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Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

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Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#31

Post by pfarnsworth »

ryanwitt112 wrote: post #12
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…

It's an n of 1 experiential depiction of what the person went through, combined with the attempt at extracting the points in which that n of 1 had to overcome certain challenges. It also hypothesizes that there are similar challenges that immigrants and lower income folks go through. Commenters on the post resonate with it, so I think it definitely exists despite another segment of the same economic population also e…

Yes, exactly, I agree with you that it's anecdotal, but the article make broad claims as to what poor people are like.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#32

Post by brudgers »

dtran wrote: post #8
keithba wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is this: http://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2010/05/the-anat...

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.

My understanding is that there is a very strong correlation between a person's educational and socio-economic attainment and those of their parents. The number that sticks in my head is that parental status accounts for 80%+.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#33

Post by ebola1717 »

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 people are invalidating your hardships because of your privilege, they are wrong. But that doesn't mean the term isn't useful.

"Having Privilege Refers to Systematic Benefits for Your Identity (But the Same Identity Trait May Still Attract Incidents of Prejudice)"

http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/07/what-privilege-really-me...

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#34

Post by pfarnsworth »

Xyik wrote: post #14
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…

"Yet this OP disproved this. So I don't get what the point is." From the blog: "David and I are living proof that if we can upgrade and improve the way we think, and overcome our mindset inequality, then maybe we can help others do the same" Yes the blog clearly states that its not impossible, the OP is simply sharing how he overcame hurdles despite the challenges he faced being poor. It's meant to help others do the…

The title of the post is Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley. But the post proves that there isn't. So at best, the title is terrible.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#35

Post by rdlecler1 »

I had a similar experience starting life with opportunity debt. Single parent family whose mother had no high school education. Have ADD and dyslexia, moved around a lot with a good part my life in subsidized housing, and never graduated from high school. No one teaches you the basics, so that when you do start coming into your own and taking control of your own life you are so incredibly behind your peers socially, politically, and intellectually. I eventually went to community college as a mature student, eventually made my way to university, did a masters and then a PhD at Yale. Through it all I was always one or two steps behind and so many opportunities were missed because I didn't have money. Similarly, now as an entrepreneur I find myself being a little more conservative because you've been through a lot of bad times without a safety net.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#36

Post by asift »

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.

Does that surprise you? As far as I know, they are underrepresented in medicine, finance, and law as well.

There is more mobility than most people realize, but it's not like employment approaches anything near a random distribution. Given the potential advantages of being born into a wealthier class (both hereditary and non-hereditary), I would expect to see underrepresentation.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#37

Post by ossreality »

TrevorJ wrote: post #21
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…

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,…

aka, "I have no idea what the word privilege means".

Just like every one of these god damn threads. You just flat out don't know what the word privilege means.

paulv's comment is better: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10956283

I have privilege. I have a lot of it because I'm white, straight-appearing, and grew up with access to a computer at the age of 6.

I also lack privilege in some ways because I am gay. I actually have some minor privilege as being gay (I won't likely be accused of sexually or otherwise assaulting a female).

Privilege is not a zero sum game. It's not an accusation. It's not a bad thing, inherently. It's something to be aware of.

And then there are people like you get immediately get defensive. IM NOT A RACIST I DONT NEED THIS. It one, makes you look like you're projecting... and two, is completely missing the point.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#38

Post by yeureka »

This sounds very familiar.

When I was in University I didn't understand why some people didn't care about grades and partied so much. When we left school and got into the real world I understood why: they had rich parents with contacts that could get them good jobs or seed capital for their own businesses.

I had lots of ideas and worked in a lot of startups for more than 10 years but now the following phrase from the article describes my situation very well:

"Most of the time, potential founders who share my background tend to work at lucrative jobs in finance or tech until they can take care of everyone in their families before they even dream about taking more risks — if they ever get there."

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#39

Post by Karunamon »

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…

There's one problem here:

..(my response is) "yeah, that is a problem"

Well, no, not always. There are two huge problems with the whole "you are privileged therefore.." argument, so much so that I question the value of even using it:

- They extrapolate the general to the individual, which is unfair for the same reason that all prejudice is unfair.

- It's used disgustingly often as a throwaway attack to silence people. (In essence: You're privileged, shaddap) - The same people would use this to attack the author of this article, based on what's immediately visible about him (white male), without knowing a damn thing about his struggle.

For a very good recent example of this, look at what happened at Missouri U in the news.

I think the hardest part is probably recognizing that when people talk about privilege, it's really not personal...

If only I could believe that. My experience on the greater internet in the last few years is that, perhaps nine times out of ten, anyone using the word intends it as an attack on a group (their intentions, however noble, are irrelevant), and the other time, it gets the serious, thoughtful treatment we see here.

Re: Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley

#40

Post by sxates »

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…

One guy made it up the mountain by walking instead of taking the gondola. So it must be easy! Inequality solved!
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