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YC Open Office Hours for Black and Hispanic Founders
- wageslave420 11y agoRacists
- mwseibel 11y agoReally happy to be launching this - if anyone has any questions I'm happy to hang for the next 10-20 minutes to answer them
- nana_gb 11y agoReally happy to see this being launched too. Just applied.
- sethbannon 11y agoHey Micael, exciting to see YC continuing to battle the inequality that exists in the startup world. I'm curious -- why did you chose to craft the program along racial lines, as opposed to along socioeconomic lines, which seems to be the recent trend in higher ed affirmative action?
- davidw 11y agoI could see it working out with an application 'why are you underrepresented?' rather than trying to guess at categories. As above, someone growing up dirt poor, but white, in rural Alabama might qualify. Or, say, Ahmed the clock guy when he founds a company. But I have no experience with these things, so applaud the effort. The YC guys seem good at changing/improving things as they go.
- OmarIsmail 11y agoBecause racism still exists: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-blac... "For her research, Pager pulled together four testers to pose as men looking for low-wage work. One white man and one black man would pose as job seekers without a criminal record, and another black man and white man would pose as job seekers with a criminal record. The negative credential of prison impaired the employment efforts of both the black man and the white man, but it impaired those of the black man more. Startlingly, the effect was not limited to the black man with a criminal record. The black man without a criminal record fared worse than the white man with one."
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- 78666cdc 11y agoThat's a poor study to cite. If you took two people of any one race and sent them looking for jobs, probably as often as not one would fare much better than the other just because of individual variability. You get hired based on your interview(s), not your resume.
- anigbrowl 11y agoGenerally people who research employment discrimination send out identical resumes except for a test factor and then use the number of interview invitations as a proxy for reaction to the test factor.
- 78666cdc 11y agoThen cite that rather than an unscientific, non-rigorous "study" (read: anecdote).
- anigbrowl 11y agoLet's take a look at the actual citation: Taken from a forthcoming paper by Sampson and Kristin L. Perkins, “Compounded Deprivation in the Transition to Adulthood: The Intersection of Racial and Economic Inequality among Chicagoans, 1995-2013,” in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Professor Sampson has an endowed chair at Harvard and was previously the chair of his department there. While I have not yet gone looking for preprint versions, I'm willing to entertain the possibility that he might have a firm grasp on the difference between statistical and anecdotal information. I see no reason for the author of the Atlantic article to recapitulate the methodology of every single academic reference in a long discussion of social policy.
- 78666cdc 11y agoAnd Watson, from Watson and Crick, who discovered the underlying commonality of all humanity, DNA, and won a Nobel prize for that work, was extremely racist[0]. That's the problem with arguing based on name recognition. Cite rigorous, peer-reviewed, established work. Let the veracity of the work speak for itself. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/01/dna-james-watson-scientist-selling-nobel-prize-medal http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/01/dna-jam...
- mwseibel 11y agoAgree with Sam's comment on this thread - we should do both
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- staunch 11y ago> Black, Hispanic, Women, Veterans, and International founders. I think it's great that YC is concerned about helping non-elite people. What about just focusing on helping poor people compete in Silicon Valley in general? Does anyone think wealthy founders of any kind need more help than poor founders of any kind?
- sama 11y agoi think the answer is we should do both. the sad truth is that being poor and being black/latino are both disadvantages when it comes to starting a startup in silicon valley. obviously both are overcome-able, but it's an uneven playing field.
- briholt 11y agoYou would think all the efforts towards social outreach would focus on poverty as their #1 criteria - the most direct and obvious criteria of people in need - but they almost never do. The problem is these programs are created by upper-class people in their media-social bubble, cobbled together from the arbitrary championings within that bubble. Unfortunately poverty doesn't have a strong, dedicated representative in these upper class circles, because only a tiny number of people born poor ever make it into the media or valley cocktail parties. Black, Hispanic, Women, Veterans - all have members both in needy classes and in upper classes to champion their own cause. But using this represented-in-the-bubble approach results in an arbitrary mix of random criteria that only half serves the purpose. There are certainly many Black/Hispanic/Women/Veterans in need and deserving of help, but there's also plenty who are trust fund babies who don't need it. Meanwhile, there are a lot of obvious groups left out of this list - Native Americans, poor Appalachian whites, etc. It seems ridiculous to explicitly help Blacks and Hispanics, but not Native Americans. We could go on and list a dozen more needy groups left out, but why bother when the correct criteria should just be poverty.
