If there ever was a bumper sticker...

Anonymous said...

"and the freedom to move about without fear for one's own life."

Gotta love a handgun license.

Anonymous said...

If we wait until blacks to turn 18 to offer them money to be sterilized, it is too late. They are grandparents at 18.

We need to pay them to get abortions.