This argument reminds me of the recent submission asserting that it's a hell of a lot easier to break into the Silicon Valley ecosystem when you're wealthy or white, and how the Valley likes to think it's a meritocracy.
Refuting this essay's point can be done by looking into the meritocracy argument. Sure, there's economic filters in the way of making it to places like Stanford or YC, but you can't complain that the lessons and morals these institutions impart are somehow 'racially tinged' because of socioeconomic gates inbuilt in American society.
If the author points out one thing correctly, it's that there is a striking disparity between the quality of life on either side of 101 on University. Companies like FB are making small initiatives to inject support and money into the local communities, but we need a larger, governmental effort before any real progress can be made in those areas.
I don't think it's being white so much as it is just being from a privileged background.
Had the teenagers in question had been South Asian or East Asian or African American but dressed and carried themselves in the way that people whose parents can afford to send them to Stanford for summer camp do, they would have had a similar outcome.
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[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 17.5 ms ] threadRefuting this essay's point can be done by looking into the meritocracy argument. Sure, there's economic filters in the way of making it to places like Stanford or YC, but you can't complain that the lessons and morals these institutions impart are somehow 'racially tinged' because of socioeconomic gates inbuilt in American society.
If the author points out one thing correctly, it's that there is a striking disparity between the quality of life on either side of 101 on University. Companies like FB are making small initiatives to inject support and money into the local communities, but we need a larger, governmental effort before any real progress can be made in those areas.
Had the teenagers in question had been South Asian or East Asian or African American but dressed and carried themselves in the way that people whose parents can afford to send them to Stanford for summer camp do, they would have had a similar outcome.