- anigbrowl 11y agoDiscrimination on the basis of superficial factors exists. Positive discrimination on the basis of similar factors is inefficient for exactly the reasons you describe, but a) it's a lot cheaper and simpler than means-testing people to find out whether they're actually poor or just pretending to be and b) people often rely on superficial characteristics when choosing role models, which is natural because you want a model who's substantially ahead of you (otherwise you don't have much to aspire to) but the greater the gap you wish to close the lower the probability that you can establish personal contact with all the extra nuance and information involved.
- santaclaus 11y agoThis is very exciting! Is the program open to those of Brazilian descent?
- ChicagoBoy11 11y agoThey did mention they planned on later opening rounds specifically for foreign founders. But if you are based in the U.S., I think they'd consider you a hispanic founder and thus eligible for the current round, yes? I'm Brazilian too, btw, so kinda curious about this. Although I have no start-up aspirations just yet :-(
- mwseibel 11y agoYes!
- clwk 11y agoGood job cutting right to the heart of the language. As written, it sounds like the answer would be 'it depends…'. I'm curious whether I'm reading that accurately, though.
- mattdeboard 11y agoBrazil has such a mixed demographic though. Like I don't care what your personal racial heritage is, but I was wondering, like, if an American resident says, "I'm Brazilian", what does that mean? Especially if they're of African descent. Would e.g. YC automatically just count them as Hispanic even though they're not actually Hispanic, just because they're "brown" (or white, or black, or whatever else) and Brazil is a South American country? edit: Relevant article http://www.allinportuguese.com/blog/2013/02/25/are-portuguese-and-brazilians-hispanic/ http://www.allinportuguese.com/blog/2013/02/25/are-portugues... Also, how would YC handle, like, a Japanese Chilean immigrant?
- cdelsolar 11y agoSo does South America. I am a Peruvian born in Venezuela but to many people I look white.
- arturventura 11y agoI'm not trying to be a troll, I'm just trying to find a justification. Having something that says you can only can come in if you are "Black, Hispanic, Women, Veterans, and International founders" kinda racist as fuck? It sounds exactly like segregation to me. Again, not trying to be a troll. Not American, just trying to understand.
- justizin 11y agoBecause, at least in America, all of the time is 'white male time', and people of color and women often feel intimidated in spaces that are dominated in this way, so efforts are made to encourage a focus on marginalized people.
- arturventura 11y agoI see. It just that the concept just feels weird to me, targeting specifically a few types of people. I suspect having that here where I'm from (Portugal), would have been construed as being racist. Again, not being a troll, just trying to understand.
- softawre 11y agoA lot of Americans think this is racist too. It's basis is rooted in the fact that "white people" still haven't repaid "black people" for slavery.
- djtriptych 11y agoNote to reader: Generally you want to replace "A lot of Americans" with "I" in statements like this.
- anigbrowl 11y agoHow much structural discrimination is there in Portuguese society?
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- Kalium 11y agoI'll be very curious to see numbers on outcomes attributable to this effort.
- lordnacho 11y agoSo this is basically open to anyone (not just YC program people)? My wife here in Europe would love a helping hand with her new business.
- mwseibel 11y agoThis is open to all people trying to start tech startups
- 6stringmerc 11y agoYou planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? I mean, until the ACA came along, I pretty much took a risk-aversion pattern career path so I wouldn't get thrown into the "prexisting condition" abyss, and I'm probably not alone here. Personally speaking, a lot of handicapped folk I've met through the years are quite clever, innovative, and determined, because starting life at the plate with a 3-2 count is a lot different than being on 3rd base, if you catch my metaphorical drift. Just curious.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- mwseibel 11y agoThat's a good idea!
- 6stringmerc 11y agoNot trying to be too snarky, but yeah, I know. There are so many support networks for youth and adults in respective communities that once you put the word out, I bet responses will come pouring in. It's a good compliment to trying to raise your outreach profile with the under-represented communities overall - lots of overlap and progress you can help be a part of making!
