That's utter nonsense. The reason blacks and hispanics are not employed in silicon valley is that there are not as many skilled in IT blacks and hispanics as there are from other races in the United States.<p>Whatever the reasons are, it is a socio-economic problem, it's not a problem caused by any form of systematic discrimination in silicon valley.<p>I do not believe that I have ever seen any youtube video of a black person complaining about how he is fighting to get a job in silicon valley, but nobody is hiring him, even though he has a great number of projects online and everyone agrees his code is great.<p>It IS a meritocracy. If you put a bunch of bad black programmers in silicon valley and expect them to learn the tools on the job, then this will be an even greater disservice to the black community - as it would result in a negative stereotype about the quality of 'black programming'.
Wow. OK, I'm a little tired of all these recent "I'm Indian so I won't get funded", "We need women for Web 3.0" and blog-posts. I've got a little time on my hands so excuse this little diatribe:<p>>> "As I’ve mentioned many times before there is no innovation without diversity"<p>OK, well I agree with the general premise, I'd like a little elaboration on what kind of diversity you're talking about. I'm going to make the assumption that the writer's talking about racial diversity, and pose the question: How does having black skin automatically mean you're going to bring a different outlook to the table? Why shouldn't I go to Russia and find someone with an entirely different culture, background, language and religion? By that logic, that candidate will increase the diversity in my workplace far more than a Harvard educated black guy who grew up in Greenwich.<p>As an aside, organizations like TiE are absolutely absurd. You're trying to fight a "boys club" by forming your own boys club. The battle of racism(1) was never won with additional racism. Additionally, you're further isolating yourself from the community as a whole. Assimilate, infiltrate and smash the system from within if you really think you're being discriminated against(2).<p>In terms of practicality though, outrage isn't going to get you ultimately anywhere. If you don't think the Valley employs enough minorities in startups, then _start your own_. The barrier of entry is literally a 15$ Dreamhost account and a weekend reading the Django docs(3). Fork a project on Github and do something clever with it. The valley wont care if you're a philandering albino, you'll get job offers left and right if it's clever enough.<p>(1) I'd argue you'd have to be actively searching for instances of racism in the Valley to actually find it. I'm a second-generation Indian-American. The startup community least discriminatory group of people I've ever encountered bar crust-punks and hippies.<p>(2) Hint: Odds are you aren't.<p>(3) I'm well aware of Norvig's <a href="http://norvig.com/21-days.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/21-days.html</a>, this is just for the sake of argument.
<i>Why is Affirmative Action okay in every other industry and region but somehow when we take into account Silicon Valley it should be ignored. Bogus. As I’ve mentioned many times before there is no innovation without diversity.</i><p>Agreed. How 'bout it. And while we're at it let me say that I'm appalled by the over-representation of black sprinters in track and field too. How can it be that they are so consistently and completely the best? There's obviously something amiss. The total number of gold medals and world records they own is astonishing and a perfect example of why more diversity is needed. How can there be any innovation in the sport without slow white guys like me adding my perspective 80 meters behind in a 100 meter race ?<p>Pure human athletics and complex digital systems are very unforgiving in many of the same regards.
I don't care what color, creed, sex, or sexual preference you have. I care if you're innovative, can code well, and have unwavering dedication. This article is silly.
Different perspective alright: the original article is better balanced <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14383730" rel="nofollow">http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14383730</a><p>This you're-picking-on-me attitude is annoying.
<i>As I’ve mentioned many times before there is no innovation without diversity.</i><p>I would love to see that supported. These things are parroted around a lot, always in relation to race. Is it true? Should VC's only fund companies with multi-cultural founders?<p>I'm pretty sure that it's most definitely not.
As a counter-example. Out of the 5 people that I tried to hire last year, 2 of them were black.<p>There are very good black programmers out there but I don't think any startup in their right mind will trade skill for diversity. It's strictly business, not personal.