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Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

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Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#11

Post by Rariel »

enjalot wrote: post #5
yummyfajitas wrote: post #2

People, for the most part, want to work with people that are “like them” or that fit a pattern that appeals to them. I see this argument made a lot. But this argument has a huge hole in it - Chinese and Indians are also not "like them". And yet, Chinese/Indians are not underrepresented. If Hank William's theory were correct, they should be. Any theory concerning the underrepresentation of blacks which does not distin…

You only covered the "like them" aspect, what about the "fit a pattern that appeals to them" part? Chinese and Indians fall into "model minority" stereotypes, which have their own set of evils (you are X so you must be good at Y is it's own kind of dehumanization). So someone making a gut call might have underlying prejudices for Asians and against blacks. In other words, when is the last time a white person has cros…

"In other words, when is the last time a white person has crossed the street to avoid a Chinese/Indian person walking towards them. Ask a black guy when the last time that happened." What does this have to do with the model minority point? Also I'd say that asians and indians are the majority in tech, at least in my experience. My husband is a Mechanical Engineer from Cal and the vast majority of his classmates were Asian and Indian, very few whites and people of other ethnicity.

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#12

Post by starwed »

philwelch wrote: post #7
priforce wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans didn't enslave Indians for centuries, have a civil war that created deep political fractions till this day, made it illegal for Blacks to read or drink from Whites-only water fountains, and then launch a series of legal structures that prevented Blacks from being treated as human beings. In actuality, a landmark Supreme Court case was of an Indian man who wanted to own US property but couldn't and his defen…

Chinese were effectively imported as a mass of slave labor, and American Indians were subjected to slavery and genocide. (The European colonies in America joined the African slave trade because the supply of American Indian slaves was being exhausted, as a matter of fact.)

I think it is pretty clear from the context of his comment that Indian refers to people from India.

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#13

Post by [deleted] »

protomyth wrote: post #6
priforce wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans didn't enslave Indians for centuries, have a civil war that created deep political fractions till this day, made it illegal for Blacks to read or drink from Whites-only water fountains, and then launch a series of legal structures that prevented Blacks from being treated as human beings. In actuality, a landmark Supreme Court case was of an Indian man who wanted to own US property but couldn't and his defen…

> Black isn't so much a color, it's both an individual and collective experience, > and the experiences of Blacks in America in relations to Whites is what makes > race-relations and social, political, economic progress unique to Blacks as > opposed to other ethnic groups who have faced discrimination and even > oppression but not to the degree of Blacks. Typing this on a reservation, I would like to dispute your "un…

[deleted]

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#15

Post by Rariel »

protomyth wrote: post #6
priforce wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans didn't enslave Indians for centuries, have a civil war that created deep political fractions till this day, made it illegal for Blacks to read or drink from Whites-only water fountains, and then launch a series of legal structures that prevented Blacks from being treated as human beings. In actuality, a landmark Supreme Court case was of an Indian man who wanted to own US property but couldn't and his defen…

> Black isn't so much a color, it's both an individual and collective experience, > and the experiences of Blacks in America in relations to Whites is what makes > race-relations and social, political, economic progress unique to Blacks as > opposed to other ethnic groups who have faced discrimination and even > oppression but not to the degree of Blacks. Typing this on a reservation, I would like to dispute your "un…

I don't think this is a game of who was oppressed more/worse. The plane and simple fact is that no ethic group endured 400 years of hardcore slavery in the US other than African-Americans. Slavery which was also followed by hardcore and legal discrimination.

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#17

Post by Rariel »

philwelch wrote: post #8
enjalot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only covered the "like them" aspect, what about the "fit a pattern that appeals to them" part? Chinese and Indians fall into "model minority" stereotypes, which have their own set of evils (you are X so you must be good at Y is it's own kind of dehumanization). So someone making a gut call might have underlying prejudices for Asians and against blacks. In other words, when is the last time a white person has cros…

You know what immigrant population, statistically, is even more successful than the stereotypical "model minority" Chinese and Indians? Immigrants from actual Africa.

Yes and they often try to distance themselves from African Americans. But what are the actual numbers of African Immigrants in the US compared to Asian/Indian? Even second and third generation. There are larger numbers in Europe I'm sure.

Edit: I'll answer my own question, in 2008 alone African immigrants only accounted for 3% Asian immigrants (which includes India) accounted for 53%. I'm sure that's not a recent trend.

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#18

Post by [deleted] »

kenjackson wrote: post #9
yummyfajitas wrote: post #2

People, for the most part, want to work with people that are “like them” or that fit a pattern that appeals to them. I see this argument made a lot. But this argument has a huge hole in it - Chinese and Indians are also not "like them". And yet, Chinese/Indians are not underrepresented. If Hank William's theory were correct, they should be. Any theory concerning the underrepresentation of blacks which does not distin…

Chinese and Indians are also not "like them" Yes, they often are. One of the biggest names in the VC world is Vinod Khosla. Kleiner Perkins has a whole team dedicated to China. Accel has multiple Chinese and Indians on their US team (and dedicated China and India teams). Every major SV VC firm looks like this. White (US), White (European), White (Israeli), Indian, and Chinese. The "them" isn't just Caucasians, but it…

[deleted]

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#19

Post by Rariel »

philwelch wrote: post #7
priforce wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans didn't enslave Indians for centuries, have a civil war that created deep political fractions till this day, made it illegal for Blacks to read or drink from Whites-only water fountains, and then launch a series of legal structures that prevented Blacks from being treated as human beings. In actuality, a landmark Supreme Court case was of an Indian man who wanted to own US property but couldn't and his defen…

Chinese were effectively imported as a mass of slave labor, and American Indians were subjected to slavery and genocide. (The European colonies in America joined the African slave trade because the supply of American Indian slaves was being exhausted, as a matter of fact.)

Are you seriously saying that Native Americans were the go-to slaves? Have you heard of a little country called Brazil? Do you know about the trans-Atlantic slave trade? It doesn't seem you do.

Re: Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley

#20

Post by ilamont »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #2

People, for the most part, want to work with people that are “like them” or that fit a pattern that appeals to them. I see this argument made a lot. But this argument has a huge hole in it - Chinese and Indians are also not "like them". And yet, Chinese/Indians are not underrepresented. If Hank William's theory were correct, they should be. Any theory concerning the underrepresentation of blacks which does not distin…

He said or fit into a pattern, not and.

I once heard an older, well-known investor and entrepreneur in the Boston area tell a room full of students that a startup he's most likely to invest in is one whose founding team includes an IIT graduate. Earlier this month, Foundry Group VC Seth Levine said he felt "surprised" being pitched by a group of guys in their late 40s and 50s (http://www.sethlevine.com/wp/2011/10/is-there-age-bias-in-vc...). Hank described the Sequoia VC saying that they're biased toward younger people.

These types of biases come from people who have established patterns of personality traits and other characteristics of what makes for a successful startup and who they like to deal with. I would further posit that they have established norms for dealing with such people (including building networks which support such connections) which makes it easier for both parties to move the relationship forward.

If, however, a startup founder doesn't fit the molds of age, ethnicity, education, background, or whatever, his or her chances of being taken seriously and/or accomplishing something together are much less.

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