- Alupis 11y ago> You planning to open up such a thing for the handicapped as well? This is part of the problem with things like this - while good intentioned, it inevitably alienates another equally oppressed group. Why can't we just have "Office Hours" and make it absolutely clear it's for anyone -- and actually follow through with the intent. It just seems silly to says "these here are for only this one small group - and that's how we're going to help combat bigotry".
- tptacek 11y agoThey aren't "combating bigotry". They've observed the obvious demographic gaps, and they're doing targeted outreach to try to close that gap. Combating bigotry is a worthy cause, but it is not the only worthy cause, and evaluating unrelated outreach programs by their impact on bigotry is a sort of rhetorical sleight of hand. I think this is worth pointing out: there is probably no criticism anyone is going to have of this program that the YC partners have not already considered. It's 2015, and they're not dumb.
- fijal 11y agoVeterans? What does this word mean in this context? I would expect it to mean a military veteran (this is what wikipedia thinks), but it sounds very weird here. PS. I'm neither living in America nor a native speaker so excuse my lack of knowledge
- mwseibel 11y agoSorry - yes military veterans
- adventured 11y agoThey mean military veterans.
- cryoshon 11y agoYeah, military veteran is the correct reading. I guess if you really stretch the idea, they count as minorities.
- fijal 11y agoThat sounds like a really strange idea to me, can someone explain why does people who used to shoot other people count as a cultural minority, as opposed to say, retired policeman, railway worker or any other group really?
- tcdent 11y agoThe explicit nature of identifying these groups by race is off-putting, mostly because it is short-sighted. Racial identification can't be the solution if the ultimate goal is to end racial disparity. This obviously isn't the first or last program YC implements, but as some point the message has got to become more sophisticated to accomplish the core goal. YC is a numbers game. This simply encourages stereotypically atypical founders to succeed, skewing the numbers in their benefit for future investors. It also creates role models for potential founders, showing that this is not an industry dominated by just white guys. From the perspective a middle class white male, I do worry you might be making the problem worse by reinforcing and/or encouraging elitism on both sides.
- mojuba 11y agoExactly this. By announcing separate open hours for groups B and C, don't they deliberately make their normal hours even more A?
- tptacek 11y agoI do not follow this logic. There are minority and women YC founders who already get the (A) hours.
- Alupis 11y agoWhat the parent is getting at, I think, is that by having explicitly set-aside hours for groups 'B' and 'C', it will create a stigma that groups 'B' and 'C' must attend only those designated hours -- effectively making the "normal" office hours for the "elite' group 'A'. It seems to me, no matter what way you look at it, separated office hours will perpetuate segregation and bigotry, instead of the desired effect.
- tptacek 11y agoThe normal office hours ARE elite. They're available only to people who have been accepted into YC. The goal of the program is to make more of those (A) group people members of underrepresented demographics.
- ohitsdom 11y agoWell done, YC. I believe we need more of these types of actions to act as a shot in the arm for diversity in the industry (and other industries, too).
- mindcrime 11y agoI think this is a good move, and glad to see YC doing it. And this is coming from somebody who is neither black nor hispanic. I mean, I get the whole "isn't this just affirmative action and isn't AA bad?" thing, I really do. But this is a private business, not a government agency, and they are free to try and address issues of equality and what-not in whichever way they see fit. And when you're part of a group that is (or is seen as) disadvantaged, it can only help to have some very specific support thrown your way. If this does even a small bit of good in terms of creating more successful companies founded by black or hispanic founders, I will benefit us all in the long run.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- 78666cdc 11y agoThe flaw in this argument is that it makes the implicit assumption that having more startups founded by black or hispanic founders is good just because there are more startups founded by black or hispanic founders. That there is underrepresentation with respect to a minority is indicative of that minority generally having lower socioeconomic status, and perhaps prejudices against it. To try to combat whatever those prejudices may be, the suggestion here is that "diversity is good" and that just having more minorities will help the problem. The difference is that it actually won't, because now you have a perception of people being given opportunities they don't deserve, just because they are a minority. A much, much better way to try to deconstruct the sorts of prejudices or minority disadvantages, which this initiative is ostensibly trying to do, is to make these sorts of initiatives open to anyone disadvantaged (such as the poor), and invest in programs targeted at children in poorer (disproportionately minority) communities.
