
Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley - aaronbrethorst
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2011/10/arrington-race-and-silicon-valley-i.html
======
patio11
Silicon Valley is chum-tactic, so if you really care about the differential
access problem for X, regardless of the value of X, make extra special effort
to both tell X that Silicon Valley is chum-tactic and to introduce them to the
right people.

Chum-tactic: the first filter applied to you, for press or investment or
anything, is "Who sent you to me?" Some people think "Silicon Valley is a
meritocracy" implies that the first filter would be merit. Ahem. Be
meritorious, but make sure being meritorious makes an impression on someone
who routinely has dinner with the people whose cooperation you need. (Hint:
this happens spontaneously sometimes but that isn't the way to bet.)

P.S. Lots of the world and lots of situations work like this, with wide
variations in local etiquette for what counts as an intro and what warrants
one. "Who sent you?" is also the first filter for Chicago government
contracting and Nagoya job offers.

~~~
tempaccount10
Why aren't there many over-weight entrepreneurs in the Vally? I mean just look
at how many over weight americans in US and they are under-presented in tech.
I'm pissed. I'm going to start a OverWeightMe incubator that helps fat people.
And any news media or investor who is not paying attention is a a weight-ist.
You all should all write about me and fund me because i'm fat and under-
presented so I deserve it.

Sarcasm aside, let me tell you why there are so few black tech entrepreneurs.
Fact 1: Most successful tech founders in the Valley are themselves technical.
Fact 2: Go to your favorite college, how many black people there studying math
or computer science ? how many white or asians?

If there are very small percentage of black studying math and computer
science, of course, the number of the black tech entrepreneurs would be small.

To all the black people out there, please don't turn venture capitalism into
philanthropy. You will destroy Silicon Vally.

The whole sport (e.g basketball) industry is dominated by black people. Do you
see asian people crying around shouting 'racism'? If you are really good (like
in sports), you gain success. If you are not good, you're not (like making
tech companies). It's simple.

~~~
Dn_Ab
No it is not so simple. I do not think most people are rascist. That is the
wrong term. But there is a problem. The answer is what you get when you turn
your "Fact 2" to a question. Let me explain.

I have wondered about this and think the core problem lies with two cognitive
short cuts. The availability heuristic and the belief that other groups
(predicated on culture) are much less varied in individuals than yours (out-
group homogeneity bias). And everyone suffers from it. Black, white and every
shade between. That is, even blacks will assign the same stereotype backed
attempt at a conditional distribution to various outcomes and the only
difference is blacks will not lump it into the its just cause they is black
bucket. But even that alone is damaging to the cultural self image.

The effects are subtle. Ignoring socio-economic crippling effects, there is a
very strong hostile affect against book learning in black culture. And I do
not mean the standard antigeek treatment. I inhabited the intersection and can
tell you there is a striking difference in the type of hostility, the other
one actually creates feelings of real guilt and self questioning. And the
underlying cause is not due to a hatred of knowledge but a chronic
unacknowledged buried belief of lesser intelligence due to inferences made
against the cultural Zeitgeist peppered with lingering traces of an oppressed
past and a lack of many examples to counteract the claim.

This results in a defeatist attitude. See, if you try to study you nudge the
insecurities of those around you which leads to a "so you think you are better
than the rest of us" effect. There is a pressure to not try too hard and an
almost pride in ignorance and keeping it real. And if you do press on you will
still have this imposter effect suggesting that you struggle against your
genes. I succumbed to this pressure in my school years. The cycle maintains a
fixed point for the continued apathy towards knowledge in black culture,
resulting in a dearth of intellectual achievement. So we think the only way
forward is in sports or entertainment. This is the inward problem, why so
little of us study math and computer science.

==========

Personally, I have not met with much overt racism in any culturally diverse
setting. Outside diverse settings though and the rapid degradation of the
quality of broad-mindedness can be quite cumbersome.

I am much more subjected to the subtle effects of the availability heuristic.
I am not offended but sometimes disheartened. Where nice people meaning no
offence will cross over to the other sidewalk and back, especially at night
(useful when I wish to be left in peace). Or people feel the need to dumb
things down and are surprised I am interested in certain subjects cause you
know, you people typically don't - well no offence. Or that I am searched more
often than my nonblack friends (0 vs twice a year or so) and on days when I
say absolutely nothing have to end up being hauled to the station while they
look up that my record is as spotless as a cleanroom.

