Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, CrunchBase, and CrunchFund and friend of this blogger, started what became a long, and at time unnecessarily heated, Twitter chat on racism in tech, or tech and race, if you like.
(As a note, this is not a blog post written to attack Michael, so if you’re looking for that, sorry. I consider him a friend, but he’s also a recognized leader in the startup world, so with that mantle comes the occasional observation that may tilt toward criticism, but is intended to be constructive. Michael is a good guy.)
Michael started it all with this Twitter tweet noting a Bloomberg article that had a rather wrong-headed racial slant, pointing to a “white-black” income gap. Now Michael should have known where the very mention of a racial income gap was going to lead in social media.
Uh, here’s the tweet:
"[Silicon Valley] has an astonishing $56,000 white-black gap in household median income" http://t.co/hO4CSssaYI
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) April 10, 2014
To which, this guy named Chris Sweis chimes in:
@arrington who does these studies and why? If someone has talent then they get paid accordingly. I hate to see this stuff as it only is bad
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
To which I added:
Whoever wrote that #Bloomberg article should be drawn and quartered @arrington
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
You can take a smart black guy with a great idea @coolbearcjs @arrington and a white person will see only that he's black.
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
@zennie62 @coolbearcjs that seems to be an awfully big generalization.
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) April 10, 2014
Now, what I’m stating has been a general problem. How else to explain the racial disparity in the startup tech world – not the tech world? What people forget is that there are no absolutes here – it’s all a matter of judgement and perception. Otherwise, there would be few investment errors by venture capitalists and angels. Instead, we have many of them – the majority.
The fact is, the vast majority of American investors and tech execs are white and male, and we have a talk about a too small number of blacks and women in the ranks in the startup world. Thus, if white men are the gate-keepers here (and invites the idea of blacks starting their own tech startup world) it stands to reason its their perceptions of race and sex that contribute to the problem.
To which someone I never met before, @JustKurt from Gilbert, Arizona and who doesn’t post his full name, but could be the special assistant to the mayor, there, chimes in with this:
@zennie62 Don't white people just suck, zennie? @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
Oh, brother. Kurt’s tweet underscores the problem. If I blog or tweet that too many robberies in Oakland involve young black men, I don’t get an attack from anyone black or white. But if I state a truth that’s shared by many in American society, white guys like Kurt can’t handle that. The funny thing is, a ton of white women will agree with me.
So, I tweeted back this:
"Don't white people just suck," NO – My girlfriend is white. @JustKurt @arrington @coolbearcjs
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
@JustKurt @zennie62 @arrington OMFG here we go. This is going to get really annoying now. Leave me off this string of whiny shit.
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
The overall point I was trying to make is that you have to be able to evaluate society as a whole, and not put yourself in the middle of it. For example, I’m a black male, yet, unlike Kurt, and others you’re about to meet here, I don’t personalize the conversation by talking about myself. I know I’m just fine; that’s not the point.
Kurt continued:
@zennie62 you missed the point. It's sad that there is an income gap. almost as sad that you blame an entire race @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
First, "race" is a myth, second, you missed my last tweet. @JustKurt @arrington @coolbearcjs
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
…about my girlfriend.
Then I tweeted…
To succeed as one who's black @coolbearcjs @arrington you have to have blinders on.
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
Which, if you think about it, is true for anyone, regardless of race or sex. The fact of the matter is, you have to talk to many potential investors before you find the one or more that will jump on your bandwagon. That translates to a ton of rejection. Yes, the rejection may come for various reasons, including gender and race, but it’s a truism that you have to have blinders on.
It’s too bad that none of the white guys chimed in to tweet in agreement with me. They know that’s so. In fact, instead of agreeing with me, Chris tweeted back this:
@zennie62 @arrington this argument does not hold any weight with me as I do not see it as a black or white thing anymore as it is just skill
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
Instead the common habit is to personalize the conversation, as Chris did…
First, the common habit is to personalize, thus @coolbearcjs @arrington nothing is learned. I do not know you.
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
But I speak of an overall pattern. @coolbearcjs @arrington
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
See?
You can’t resolve a problem that some people fail to desire to recognize. And so, the same, sad, pattern of some whites and blacks talking past each other whenever the conversation of the lack of blacks in the tech startup world – really, in Silicon Valley – comes up. (I might add that I think it’s a generational problem. Tech startup folks in their 20s don’t seem to have this problem to as great a degree as those over 37 do.)