- mindcrime 11y agoThe difference is that it actually won't, I disagree. I think having more companies (especially successful ones) founded by black and hispanic founders will help everyone broadly, for this reason: It will provide young, potential founders, who might not otherwise have pursued entrepreneurship at all, with positive role models, and will show them actual live examples of how success can be achieved. My feeling is that this promotes entrepreneurship in general among increasingly larger portions of the overall population... and if you believe that technological progress in general is basically a net positive for humanity (a position which I admit is not without controversy, BTW, although I personally adhere to it) then this is a Good Thing. More smart people working on new ideas, and creating things to solve problems? Yeah, I can accept some private companies engaging in a little "affirmative action" if it supports that. is to make these sorts of initiatives open to anyone disadvantaged (such as the poor), and invest in programs targeted at children in minority communities. Having grown up "white but dirt poor" I mostly agree with you, in the sense that I think addressing poverty - regardless of race - is also a valuable thing. I'm just not sure one approach is more or less important than the other. I think both are valuable things to do.
- robot 11y agoHand-holding minorities label them even more as a group that needs to be helped. They should be encouraged to be successful in the "same" environment as others and treated the same. The moment you do something "for" them is the moment you label them as that group that needs hand-holding even more. I don't think they need special treatment this way. It is done by good intention, but it does not need saying, you're black, let me help you. I would just do it without naming it.
- BigCatStuff 11y agoI get what you're saying; that the VC industry should "just do it" rather than make a splash by announcing a program. However, if someone is in one of these minority groups, and has tried to raise funding in a very white, male dominated VC industry, I'd guess that when pitching, sometimes either the rapport was off or they felt that the other side didn't wholly understand you. I'm not saying that it's intentional on the VC end, because it's human nature to go with who or what you understand and feel comfortable with. By announcing a program like this, it may encourage minorities to seek advice, when they otherwise might not have.
- mwseibel 11y agoTo be clear - these are office hours - YC is still the same program for all who participate in it. Regardless of their background.
- tptacek 11y agoThe people doing that labeling are (a) not the minorities themselves, and (b) cheerfully oblivious to the fact that college recruiting programs at elite schools with 4-7% African American or Latino populations is itself a targeted outreach program that helps the overrepresented majority. There's something especially galling about the repeated concern that targeted outreach to minorities will somehow label its beneficiaries as "inferior", since one expects that most of the time it's exactly the people raising that concern who are rushing to get the ink in their label printers refilled. It's like saying "this makes African Americans inferior, but you don't get to hold that sentiment against me because I couched it as a concern". At least have the spine to make the meanness plain.
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- IkmoIkmo 11y agoI'm a fan, let's be clear on what we're talking about 'short sessions to brainstorm, get advice, network and bounce around ideas' etc for those who are underrepresented. Knowledge transfer and capacity building like this is one of the best ways to help along minority groups in a manner that is deemed fair by most and, importantly, upholds the dignity of the individuals who get help.
- stepmr 11y agoIs this open to Indigenous (i.e. Native American, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, etc) founders?
- McDoku 11y agoI am always happy to see the Métis represented on an American site. Thanks my friend, most people don't know much about us. Seriously though, I am not sure that returning to a philosophy of segregation is the best path. Perhaps focusing speakers that cover challenged and topics of interest is better then reducing intercultural exposure?