This is the real problem. Well meaning people will say things meaning no
offence and which only the most righteously uptight, persecution complex
suffering person would take as such. Benign and small indvdually but in
aggregate they give away beliefs that end up being real roadblocks when
attempting to initiate an interaction. The tragedy is they do it without even
being aware that they are doing it. When pointed out the more enlightened will
mention some nonsense about statistics and time savings. But this is useless
to tell the individual and such beliefs are self perpetuating or confounded by
low iodine and magnesium diets - poisoning the well of general knowledge with
effects leading to what i mention in my third block of text.

Ah well, I seem to have lost the point of what I was trying to say. but
basically the number of dimensions underlying the manifold of this problem is
far more vast than the simplistic picture you have painted using only one
color.

~~~
wisty
The theory is, if someone acts white, they are going to flee the neighbourhood
the minute they finish school, so you shouldn't waste any energy making
friends with them.

Interestingly, the prejudice against "acting white" is much lower in black
schools, and very high in schools with 20% blacks.

Also, Hispanics are much worse off - African Americans are respected for a GPA
of 3.5, but start losing friends if they get anything more. Hispanics seem to
lose friends once their GPA goes over 2.5.

see
[http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/fryer_t...](http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/fryer/files/fryer_torelli.pdf)

~~~
Dn_Ab
Some of what you say makes much sense. I went to a school with about 20%
blacks. Although I have heard from others in more homogenous schools that its
not much better. You are also right it is not limited to blacks but I could
not think of a term that succinctly captured a minority but from a less
affluent demographic and more likely to be of a culture that has fractured
from its roots.

But part of what you say is a symptom of the chronic heuristic I spoke of. To
perpetuate ignorance just because those who do not appreciate it will leave?
makes no sense. Why, leaving is almost part of the job description of a sports
or entertainment job and they don't get ostracized. Plus part of the problem
is a lack of availability of models. The more that achieve the more it becomes
okay to try an intellectual avenue as a way out and the less and less notable
it becomes to be interested in say math. Plus as a matter of numbers some of
them will come back to try and better things, the spaces in entertainment are
much more limited than in technology.

Finally, "acting white" exactly exemplifies what I mean. Just because I am not
fluent in ebonics, like music with guitars in it, like to read scifi by Egan
and books on information theory does not mean I am acting white. Nor does my
like of chicken, basketball, funk, hiphop and bboying mean I am acting black.
It is a cultural and personal lifestyle choice not predicated on color in
deciding what I wish to identify with.

------
rilkeanheart
OK. I'll weigh-in on this. I identify as an African American, developer, and
aspiring entrepreneur. I'll post here the message that I give to my kids and
will continue to hammer as long as they will listen. IT DOESN'T MATTER if it's
a meritocracy or not. Go succeed. If there was an envelope that had a provable
answer as to whether things are harder/easier for me to succeed with a new
venture...I'd rip it up without opening it. What I love about Silicon Valley
is the number of people who don't care to be told by other people what's
possible.

------
yummyfajitas
_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
distinguish between blacks and Indians is flawed.

~~~
enjalot
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 crossed the street to
avoid a Chinese/Indian person walking towards them. Ask a black guy when the
last time that happened.

I think there are also many cultural differences at play, as well as people's
perceptions of those cultural differences.

Startups take their own kind of crazy, and it really helps to be surrounded by
people that tell you its ok to be crazy or are at least as crazy as you. And
if you are going to be around crazy people, you will probably want to know
that they are the same kind of cazy :) Being from different cultures (or
assuming you are) will make it harder to sense this.

~~~
yummyfajitas
In that case, why do Indians/Chinese "fit a pattern that appeals to them" and
Blacks do not?

I focused on "like them" because that's a lower entropy theory than "fit a
pattern" - it's a claim that VC's thought process is x ->
cultural_distance(self, x).

"Fit a pattern" is basically just an assertion that VC's have a table of
values in their mind, { "asian" : +1, "white" : 0, "black" : -1 } without
explaining either where it came from or how we even know it exists. It's
certainly very difficult to disprove, but only because it tells us very
little.

