Tech observers will recall how TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington got on CNN and said that he didn’t know any black entrepreneurs and then essentially said that Silicon Valley was mostly White and Asian because it just turned out that way, and it’s a meritocracy?
The TV blast that caused my video?
Well, with the revelation that the head of the hacker group LutzSec is Black Puerto Rican, we can now say that’s total bullshit, and tell Michael Arrington his statement was baseless.
Hector Xavier Monsegur is the 28 year old father of two who was secretly arrested June of last year, and has been working as an FBI informant. According to this Reddit-based interview of five months ago (from this writing), the man we now know as Hector Xavier Monsegur is a married father of two, and a self-taught programmer who lives in New York public housing on the Lower East Side.
He’s also an example of what has to be a number of American minorities who have these skills, and yet are either ignored or shunned by Silicon Valley. So what do they do? Take down large corporate websites – just to get their point across.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley folks like Arrington and tech gurus like Microsoft Founder Bill Gates call for easing restrictions on the hiring of foreign workers under the idea that America doesn’t have the talent that can work for them.
Again, the existence of Hector Xavier Monsegur or the man I met last year on the plane ride from Atlanta to Chicago, and who’s involved in a number of secret tech projects for a major organization, proves that Silicon Valley as a whole is doing a freaking awful job of spotting American talent. And arguably it’s due to Silicon Valley’s own racism.
The minute you think that someone’s tech-oriented just because of the color of their skin and personality, that’s the moment you’re being racist. Because that action means you’re just as likely to avoid anyone who doesn’t fit that look of being White or Asian (and young and single) as not being tech-oriented.
Watch out for the articles questioning if Hector Xavier Monsegur is really the head of LutzSec just because he doesn’t ‘fit the bill.’ And check to see who’s writing the articles – is that person young white, and male or female? Regardless, that reporter also contributing to the overall racism that has come to define the employment demographic of Silicon Valley.
Michael Arrington, shame on you. America’s failing it’s own. We have qualified and good tech people right here in America – find them, invest in them, hire them.
Stay tuned.