Most of the people I actively know today are in the NY tech ecosystem. The next thousand people I'd prefer to get on a first name basis with are mostly in the NY tech ecosystem. And there the Fred Wilson name stands out. And Fred is a white male. I don't think I have ever made Fred feel like, oh no Fred, you are a white male and you are worth millions and I feel queasy about it. Quite the opposite. I have had and I have expressed genuine, deep, heartfelt appreciation for his life's work. (A Surprising Blog Post From Fred Wilson) The guy is officially the top VC in the world. And I admire him for that. Excellence gets me. It makes me happy to watch excellence. On the other hand I note the guy walked into this town I believe in the 1980s with an empty pocket and a very loving wife. (Larry Ellison) I admire his success even more because of that. I find it very inspiring that he started where he started. (At MIT, So I Did It)
And I have had my disagreements with Fred, all very well documented at this blog. And I have talked of John Doerr's Larry Page mistake, and Fred Wilson's Jack Dorsey mistake. But then I am hugely biased in favor of the founding CEO type.
My point being my admiration for Fred has not been sycophancy, that is not my style. And my admiration for Fred has not been some kind of a subservience to the white male, something I have seen too many people of my background go for. Just ask Tim Berners-Lee, a guy who has a much more secure place in the history of tech than does Fred. (Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country)
Image via WikipediaGroup dynamics is the number one thing I bring to the table for work. And there gender as a topic stands out. And I don't even mean in a political way. It is fascinating as a topic like stars might fascinate astrophysicists.
The zen of tech makes it even more possible to see the threads of race and gender. In a city where the subway ride is cheap, even at free events why do you end up seeing a room that is almost all people of one kind? Culture is a powerful force. Like Facebook did not create the social graph, it merely mapped it, tech in general helps you see social threads.
The other day I saw a group photo of the Tumblr team somewhere and it was an all white team, and I noticed. My teams in India are all Indian. (Doubling Down On Tech Consulting) I was at an event in Jackson Heights on Friday and it was a room full of people from Nepal.
And you come across women who would like you to believe they are on the cutting edge of things like the glass ceiling, only it simply does not involve a single white male they might personally know. Or when a white woman does her racist bonding thing with a white male to portray you as The Other. The same platform also is open to acts of sexist bonding, but do you really want to go for that? But then corporate warfare has its twists and turns. And the Internet is globalization on steroids. A billion Indians would not be my idea of a minority.
Image via WikipediaI was at an event last night, and one speaker said how America will have become a minority majority nation by 2050, as in the nonwhites will have become the majority by then. And this was not my first time hearing that. I actually might have read that for a course in college.
But I feel the need to respond. Having experienced ethnic prejudice in Nepal, and racism in America, and having gone through the deep convulsions of a political revolution in a Third World country, the poorest outside of Africa - Nepal - and having thought through the group dynamics elements of tech startups, that minority majority nation talk to me feels like seeing 2050 through 2010 lenses.
I give to you sushi and yoga and hip hop and salsa. I give to you the Spanish language. These are so mainstream in the white parts of America already. But then I grew up learning English where I grew up. My point is America will not have become a minority majority nation in 2050. I hope much sooner than 2050, maybe as early as 2020 - and a lot of that might be to do with globally universal broadband - we will start to see all of culture as belonging to all of humanity. If I am a white guy, and I like sushi, I like sushi, what are you going to do about that?
There are some people who believe the Internet is supposed to have created the New Human. And, surprise surprise, that does not seem to be the case. The technology itself will not do it. Although it does help catalyze the processes that one hopes will lead to human betterment. But the good versus evil fight will continue with this technology as any other. Overall I think the Internet is a major force for good, something fundamental, I would even call it millenial, as in something this good only happens once every thousand years, maybe. But the Internet is as much a reflection of who we are as it is a reflection of who we can become. It is said of New York City that the most diverse city on earth is also the most segregated. We mingle and then go back to our own ethnic enclaves.
I looked through the OKCupid numbers. My personal conclusion is, race matters, but not all that much. Get a haircut, work on your manners, say hello. And when there is no chemistry, respect.
"White women prefer white men to the exclusion of everyone else—and Asian and Hispanic women prefer them even more exclusively. These three types of women only respond well to white men. More significantly, these groups’ reply rates to non-whites is terrible. Asian women write back non-white males at 21.9%, Hispanic women at 22.9%, and white women at 23.0%."
Looks like The White Male's got it made! I know plenty of dorky ones, and meet even more. ;-) At this point, the whole thing descends into a sociological exercise.
When you mix race and religion, looks like if you are a white guy who is laughing about his religion, you are hot in online dating. That cocktail sounds weird.
If you are out to date an entire race or two, these numbers are alarming. But if you are looking for one person, these numbers are boring. That person is out there.