 _Ask a black guy when the last time that happened._

Well, I'm a white guy, and the last time it happened to me was Tues. This
happens to me fairly frequently when I'm in the US.

~~~
roguecoder
Because the perceptions of African-Americans are still conditioned by the
economic devastation inflicted by 242 years of slavery, followed by an
additional 103 of legal disenfranchisement and discrimination, followed by
only 57 years a criminal justice and militarized police force that continues
to inflict disproportionate harm on (yes, even innocent) African-American men
living in the areas where until 57 years ago were the only place they could
safely live.

History: without it, life is confusing.

On the other hand, other non-European minorities were excluded from the US all
together, leaving less time for stereotypes to calcify. The IT industry itself
has a strong presence in India and China, so cross-pollination is logical. It
has not had a similar expansion into Africa, or we might see similar growth of
African entrepreneurs.

~~~
mc32
A bit pedantic, but there are a few African‡ startups wich have garnered
attention from the Valley --most form South Africa though (Fundamo, Thawte,
etc. A). Google has opened a tech incubator too.
[<http://www.google.co.za/intl/en/umbono/index.html>]

‡Maybe you mean black Africans, but blacks are not the only Africans -there
are south Asians, whites, Chinese, Arab, etc.

------
jpadvo
I skimmed through the comments and was surprised to not see anything about
Project Implicit being done at Harvard. This is a research project that is
being done using actual, real science. We don't need to armchair speculate
about this stuff; we have science for a reason.

The researchers have found that our minds make subconscious judgements of
people base on their appearance. No shock here, of course. It turns out that
they can measure the effects of this with simple experiments, and can thus
measure how a person subconsciously response to images of people from all
different races. It is absolutely fascinating, rigorously scientific work, and
if you are at all interested in race you should read about it:

<https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/research/>

Here is a mainstream article about the project:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan21.html)

~~~
pjin
If you're going to raise science on a pedestal, you should write a comment
other than "Oh it's science, we should trust whatever those scientists are
doing." (C.f. the Milgram experiment.) We don't need to mindlessly praise
research; we have peer review for a reason.

This seems to be the original Implicit Association Test or IAT paper (from
1998). It's quite accessible and should provide a better justification for why
this research is rigorous and novel.

[http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/burke_b/Senior/BLINK%20replicat...](http://faculty.fortlewis.edu/burke_b/Senior/BLINK%20replication/IAT.pdf)

~~~
jackpirate
_C.f. the Milgram experiment._

Are you suggesting Milgram's experiments are somehow unsound?

~~~
pjin
No. Milgram did his experiment to show how the impression of authority, which
in his case was scientific authority, could lead to unsound decisions like
applying an electric shock to a stranger.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment>

------
indignation
I know Hank and the reason he can't raise money has nothing to do with his
race. In fact, he raised $40 million as the CEO of Clickradio in 1998.

His problem is two-fold. First, he sued his previous investors (and lost). A
lot of people had their companies fail in 2001, but dragging his investors
through a 5-year battle made him a minor legend. Ultimately, he was suing them
in retaliation for firing him from Clickradio, which is what they did to try
to save the company. Second, he has at least three ex-employees of his current
venture whom he's tried to retroactively cut out of the company after they
left. One of them is owed over a hundred thousand. If that comes out in due
diligence, and it will because half the Valley already knows it, he's a goner.

There are a number of black people in technology I would fund in a heartbeat.
Hank is not one of them.

------
jessedhillon
Having read many threads on HN about race, gender and other -isms, I can
predict what this comment section will look like at around 100 comments. It
will be equal parts denial of other peoples' experiences and dogged insistence
on the existence of a magical leveling force ensuring that justice has been
perfectly delivered. There will be some gems among all that, but it's mostly
going to be sweeping, questionable assertions about a wide swath of people.

Before you comment, please read about the Just World fallacy (thanks irahul)
and ask yourself whether you may be subject to it. And answer honestly.

[http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-
fallac...](http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-fallacy/)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis>

~~~
stfu
I would argue a "the world is INjust" (fallacy?). Humans are and will always
be biased in some form or another. Any form of "just" is more or less socially
constructed by those who invested their efforts into shaping the accepted
perception of "just" and moved the public perception towards what they
perceive as what "just" should be.

