Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 322 posts

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#21

Post by TrevorJ »

Frondo wrote: post #10
Karunamon wrote: post #5

Great read. I've become allergic to words like "privilege" as they usually are seen in the company of ill-thought-out and grandiose/insulting/wrong proclamations about How Things Should Be Done, ..but this is none of that - it's an honest look and deep analysis of someone's experience. And knowing how important upbringing is, and the sheer (almost superhuman) tenacity the author had to go through to even partially ov…

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

It is not ok to look at someone's gender, age & race and make assumptions about there life, full stop.

Applying a term like 'privileged' to an entire group of people based on a single characteristic is stereotyping at it's worst. This isn't to say that trends don't exist, but it is not ok to assume something about an individual simply because it's true, as a general rule for the group they belong to. Like it or not, that's the trap that many people fall into when talking about privilege.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#22

Post by dtran »

sharemywin wrote: post #11
dtran wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks-- that's useful: "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated." I'm curious about the socio-economic background of the parents as well.

be careful because "entrepreneurs" can be people that have to work contractor, part-time work, or the same trade "my father" was in kind of work.

That's always the problem with surveys like these. I started the form, then realized it'd be very difficult for me to group everyone into multi-choice categories for job, background, etc.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#23

Post by dtran »

rezistik wrote: post #20
dtran wrote: post #3

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

Hey-- feel free to reach out if you need someone to talk to-- david@crowdbooster.com and ricky@crowdbooster.com

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#25

Post by jjtheblunt »

robgibbons wrote: post #18
pfarnsworth wrote: post #9

This is a really poorly written post. Where exactly is the inequality in Silicon Valley? The OP got into Stanford, and then got an entire free ride something most people can't get. How exactly does this prove inequality? And then he got into YC. If anything this proves how equal things are in the Valley, if you're hardworking enough, there isn't anything you can't do, regardless of your social status. Sure, you have…

You obviously have no idea what it's like to grow up poor. The fear, the guilt, the frustration, and the exhaustion that you learn almost as if through sheer osmosis from your parents. The author is not arguing that you literally cannot compete if you're poor. But it's the very mindset from growing up in poverty that, through almost every interaction you have in childhood, leads you to _believe_ that you cannot compe…

You likely aren't qualified to make statements, beyond guesses, about what the person knows regarding growing up poor.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#26

Post by [deleted] »

Frondo wrote: post #10
Karunamon wrote: post #5

Great read. I've become allergic to words like "privilege" as they usually are seen in the company of ill-thought-out and grandiose/insulting/wrong proclamations about How Things Should Be Done, ..but this is none of that - it's an honest look and deep analysis of someone's experience. And knowing how important upbringing is, and the sheer (almost superhuman) tenacity the author had to go through to even partially ov…

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

[deleted]

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#27

Post by ryandrake »

rezistik wrote: post #20
dtran wrote: post #3

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

You know what's weird and uncomfortable sometimes? Going to lunch with your co-workers and listening to them talk about the awful problems of their lives, like how they wish their maids could come twice a week instead of every two weeks, and how difficult it is that they have to pay [my salary * 0.5] for their kid's private school. How worried they are about things like the stock market and how high the property taxes on their million dollar homes are. Total culture shock, not coming from money.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#28

Post by paulv »

67726e wrote: post #15
Frondo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, one thing you can do is retrain yourself to be un-allergic to words like "privilege", and see their use as the consequence of a lot of people's suffering systemic unfairness and injustice. When I see that word, "privilege," especially tied to attacks on white/male/hetero/whatever, my response isn't "oh jeez, not that again".....it's "yeah, that is a problem, and I really wish the other white male hetero…

Or you could stop using the fact that someone is white, male, or straight as some kind of attack, insult, or excuse. There are certainly issues in society, real problems but I'm tired of hearing it. Somehow all of my hardships in life are reduced to nothing, because I'm "privileged".

"...if you think having privilege means that you’re a bad person, or that you haven’t had struggles, or that you haven’t worked hard for what you have – then I can totally feel why you might be frustrated. If that were the case, then yes, it’d be completely unfair of me to claim that all white people or straight people or men or people of any other dominant group are living easy off their unearned privileges.

But having privilege doesn’t mean any of those things."

Maisha Z. Johnson, http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/what-privilege-really-me...

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#29

Post by sotojuan »

rezistik wrote: post #20
dtran wrote: post #3

Has anyone done a survey of the family socio-economic status of startup founders and early employees? I'd be curious to see how many founders/early employees are from low-income families, whether their parents graduated college, etc. If not, I'd love to create one.

I'd like that survey. The lower class is completely unrepresented in tech. It's been one of the weirdest and hardest things for me to handle personally.

I think low-income people who go into tech do not go into start ups. It's a risk. If you fail (very likely), you are back to being poor.

I'm a student and notice that a lot of the other low income students and underrepresented groups (of which I am a part of) in my CS program go straight to "safe" jobs, usually enterprise stuff.

Actually now that I think about it: I work in my university's IT department, helping out with the website. The place is straight out of Office Space, very traditional Java/CMS stuff. It's also incredibly diverse. Blacks and Latinos make up a good portion of the working force and even the higher up/managers. There's a good portion of women as well.

But when I interview at start ups or more "modern" companies it's all white or Asian.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#30

Post by robgibbons »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #25
robgibbons wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You obviously have no idea what it's like to grow up poor. The fear, the guilt, the frustration, and the exhaustion that you learn almost as if through sheer osmosis from your parents. The author is not arguing that you literally cannot compete if you're poor. But it's the very mindset from growing up in poverty that, through almost every interaction you have in childhood, leads you to _believe_ that you cannot compe…

You likely aren't qualified to make statements, beyond guesses, about what the person knows regarding growing up poor.

Thanks for stating the obvious: yes, it was merely a guess. But I am qualified by the measure that I personally grew up poor, like many others, and so can vouch reasonably in the author's favor regarding the reality of his statements.

Insofar as anyone would deny the concept of "mindset inequality" as it relates to one's intellect and poverty, I am perfectly comfortable making uneducated guesses about their upbringing.

Post reply on HN