

The Unbearable Whiteness of Breaking Things - lbarrow
https://medium.com/on-startups/521cb394fda2

======
gebro
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.

------
L_Rahman
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.