So the two alternative are that one can either work within the current status
quo (e.g. be pragmatic about it) or, if the situation is presumed by many as
unbearable, actively work together to change the situation.

------
localhost3000
Thought this was a very interesting read until getting to the comments section
where the author agressively went tit-for-tat with a commenter over, what
seemed to me, terminology and minor difference of opinion...then I thought,
race has nothing to do with it if you're simply a jerk to people.

~~~
eaurouge
I felt the same way too. But I still see it as an interesting post that raised
valid points. Hank, if you read this, you should try easing off on unnecessary
quarrels.

------
ig1
There are relatively few black startup founders, there are also relatively few
female startup founders.

But both of these have the same underlying cause, both of these groups are
under-represented in the software development profession as a whole.

Those minorities who are well represented in the software development
profession are those that are well represented in the startup community.

Being a successful startup founder means that you're an outlier, and bigger
populations have more outliers. It's as simple as that.

------
colinplamondon
It's not surprising NewMe didn't get coverage.

Taking part in a race-selected accelerator, instead of a quality-selected
accelerator, reflects badly. "If their product is so good, why couldn't they
get into YC or TechStars?".

~~~
JabavuAdams
> Taking part in a race-selected accelerator, instead of a quality-selected
> accelerator

This is very true. I'm half-black and I've avoided such programs and clubs to
avoid being labeled.

This is part of a larger issue: "black" is not a culture. What we call "black
culture" is more like US-poor-uneducated-black-ghetto-post-slavery-culture.

So, if you happen to be black and aren't poor and aren't living in a ghetto,
you don't really identify strongly with what most people call "black culture".

This means that successful, main-stream blacks (speaking of Canada, here) are
dis-inclined to live with or be particularly helpful to struggling blacks.
Compound this with other cultural divides like high religiosity of uneducated
blacks vs. lower religiosity of educated people in general, and there really
is a sense of "those losers are embarrassing us."

Contrast this to other minority groups that have strong cultural ties. If Jews
are shunned in a country, they tend to set up their own parallel social
structures. Chinese help Chinese, etc.

Kenyans help Kenyans, and Somalis help Somalis, but blacks (in general) don't
really help blacks, because "black" is not a well-defined cultural group. It's
only a well-defined cultural _stereotype_.

~~~
create_account
_there really is a sense of "those losers are embarrassing us."_

Chris Rock has a famous rant about this: " _There are black people and there
are n!!!ers, and the n!!!ers have got to go_ "

~~~
JabavuAdams
Hilarious rant, but there's still the problem of the word "nigger".

There's a recent tendency to equate "nigger" with "white trash". White people
don't call white trash niggers.

Innocent whites weren't hung from trees in living memory with crowds of blacks
shouting "white trash!". The word "nigger" is more offensive (for now) because
of the history of its use. It's an ugly word.

By analogy, ask an Irish Catholic which is more offensive: "white trash" or
"dogan". Actually, don't ask, unless you know the person really well.

~~~
create_account
Hence my unusual spelling.

I'm not sure the white trash equivalency is really gaining momentum, though.

Whites never _deeply_ disliked their poorer and less-educated brethren despite
looking down on them, and there has been a spate of "white trash is cool" with
the popularity of the Cable Guy and Redneck comedy tours.

~~~
JabavuAdams
>Hence my unusual spelling.

Oh, I wasn't intending to criticize you. Yeah, I agree.

------
wh-uws
I really hate getting into these discussions because can quickly devolve into
either:

a) a stale conversation because people get afraid of coming off racist

b) ad hominem and actually racist ignorantly spouting stereotypes of different
races without any factual basis

but I feel like at times its good for me to add my perspective for people who
really wouldn't have any idea without it

I am a black ( african-american whatever you like) person who works for a,
albeit later stage, startup. With aspirations of one day starting my own.

I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood of the city in the US with the
highest percentage black population...

Those things said this issue is both an educational and more importantly a
multi generational wealth problem.

I previously discussed at this article here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2438411>

Most black kids don't learn much about computers or computing at an early age
and secondly don't have family who can afford for them to have one at home to
learn on. They don't have friends who are curious about these things to take
from and share with either.

