Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Gawker-ing at Reality: Venture Capitalism and Whiteness

Not another white guy...
Just a few weeks removed from Mike Arrington's admission of not knowing a "single Black entrepreneur" in Silicon Valley on CNN's Black in America Part 400, comes yet another shocking statistic that doesn't jive with the reality of your average single Black female having a net worth of $5 or your average Black family having a median net worth at $5,677.

Venture capitalists in the United States - just like all those pesky National Register of Historic Sites across the nation - are, well, embarrassingly white:
A new survey of venture capitalists shows little has changed in the area of diversity since the first poll was conducted three years ago by the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource. 
Not surprisingly, the profession is dominated by males, specifically white men. Of the more than 460 respondents identifying themselves as investors, 89% were men, and 11% were women. The 2008 survey consisted of 86% men and 14% women. 
When looking at race, 86% of investors identify themselves as Caucasian, 10% as Asian and 1% as African American. In the 2008 study, 88% were white. Combining gender and race, 76% of participants were white males, compared with 77% three years ago.Read VentureWire’s complete story, which details some efforts to diversify the industry.
This tragedy is punctuated further by Gawker.com's serious article bemoaning the utter horror of living in a nation where Black (well, Hispanic too) contributions are limited to the social construct of Black supremacy in sports  and The Maury Povich Show. Here's what Gawker wrote:
The National Venture Capital Association has completed its 2011 census. Now we all know the business of doling out money to tech startups is a pasty one—right? we're all clear on this, yes?—but the association this year trumpets "signs of increasing ethnic diversity." So, take a wild guess at the combined percentage of blacks and Latinos among venture capitalists. 
Did you guess two percent? If so, congratulations, you win another several decades of continued de facto exclusion and OMG HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A RACIST push back. After surveying 600 VC professionals, NVCA found the industry to be 87 percent white, 9 percent Asian, and 2 percent black or Latino. The low numbers of blacks and Latinos apparently precluded even breaking out separate tallies, even though these are the two largest U.S. ethnic groups after whites, constituting 16 and 12 percent of the overall national population, respectively. 
The NVCA's president Mark Heesen wrote, "The future composition will be predicated on a variety of market factors.... Ideally, we would like to see a professional base that reflects the entrepreneurs in which we invest, one that is robust and diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality and age." Ha ha, yes, hopefully the future world of venture investors will be as wonderfully diverse as the current world of venture capital recipients. Dare to dream.
What does any of this even mean? When you recall that the Department of Education basically putting a proverbial gun to the head of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to improve poor Black academic performance and educational disparities, you should realize that putting any hope for the future world of venture capitalist to be "diverse" is laughable. Pure folly.

Across the country, Black kids aren't just being abandoned by their sperm donor father, but by an education system that just can't nurture away nature. How will they ever grow up to be venture capitalists in anything save concocting elaborate prison distribution systems for smuggled contraband - and manipulating the price of cigarettes and other supplies - that would make even the wise supply chain management guru blush?

Oh well. Dare to dream, right Gawker?

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Blog Owner....dunno if you missed this
Clintons buddy dead:

Howard Wolpe, Backer of '86 Anti-Apartheid Act, Dies at 71
www.nytimes.com/.../ex-congressman-howard-wolpe-who-pushed-fo...
Oct 29, 2011 – President Bill Clinton with Howard E. Wolpe in 1994. ... That placed him at the forefront of America's policy response to the growing ... He was a primary sponsor of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which ...
Howard Wolpe dies at 71 - Featured Articles From The Los Angeles ...
articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/31/.../la-me-howard-wolpe-20111031
Oct 31, 2011 – Howard Wolpe was the main sponsor of the act that demanded the end of ... President Bill Clinton, left, chats with Michigan gubernatorial ... federal

Anonymous said...

