Silicon Valley’s Cynical Treatment of Asian Engineers

Quillette ^ | 07/21/2021 | Kenny Xu

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It’s called “tribalism.”

It is A-OK for everybody except straight, white males.

[Regulator]

I know of no recission of Protected Class status for Asians.

Hell, I was surprised to see it in the Small Business Administration carve outs: that’s why you see so many convenience stores, trucking companies etc run by them. It’s far easier for them to get US government money.

There may be a de facto relaxation of people hiring Asians because there’s already so many, but under the regulations, nothing’s changed. Perhaps you could point me to such a change?

[rellic]

I retired at age 55 on a “gentlemans” farm with an ocean view in Hawaii.
I do not miss the rat race. I’m not sure what would compel me to go back. I’m very rich, but I have very little money.

[Steely Tom]

Once Asians become managers/leads there, that’s primarily who they hire: other Asians. This is especially true in the IT positions. They will interview “others” just to give the appearances of being fair.

I hear ya, and that's too bad, but really it's nothing new. Jewish physics professors used to give preference to Jewish graduate students. Irish managers on the NYPD gave preference to Irish job applicants. It's kind of inevitable, if only for reasons of "bandwidth." In other words, communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is easier with people with whom you're ethnically aligned. You can call it prejudice, or bigotry, or an "old boy's network," but it is what it is, and it won't be changing.

Of course, it's only white men of Anglo-Saxon descent hiring other white men of Anglo-Saxon descent that can be legally actionable, and that's not right obviously, but what can one do.

In terms of computer science and software development, anyone who wants to do it can do it. High quality resources are available for very little money, and if you want to learn to code the only thing stopping you is yourself.

In this day and age, the thing that gets you noticed is inventing something. Do something that gets you some credibility. There are so many possibilities, with the internet, big data, image analysis, etc.

It's kind of like making movies. Some famous movie director (I think it was Robert Zemeckis) said "if you want to be a movie director, get a camera and make a movie, everything after that is a negotiation over price."

In my opinion, that's where we are in the software business. Lots of low-level grunt work is needed, and that's what these foreign-trained immigrant programmers are for. If you're an Anglo-American, invent something. Find a need and fill it. That's why my company did. It's taken decades, but we're starting to get traction and get noticed. That's reality in a (still) free society.

No use lamenting the way Silicon Valley was back in the '60s and '70s. That's gone. Today, with the internet, Silicon Valley is anywhere where there are people with technical skills and a creative vision.

[rdcbn1]

Not a Democrat - not even close. Take that as insult.

And it is true - I was there and I was involved.

BTW, if you were a key player in the Silicone Valley back in the day , you worked your butt off like an indentured slave regardless of how much you were paid.

It was the culture and it cam with the territory.