In many of my favorite stories about the most successful tech companies in
their infancy you hear about this basically band of brothers with (Steve and
Woz, Bill and Paul, Zuckerburg and his roomates) alot of under represented in
tech minorites don't have this.

I was fortunate that my family could afford for me to have a computer to learn
on. But I didn't start learning to program until midway through high school
and many times without any help of anyone knowledgeable in my own area town.

Not to mention the things they chose to do were what many people would
consider very risky (all of them dropped out of school at one point or
another)

I'll close with this part of my comment from that earlier thread

" _Even if its not that risk taking is discouraged, risk averse or more
conservative routes are certainly encouraged more. There is also the pressure
of not having multi generational wealth to fall back on. Not having previously
successful family to lean on in times of need or if things don't go right is a
strong precursor to risk aversion_ "

To do that instead of something with much more strongly defined career path
(ie doctor, lawyer, dentist, etc.) is tough for many minorities when they have
to worry about whether or not their family will be financially sound

 _Edit:_ \- Another important reason I generally avoid these conversations is
because I too strongly believe that Silicon Valley and the Tech Industry as a
whole are meritocracies.

But that is why I chose to comment. To help explain that the issues aren't
that blacks and other under represented minorities aren't excluded for racism
reasons but for circumstances that leave them uninformed, underprepared, or
completely without the ability to compete.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I'd argue what you're saying and what he's saying are different arguments.

Your arguments almost all apply to poor people in general (and I believe them
to be absolutely true). In fact I'd argue it's more true than people know.
When hearing the legend of Microsoft rarely do people include the fact that
his Mom was on the United Way Board with the CEO of IBM and it was she who
pointed IBM in Microsoft's direction.

But that's different from the argument he's making. You're making the point
that it's hard to get to the startup level he's arguing that once you get
there you're at a disadvantage because the Valley has a subconscious racism in
it. That I honestly don't believe.

He says...

"To be clear, I am not saying any VC says at a partner meeting, “you know I
really like this company’s product but did you notice he’s a negro?” Never
Happens"

The problem with that logic is I've been in meetings where the exact opposite
is true. Where people have said "I'm not completely sold on the company but
I'd really like to see more minorities in our investment portfolio". So in my
experience I've seen the color of someone's skin actually help people a lot.

So while there's certainly some subconscious discrimination there's also some
very conscious actions being taken to seek out minorities and I don't think
anyone can say how frequently either of these phenomenons are happening.

~~~
csallen
_> You're making the point that it's hard to get to the startup level he's
arguing that once you get there you're at a disadvantage because the Valley
has a subconscious racism in it._

These points may be more related than you think. "Getting to the startup
level" is not so simple a concept as "either you get there or you don't."
People arrive at this destination with widely varying amounts of skill,
preparation, connections, and credentials. Not all entrepreneurs are equally
attractive.

So wh-uws' point makes a lot of sense. If it seems that disadvantaged-group-X
is having more trouble securing funding than other groups, it doesn't
necessarily mean investors are to blame. It could very easily be the case that
X is running into issues earlier in life that, generally, make it much harder
for its members to become great entrepreneurs. When trying to answer the
question, "Why do so few females run funded tech companies?", it might make
sense to take a few steps back and ask, "Why do so few females study computer
science", or hell, "Why do girls play with dolls while boys play with legos?"

------
stfu
Of cause a socio political minefield. Maybe I am too pragmatic about that -

BUT: If I were a founder that would feel being discriminated against in any
form (sex, gender, color, your name it) why should I not pare up with a co-
founder whom I regard as being not discriminated? If I have no biases within
my own friend circle this should be not problem at all. Or would it?

~~~
bilbo0s
This is, unfortunately, VERY good advice. If I were a young, black guy trying
to start a company...I don't care how smart I am...I would go get a front man.
Don't let idealism advise your financial dealings. IDEALLY...it would be great
if there was no bias. PRAGMATICALLY...there is bias, those kids will need to
deal with it.

One way is to come across an Arrington, but as not all guys are like
Arrington...you would be well advised to have a front man.

------
raheemm
_my Arnold-Schwartenzegger-in-Terminator like determination has made my
successes possible_

I would like to read more about these experiences of his.