- hardwaresofton 11y agoFirst, I want to state that I'm glad YC is making such a step to help struggling founders. While I don't run a startup, I'm super divided on this post, and here's why: A) It seems both condescending and racist at the same time (i.e. you're a minority in SV? surely you're doing terrible - let us help. You're white in SV? you must be doing great, move along we're not looking to help you) -- As others have stated, it's also partly because of the specified groups. B) If the ground really is that uneven maybe the problem is not the founders, but the system (again, how to change that is a super complicated discussion) I feel like a more tactful way to put out such a call for people who would like help might be something like: "YC is putting on a special series of office hours for struggling startups. In past series we've found that certain groups of people were underrepresented, and we'd like for that not to be the case, so we are going to prioritize the following groups: <group listing here>. This doesn't mean anyone who is not in those groups is unwelcome." As others have noted, getting away from the group listing would be even better. Maybe just making a call for anyone who feels like they have been "marginalized" in the SV startup community, or aren't receiving enough help might suffice (without making a laundry list of underrepresented people). I have many opinions on the whole "diversity" debate, but I think my most defensible opinion is for organizations to aim for population-parity demographic distributions, and work to upset any limiting functions that might be skewing your sector away from the wider population's distributions (again, how to do this is highly debated, and I have a ton of my own opinions on the subject, but I digress). I've also intentionally left out my own race/cultural group/whatever in this comment, but make sure to check your own biases at the door - I could be caucasian, latino, african american, asian, lgbt, trans, whatever .
- mwseibel 11y agoI think you can't look at open office hours in a vacuum. YC does tons of outreach - for example: college tour, startup school, Stanford startup class, speaking at conferences around the world, blog posts with advice to founders, etc. Most importantly, YC has an open application process and you don't have to have any sort of connection to get in. Open Office Hours is just another tool we can use to do outreach to startups and when considered in combination with our other efforts I think it's only fair to conclude that we are trying to make YC assessable to all (regardless of background).
- johnathanNYC 11y agoAs someone who is both (afro-latino), I'm really excited about this. After reading the majority of the comments, I'm a little disappointed. It seems that many do not understand that being white and male in the United States, by default, affords many privileges that monitories struggle to obtain. If there any questions about this, I'd be happy to answer. Curious to why the word Hispanic was used instead of Latino. If you are unfamiliar with the difference, read here: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hispanic_vs_Latino http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hispanic_vs_Latino
- mwseibel 11y agoYou are correct - we should have used the word Latino
- tcdent 11y agoI'm curious what privileges you perceive, or know to be true, for non-minorities. I absolutely agree there is a problem. I've heard many first-hand accounts of violence and disrespect from all races. I'm interested in a solution that doesn't just take the labels from a pie chart and reinforce the dividing lines between what ultimately is one group.
- tptacek 11y agoExample: I have an African American neighbor one block over that I see regularly. He works in IT/devops. Like every IT person, he gets yelled at by random people at work all the time; it's a high-stress job. But when he gets visibly frustrated, he's The Angry Black Man. Dipshit coworkers complain that they don't feel safe. It is an example of a white male privilege that being frustrated and swearing at your computer screen is unlikely to result in a white male being put on a PIP for having a "threatening demeanor". There are probably hundreds of things like this.
- tcdent 11y agoThat's really interesting. It sounds like that is very much a symptom of ingrained racism; something these people have been encouraged to do for most of their lives. I grew up in a pretty diverse neighborhood, so I know the people to fear are not divided along racial lines. Someone who came from a wealthier area would probably not have that opportunity. To the point I made elsewhere on this page, does a program like this help to reduce that perception of inferiority, or just get people riled up about someone getting a perceived handout? If the problem really is circumstantial, education seems like the obvious solution to me. In your specific example, the symptoms are fear driven; the more diverse experiences someone has, they more they will see how little there really is to fear. Travel is one of those obvious things that reduces bigotry.
- falsestprophet 11y agoHow does this program define Hispanic? Does it include the over 100 million Spanish speakers in the Americas of European descent? What about the 26 million white Americans of Latin American descent? What about 100 million "Latino" Portuguese speaking Brazilians of other than predominantly European and Asian descent? French is also a "Latin"/Romance language. Do the predominantly white Québécois count as Latino? What about the Métis, who are both indigenous Americans and speakers of a Romance language. What about Native Americans who speak English rather than a Romance language? What if the Native Americans learned Spanish in high school? What about the hundreds of millions of people from China and India and elsewhere in Asia who grew up in materially worse conditions than any ghetto in the United States?