@zennie62 @JustKurt @arrington I am very open minded yet the race card does not work in my world "software" as talent is the key.
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
The idea that someone uses the term “race card” is racist in itself. It means you’re not listening to the other person’s perception. And I told that to Chris, but Kurt was, at that point, not being a good person. So, I asked him to bow out:
@zennie62 hit a nerve, did I? I hope to be just one of many white guys who take the words you use seriously. @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
Then, Tonya, who’s black and female, is involved in the Oakland tech and digital media scene, chimed in:
Curious..is this a all white vs some whites convo? #incomegap Sucks when that happens, huh? @JustKurt @zennie62 @arrington @coolbearcjs
— TDL (@tdlove5) April 10, 2014
But of course, he wouldn’t stop:
Racist? @JustKurt that's CRAZY. @arrington @coolbearcjs
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
I hate that game of trying to shut a person down from talking about race, first, by using the term “race card” and, second, by calling you the racist. As a note, being racist is saying that another person is beneath you because they don’t look like you, and excluding you because you don’t look like them. That’s the problem at hand.
It’s a problem that could be solved if tech leaders focused on doing so – but they don’t, so it persists.
@zennie62 I'm glad to be wrong on that, but I'm just reading your post. How else do I interpret "white people"? @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
Instead, Michael, who started the whole deal, then tried to run away from it:
The difference here @arrington @coolbearcjs is I can talk about this without getting upset, but you can't.
— Zennie Abraham (@zennie62) April 10, 2014
And then Arrington tried to run away from the fact that he did use a mention of race in a tweet, which started the whole deal…
@zennie62 @coolbearcjs well I did start the conversation with my tweet pointing out the big difference in income, so that's not fair either
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) April 10, 2014
And here’s Tonya:
Might be a generalization, but Im curious why you think the $56K #incomegap exists if it's not about race? @arrington @zennie62 @coolbearcjs
— TDL (@tdlove5) April 10, 2014
And Michael finally agrees that it’s about race:
@tdlove5 @zennie62 @coolbearcjs how could it not be about race?
— Michael Arrington (@arrington) April 10, 2014
Meanwhile, Kurt works to make amends:
@zennie62 I'm sure she's a fantastic woman, zennie, and I wish you both all the best. @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
@zennie62 Just know that I take your good ideas seriously. @arrington @coolbearcjs
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
And I tried to turn the talk to Amazon’s acquisition of Comixology:
Congrats! "@zennie62: So now @JustKurt let's congradulate Comixology for being acquired by #Amazon! @tdlove5 @arrington @coolbearcjs"
— JustKurt (@JustKurt) April 10, 2014
Then, someone chimed in about lunch, to which Chris tweeted back, assuming it was my idea:
@NixonNeamia @zennie62 now he wants a free lunch. SMH. Just kidding.
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
But I’d prefer Golf. Note that I never said Chris would pay, right? Keep that in mind…
@zennie62 @NixonNeamia we have gone from lunch to a round of golf. Getting costly for me to even meet him.
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
And he took off after Michael:
@arrington @zennie62 you started this whole mess Michael. U shit double shit double double shit in the immortal words of that CEO of TapJoy
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
And I was cracking up that Chris assumed that he would be paying…
@zennie62 @arrington just reading the words you put out there buddy. Relax and get a nice massage. Then come back to Twitter in one week.
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
And I reminded him, yet again…
@zennie62 @arrington sweet I just got offered a free meal. See you one day soon when I am back in the bay. Mike you in to for a free meal?
— Chris Sweis (@coolbearcjs) April 10, 2014
So will we ever have lunch? Probably. But the bigger issue is one of blacks, tech, and startups. I can tell you the idea that there are not a lot of blacks in tech itself is just plain wrong. There are. The problem comes in the startup world.
It’s not just that our ranks are small, the real problem is there are many of us who want to break in to it, but we now have a lot of blacks with money – they just don’t focus on finding good black tech startup opportunities to invest in.
That will solve the problem. We need the Oprah’s of the world to move in that direction. I’m not confident that older white tech guys want to move in that direction, but I am confident that young white guys can, and because many of them don’t act like that – they have black male friends and black girlfriends and wives.
They are the change we need, but they can’t do it alone. Blacks need to get involved in investing in blacks.
Stay tuned.