------
galactus
Excellent read. I specially liked this part:

"In fact some people get far more support than others. For example, I’m not
going to name any names, but when a top tier VC writes a five million dollar
check to a 19 year-old with a barely-beyond-napkin-stage _idea_ , no customers
and a fragile technology because they “present well” then clearly something
else is at work."

~~~
castewart
Is there a link to this specific anecdote?

------
zerostar07
I wonder if any of that holds for those of us who are outside Silicon Valley.
The technology world has treated me like an absolute meritocracy until now.

------
wangwei
I believe Silicon Valley is meritocratic for the most part. I don't buy the
minority argument since there are many asian minority presence in the valley.
If you look at music industry or sports (such as basketball), you will see
many black people. You rarely see any asian people doing sports or music. And
we don't blame it on race. If black people are not discriminated in music or
sports, I don't know why they would be discriminated in other industries. They
succeed in music and sports because they are really good. If black people are
really good in tech as they are in sports or music, I can't imagine how the
tech industry would turn them away just because of their color.

~~~
Anechoic
> _If black people are not discriminated in music or sports, I don't know why
> they would be discriminated in other industries._

And yet there is plenty of evidence to show that they are. This
<http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/ASR_pager_etal09.pdf> for example

------
omnivore
Rural America operates this way. People want to know who your last name is and
you can get a lot of social capital as a newcomer by working at the "right"
places and being introduced by the stakeholders. No big shock here. I learned
very quickly pitching that this was a relationship-based business and if you
lack those critical relationships or a network that can fuel what you're
trying to do, then there's no point in wasting time if you have access to
other things.

In other words, why look for a lottery ticket when there are a bevy of other
ways to make money conventionally? I get the arguments lodged here, but it
just comes off as whining because the people involved don't give a shit and
the people watching on TV will perceive it as whining. The problems go back to
education, there is pervasive and systemic bias that gets demonstrated
throughout our society for a bevy of reasons. Problem is, the tide has turned
and people aren't as sympathetic to these causes when you compare them with
state sponsored discrimination. In the absence of that, there's just not a
whole lot people can expect other than to look for their wormhorm towards what
they want.

Math and science are a good place to start.

------
yonasb
Arrington's response > this post. He may or may not be wrong for saying he
bends over backwards for black entrepreneurs. You're saying he's wrong because
of one instance, I'm sure he can point out times he has lived up to that
statement. You should be mad at Soledad, not Arrington. And what was the point
of this post? If you're going to raise an issue, do it in a constructive way
and talk about how to fix it, don't focus on someone whom you believe is
contributing to the problem, and then give a weak argument. As a black
entrepreneur, I'm mad I wasted my time reading your post. And it doesn't help
that Angela doesn't agree with you:
[http://www.blackweb20.com/2011/10/28/drama-why-arrington-
is-...](http://www.blackweb20.com/2011/10/28/drama-why-arrington-is-not-a-
racist-and-dont-believe-the-hype/)

~~~
aprjoy
You may want to read Angela Benton's post again:

"I wholeheartedly agree with what Hank Williams, a participant in NewME this
summer recently wrote (Note: Hank has seen the doc)[...] Please read Hank’s
full commentary, it’s a great read."

------
nikcub
NewMe is one of hundreds of new accelerators, you can't expect them all to get
the same coverage as YC and Techstars (who have been around for years and have
produced great companies), and it isn't racism if one of the accelerators you
don't cover just happens to be race focused.

------
rokhayakebe
Let me offend some people.

When I see a white rapper I usually am already biased against them. Sorry, I
have associated rap with black people. However the color test doesn't go past
10 seconds into listening to a record. Life isn't easier for a black rapper
who sucks. Being shot 10 times won't help either.

So is it hard to be a white rapper? Maybe. But remember, Eminem is one of the
greatest rapper to ever touch the mic, and Mac Miller, though a bit childish,
is going to be great.

~~~
finnw
_Eminem is one of the greatest rapper_

Yup, I'm offended now :)

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tamersalama
Almost anything has 'Arrington' seems to beg for a debate. I stopped reading
TechCrunch (and Arrington) a bit back since their tabloid-style Twitter memos.

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nchuhoai
I am more interested in who that 19 year old guy with the millions is

~~~
pgryff
Not sure about him, but I see klout, just raised 30 million on top of a
previous 10 million. And there was that social phone app that also raised 40
million... ;-)