Conclusion: Macro matters, but micro is where it happens or not.
Seeking My Race-Based Valentine Online This Valentine's Day, more of us than ever will be looking for love online. And if recent studies are any guide, relatively few women on mainstream dating sites will bother to respond to overtures from men of Asian descent. Likewise, black women will be disproportionately snubbed by men of all races. ..... Behind computer screens and cutely coded user names, people clearly communicate things about race that few would ever say aloud in a bar........ lists 10 racial and ethnic groups users can select as preferred dates. Among the women, 73% stated a preference. Of these, 64% selected whites only, while fewer than 10% included East Indians, Middle Easterners, Asians or blacks....... a little different for the men, 59% of whom stated a racial preference. Of these, nearly half selected Asians, but fewer than 7% did for black women....... men's choices are influenced by the media's portrayal of Asian women as being hypersexual and black women as being bossy..... "racism is alive and well." ...... black women garnered the fewest responses of any female group. White women responded at much higher rates to white men than to men of color. Asian women's and Latinas' response rates showed even stronger preferences for white men
How Your Race Affects The Messages You Get despite what you might’ve heard from the Obama campaign and organic cereal commercials, racism is alive and well ..... When I first started looking at first-contact attempts and who was writing who back, it was immediately obvious that the sender’s race was a huge factor. ..... although race shouldn’t matter in messaging, it does. A lot. ...... Black women reply the most, yet get by far the fewest replies. Essentially every race—including other blacks—singles them out for the cold shoulder. ...... White guys are shitty, but fairly even-handed about it. The average reply rate of non-white males is 48.1%, while white guys’ is only 40.5%. Basically, they write back about 20% less often. It’s ironic that white guys are worst responders, because as we saw above they get the most replies. That has apparently made them very self-absorbed. How Races and Religions Match in Online Dating Astrological sign has no effect whatsoever on how compatible two people are. ...... Jewish men, in particular, have an above average match percentage with every religious group. They even match Muslim women better than Muslim men do ....... Why, for example, Hindu men would match worst with Hindu women is a mystery....... Protestant Christians only truly match well with other Christians. Catholics have above average match percentages with Hindus, Jews, and even Agnostics. ...... The less serious you are about religion, the better liked you are, even by very religious people. ...... Muslims and Protestants tend to be more intense about their beliefs than the others, and Jews and Agnostics are by far the least serious. ....... If religion is a minefield, then race is a field that’s just one giant mine. ...... white people tend to be better liked, (or, if you want to think reciprocally, do more liking) than the other races, or that black and Indian men are less liked/liking, but, still, those differences are small compared to what we saw with religion ....... It’s not as simple as saying, Mary really likes hockey and Bob really likes hockey, therefore they are a good match—which is how many dating sites work. What if instead Mary really likes being dominated during sex? If Bob also needs to be dominated, and good sex is important to them, Bob and Mary are terrible matches. In bed, at least, they both want their opposites.....OkCupid is no more responsible for people’s match percentages than Microsoft Excel is responsible for their net worth.
In the Calculations of Online Dating, Love Can Be Cruel It is love in the time of ones and zeros, the rudimentary language of computers. In the digital age, everything must at some point be reduced to this basic construct of choice: One or zero. Yes or no. On or off.......“What everyone is looking for is chemistry,” she said, “and that’s not quantifiable.” Three Steps to Demystifying Online Dating Pick someplace casual. Opt for a happy hour or a coffee shop — not a play or a four-course dinner. If the chemistry isn’t there, you’ll have an easy exit.....do not tell your date that you Googled them, even though you most likely have.
Image via CrunchBaseWhite Male Conspiracy To Drive Me Homeless
itself will not do it. Although it does help catalyze the processes that one hopes will lead to human betterment. But the good versus 
fight will continue with this 
is a major force for good, something fundamental, I would even call it millenial, as in something this good only happens once every thousand years, maybe. But the 
is as much a reflection of who we are as it is a reflection of who we can become. It is said of 
matters, but not all that much. Get a haircut, work on your manners, say hello. And when there is no chemistry, respect. 
and 
women prefer them even more exclusively. These three types of women only respond well to 
men. More significantly, these groups’ reply rates to non-whites is terrible. 
women write back non-white males at 21.9%, 
women at 22.9%, and white women at 23.0%."![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v_YAWPPanppmSlUZbeiIUUp0l61ZV5snnvnVcxCo0a_nzyerZykrequv3lR2PMfYeEL6EQxNflTBAYUDjNZqqLgtsIVhrROM8Ti_NYAjnJbQbi_-9Hhafgaj8OblaBEUdMPmFq1A1jlLpZj6T33zY=s0-d)