- pavornyoh 11y agoIs it weird that I understood this as just trying to reach out to Blacks and Hispanics/encouragement and not hand holding? Call me crazy but as a minority, this thought of not getting in say Tech by minorities for example is taking to the extreme. Has anyone ever considered perhaps, their background just didn't qualify them for a particular role? What about attitude? Mindset? Alot goes into getting what you want. You just have to work hard at it and prove doubters wrong.. :)
- gagmaker 11y agowhat a crap, pardon my french... How about Asian or LGBT founders? didn't it occur to you that claiming diversity you do exactly the opposite? Suppose, A > B, and you think it's not right. Good for you! But then, you come out and say, We fight for diversity 24/7!! and then you claim X < Y. You so proud of yourself that you don't even see you did the same: Y > X - save the sign. If you want best and brightest idea or/and people why DON'T you select best and brightest ideas and/or people?! make it A == B truly, can't you? Why do you care founders' ethnic origin or who they sleep with? Do you really think things like affirmative action work for the best of nation? Given all is equal, you'd have to choose one candidate over another. According to affirmative action, you choose minority. Good! But in reality, 'all is equal' almost never happen. And one (or two) would have to choose minority even if it is clear it would be a wrong choice. It is done once and again in fear of 'social workers' who are eager to 'earn' one (or two) thousand grand taking you to the court. last, but not least, having 'open Hours for Black and Hispanic' makes you very vulnerable in eyes of, say LGBT social workers. They will gladly take you in court and, forget presumption of innocence, you would be the one to proof you didn't violate their 'rights'. And chances are you will fail.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dylanjermiah 11y agoIf anyone here wants to know about the long history of Affirmative Action you should definitely read "Affirmative Action Around the World" by Thomas Sowell. Can't sing enough praise about it. Sourced incredibly And clear logical points.
- masterleep 11y agoRace based office hours are unethical.
- Uptrenda 11y agoThis probably won't be very popular: but isn't the notion of special treatment from YC partners on the basis of race inherently racist? I think anyone who is black or Hispanic would much rather associate with YC on the basis of their own individual merit only now everyone who has anything to do with YC will have to wonder if they are there because YC felt the need to help out the poor, underprivileged, black dude or because they actually know what they're doing. I feel quite mixed about this. I can see that it's well-intentioned in nature but at the same time it also seem incredibly condescending. And what kind of message is this really sending: "minorities can succeed but they also need special treatment to do so?" I don't know about this ... I won't deny that in many ways these people struggle with issues that white people don't, but maybe this isn't the best way to go about levelling the playing field. After-all, I feel that black people and Hispanics are perfectly capable of making it through the front door of YC the normal way. I wonder if this is really necessary?
- orthoganol 11y agoIf they were snubbing Whites or Asians to help underrepresented groups, then they'd be exercising an unjustifiable racism. Merely going the extra mile to help another group however is not that. YC should do it, and anyone should happily accept an advantage offered to them. This may be controversial as well, but the black founders I know are rich Ivy leaguers (granted I only know a few). They don't need extra help. (I know there probably are other black founders who didn't grow up in privilege who do not fit into that category.) I don't personally know any hispanic founders, my anecdotally-based sense of things makes me feel like they are urgently underrepresented.
- frankdenbow 11y agoThe front door application to YC is the same that it was before. YC is seeing that they aren't interacting with enough minority founders and are doing targeted outreach to groups so that they can speak to more of them. Adding more minority founders to the funnel, as they would if they wanted to see more hardware startups and talking to places that serve hardware startups.
