Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Racism Doesn't Exist in Tech Because White Tech Blog Millionaire Jason Calacanis Has Never Seen It:

Silicon Valley is built on a series of myths, but none is more important than the myth that individual resolve can overcome the weight and inertia of systems. (There is someone out there right now, I guarantee you, seeking to "pivot" race, and thereby "disrupt" racism.) Calacanis and his ilk have no interest in examining the systemic effects and implicit biases that, in aggregate, result in white, male mastheads and employee lists because it might lead them to understand that their success was determined not by their talent and drive only but also by the institutional advantages of their whiteness and maleness.

Such an understanding would be dangerous to Silicon Valley, not just because it would undermine its own maverick self-image, but because it would demonstrate that there are systems and forces that no single individual can overcome, no matter how many Tim Ferriss books he's read. "The resolve of the individual" didn't make Calacanis' stint as manager of Netscape successful; it also didn't save Mahalo. It's not going to magically make Twitter or Tumblr profitable, either. Once that's understood, who's going to keep pumping capital into the valley?