New York governor regrets saying Black kids in the Bronx don't know what a computer is

[Polybius]

Source: Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says she regrets making an offhand remark that suggested Black children in the Bronx do not know what the word “computer” means.

Hochul, a Democrat, made the extemporaneous comment Monday while being interviewed at a large business conference in California to discuss expanding economic opportunities in artificial intelligence for low-income communities.

“Right now, we have young Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word computer is. They don’t know, they don’t know these things,” Hochul said while on stage at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

The remark was not addressed during the interview and the governor went on to explain that her goal is to provide avenues for communities of color to access emerging artificial intelligence technologies as a means to address social inequality.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hochul-black-kids-bronx-computer-comment-e0c3c69b1ebf9639d8f9e402096f8446

[Traurigkeit]

1. Kathy Hochul says she is a Democrat. She has shown she doesn't walk it at times.

Republican in Democratic clothes ?

[brush]

2. Yeah, that's pretty bad to make such a blanket statement...

about Black kids. There may be some kids whose family may not be able to afford a personal computer for their kids, but of course the parents of those kids and the kids themselves know of computers and most likely have used/been exposed to computers in some fashion...the parents on the job, the kids maybe at their school library, and certainly just watching TV.

It was a surprisingly ill-informed comment by the governor.

[AllaN01Bear]

11. rhino

[Mosby]

14. Dino.

Democrat in name only.

[LeftInTX]

3. What a dumb thing to say

[William Seger]

4. LOTS of kids today don't know how to use a PC

My daughter teaches at a charter school in a well-off district, and she found that about half of her 7th grade students had only used phones and game consoles -- never had a reason to learn anything about PCs. They had signed up for a programming class, but she had to start by getting them familiar with a keyboard and mouse and teaching them about folders and files and installing programs.

[MichMan]

5. Gov Hucel said they don't even know what a computer is.

Not that they weren't proficient as using one.

[William Seger]

7. Yes, I'm just pointing out a cultural phenomenon that many are unaware of

The reason I think it's concerning is that virtually all office jobs these days involve using a PC, not a smartphone, and I had just wrongly assumed that most kids today are familiar with PCs by first grade.

[Oopsie Daisy]

6. It was a poor choice of words, but it's easy to figure out what she meant.

It's an embarrassing goof, obviously, and I do not understand why others are seeing this as an opportunity to attack her and to question whether she's actually a Democrat.

I'm trying to think of a similar comparison.... so... I've even said of myself "I don't even know what an ironing-board is." Or "my husband doesn't know how to lower the toilet seat." But does anyone truly believe that I literally don't know what an ironing board is?? Or that my husband literally doesn't know how to lower the toilet seat?? No. They take my meaning and understand what I'm saying.

[twodogsbarking]

8. It is poor. They just happen to be non-white.

[IronLionZion]

9. Knowing what something is and having access to one are different things

considering how many jobs require computer skills. This needs to be taught in public schools in low income areas.

There are better ways of making this point.

[AllaN01Bear]

12. in the state of ca its requiered to learn computer skills in grade school. sorry, forgot to close my thought there .

oops . im a baaaad boi.

[AllaN01Bear]

13. rino. snork.

[Polybius]

15. You mean DINO

RINO is a Republican In Name Only, such as they call Romney.

[electric_blue68]

16. Ouch! B Been living in The Bronx for about 15 yrs. The Public Libraries esp the Bronx Central Library have computers...

available for use. As well as Internet access - which the mid 90"s (when I was in Manhattan) is where I accessed the internet, continued to learn some of Word.

They certainly have had computer classes, and some various software classes through the decades.

The BCL is located in a mostly Hispanic, and African-American community so a lot of available stuff.
They also have a dedicated Teen Center.

A very nice library.

[madville]

17. How is AI going to address inequality?

Seems like it’s going to be used to eliminate as many middle and lower class blue and white collar jobs as possible. The tech firms will make billions and trillions off of it of course…..