- sneak 11y ago“You don't get the lightning bolt in Mario Kart when you're already in first place.” —spotted on the internet
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- webstrategist 11y agoPro-discrimination quote taken directly from Paul Graham's own letter featured on their Open Office Hours page. http://www.ycopenofficehours.com/ http://www.ycopenofficehours.com/ "Notes [...] [2] One advantage startups have over established companies is that there are no discrimination laws about starting businesses. For example, I would be reluctant to start a startup with a woman who had small children, or was likely to have them soon. But you're not allowed to ask prospective employees if they plan to have kids soon. Believe it or not, under current US law, you're not even allowed to discriminate on the basis of intelligence. Whereas when you're starting a company, you can discriminate on any basis you want about who you start it with." I guess they are looking for the talented blacks, Meso-Americans and females who weren't happy with being handed the jobs they were under-qualified for, and wanted to risk throwing away being at the top of their in-group mating market for self-actualization or helping the world or something? The whole Faustian world-saving, or hyper-competitive, tech hobbyist, leadership inclinations aren't really found in the populations they seek to reach out to. They don't want to invent anything new of valuable, they merely seek to re-distribute funding and opportunities in tech to themselves. The same inclinations to start tech companies are more similar to ones in people who play strategic games, or who contribute to open source software, or who engage in hacking for fun or bragging rights. I think they would have far more success reaching out to those groups. It's not really imaginable that the kinds of blacks and Hispanics they are seeking to fund were the kinds of kids who would lend their friends books on programming growing up that had nothing to do with school or a career. If they believe that starting a world-class company is simply a good business decision for anyone with the talent, then, they should do more recruitment of people who actually have the skills for that. They fail to realize that marginalized minorities are not raised to "be leaders", and "take risks". In a state where the "oppressed" talented can coast on their racial credentials, why bother taking the risk?
- roycehaynes 11y agoGoogle "Starting a business". You'll notice the first page results don't lead you to YC, Techstars, Hackernews, or anything (loosely) startup related. You have to know what to search to land on HN or some other popular startup site. My point (and argument) is that most minorities don't know about YCombinator, HackerNews, etc; partially because most live in a non-startup, tech-oriented community. And searching for reasonable keywords like "start a business" isn't a direct invite to the world of startups. This is why outreach is important. We need to key certain demographics into the startup world via outbound. Put it this way, there are 50 states in America and the areas with the least amount of blacks/hispanics are where words like "startup" is king (and vice versa). Until then, outreach is vital until certain demographics pick it up at scale. two cents. More theory than facts.
- gohrt 11y agoIronic as it may be, posting this story on HN was a mistake for YC.
- dpeterson 11y agoI'm an idiot. I feel idiots are underrepresented in the tech community. Will I get special office hours too?
- ericson578 11y agoI gotta stop supporting this racist site. I will not pretend being actively discriminated against is ok.
- leeleelee 11y agoThis is the definition of racial discrimination.
- Anonkor 11y agoI think it's useful to mention that this privilege is not just a white thing. It's a "people who were born in a first world country" thing. By default, that huge group of people gets privileges that others can only dream of obtaining. You don't have to spend years of your life just trying to get out of a horrible country where you were born. And most of the time, people don't seem to realize and acknowledge this. Hell, I've met Americans giving me blank stares when I would talk about how difficult it is for me to get even a tourist visa to go to the US. First world privilege should end. Black, white, asian, latino - doesn't matter. If you were born in a modern and developed country, you are already a part of a privileged group. Acknowledge this, gain some humility and try to better yourself and others around you. I urge people to organize YC Open Office Hours for non-first-world people, immigrants and the like.
- siiiiiiiiigh 11y agoMany of these comments are so disingenuous that I can't tell whose trolling and whose mentally ill. It would be amusing it weren't so pathetic. America's goose is clearly cooked.
- yAnonymous 11y agoThis wouldn't be necessary if you at ycombinator treated all people equally to begin with. Instead of doing that, you introduce discriminating "open office hours" in which some people are not allowed, based on their race. That's some grade A idiocy.
- johnathanNYC 11y agoYou've completely missed the point and it also seems your view of the world is very different than it actually is. How do you propose YC approach an issue like this, in a country filled with racism and discrimination? Is your idea really just "treat all people equally" and the world will follow suit? How does that work?
- yAnonymous 11y ago>How do you propose YC approach an issue like this By not being discriminating? You don't fight discrimination with more discrimination and the very idea is so mindboggingly stupid that it hurts. It's sad to see that the social justice warrior bullshit has arrived at HN.
- Niggermania 11y agoNiggers
- Niggermania 11y agoNiggers Niggers Niggers!!!!
- Niggermania 11y agoNigSpanics! NigSpanics NigSpanics
- markrod420 11y agoLol fucking retards. This is how you create MORE divide in our society. This is how you prevent the races from ever feeling or acting equal. Stupid fucking shit like this. I hope you kill yourselves.