Jason Calacanis just doesn’t get it, and I’m afraid his opinion is unfortunately not just his own but rather that of most successful white people (not just limited to those in the technology sector). All due respect to those of you that do get it, but my guess is if you look around at your other successful white friends, they’d likely share Jason’s feelings.
Some of the things he says in his blog post and on Twitter, in response to a piece about the state of race in tech journalism by Jamelle Bouie:
- When I came in the game I made my own lane @jbouie – I didn’t wait for a break, I broke the rules. You’re underestimating the hustle.
- Anyone can break into tech blogging. Anyone.
- You can sit there and look backwards at the racist old-world, or you can look forward and create the new post-race world.
And possibly the worst of his comments:
- Sadly, we live in a world where race still is an issue because some folks haven’t made the leap. Those folks are old and dying in many, perhaps most, cases.
Clearly he’s blind to what is really happening in this country and is essentially calling for everyone to just stop talking about race at all. As if discussing it was actually the real problem.
I won’t try to express it better than this guy puts it in response to Jason’s comments:
White logic: I have a great job and I worked from my white suburban background despite my well-educated and professionally employed parents not buying me the color car I ASKED for for my birthday. Thus a poor black girl with a cleft pallet can break away from her underfunded school and lawfully ignored inner-city block to do the same. All they have to do is work hard and start a blog! I don’t see any reason why not. Slavery was over years ago. Black people ran out of excuses the day after it was abolished.
That’s the point, Jason. It’s not that people are sitting around in Silicon Valley, or the rest of the United States, saying that they won’t hire someone or give them a chance because of their skin color (although that still does exist). It’s the forgotten people that aren’t ever going to be given a chance. The ones that are born into situations that do not allow them to just roll up their sleeves and work hard and then magically find themselves at the same table as the Stanford and Harvard dropouts coming up with the next big thing.
It’s a disease that our country seems resistant to tackle, and its opinions like this from people in positions of huge power and influence that push us further and further from a just and equal society.
Those that read this blog (and haven’t unsubscribed yet as I continue to talk about such things, thanks for sticking around), will know that I’m white and only recently have I had my eyes opened to the realities of the world we live in. So I can understand some of what Jason says and I’m happy he expresses those opinions, allowing people to see just how distorted the view of reality is from the seats of the privileged class.
It is my hope to become a part of the solution and no longer a part of the problem.
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