I love your use of the word "tragedy". Ya...I'm with you. I'm crying a river that there aren't more black [fill in desired item that white people have that black people should have in equal or greater proportion and are denied due to my racism]. My white guilt knows no bounds. I'm a horrible and vicious oppressor...*sob*
/sarc off.

Anonymous said...

Why don't they take it a step further and break down the white VC category by ethnicity? My guess is this would be too uncomfortable for the MSM as it would take the focus off bashing white males and direct too much attention to one ethnic group instead. And that would not be allowed.

YT said...

IF a black ever saved enough money for high risk ventures, the folks at gawker would be calling him/her an uncle tom sellout for acting so white...

Such is the sad state of our public education system where nobody understands that compounding interest works both ways. Think of that the next time you see a middle aged white dude driving an old car and a black with shiny rims rolled into the vehicle loan (at some huge percentage because of the credit risk).

Anonymous said...

No matter what, it will always come down to this: blacks, even though they have been given EVERY opportunity to mimic what they see Whites do on a daily basis, simply can not. In place of achieving, they must be given. Nothing will change this. Why? Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you dress them in a suit and tie, or give them some shiny bling; they are still black.

Anonymous said...

"...So, take a wild guess at the combined percentage of blacks and Latinos among venture capitalists..."

It is beyond comical how blacks always seek to include "Latinos", in order to magnify their "proof" of raycissm. They can't even whine without help.

Midwestern said...

Venture capitalists are part of the "evil 1%", even though they are producers and job creators (which is viewed as racist by the libtards). They also are a huge part of the private sector, which is also viewed as evil by the libtards.

I know guys who work in this field, and they are very white, very high IQ, and very motivated to succeed and get rich. They have degrees in engineering, finance, and actuarial science. They often retire in their 30's, but get back in because they are so driven to succeed. Pure evil!!!

From Wikipedia:

Venture capital is also associated with job creation (accounting for 21% of US GDP),[2] the knowledge economy, and used as a proxy measure of innovation within an economic sector or geography. Every year, there are nearly 2 million businesses created in the USA, and only 600–800 get venture capital funding. According to the National Venture Capital Association, 11% of private sector jobs come from venture backed companies and venture backed revenue accounts for 21% of US GDP.[3]

W74 said...

"The NVCA's president Mark Heesen wrote, "The future composition will be predicated on a variety of market factors.... Ideally, we would like to see a professional base that reflects the entrepreneurs in which we invest, one that is robust and diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality and age." Ha ha, yes, hopefully the future world of venture investors will be as wonderfully diverse as the current world of venture capital recipients. Dare to dream."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't think VCs are dolling out money in increments of Hundreds of Thousands to Millions to a very diverse population either.

Recipients have to have a proven track record for success in other areas first. You have to have a business plan (not an idea, a real fucking plan) You have to have motivation and dedication. It's not like it's 2007 and we're giving out mortgages to single moms on EBT and (maybe) child support.

Venture Capitalism is after all the world of business, and just like an appliance or car salesman the numbers have to speak for themselves.

And of businesses themselves: A lot of people think that once you start a business it's all cake and ice cream from there.
Not true, what makes businesses successful is hard work (production) and TIME put in by the owner. It may be cake after awhile but that's far down the road. Until then it's 80 hrs/wk.

In addition to the necessary level of intelligence Blacks by and large simply lack that kind of dedication. Their inability to take the long-term, honest, high road instead of the easy short-term has proven to be lacking.

==============================

W74 said...

"Think of that the next time you see a middle aged white dude driving an old car and a black with shiny rims rolled into the vehicle loan (at some huge percentage because of the credit risk)."

I think about it all the time YT.

Blacks would rather pull up to the trailer park in an Escalade, Hummer or Denali with rims (never mind the gas costs) instead of putting a down payment on a house.

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3890530692790573387&postID=8913117489566757314

Where the fudge is Evergreen? He needs to be in here debating that not all Niggers drive Escalades with rims and annoying sound systems.

Anonymous said...

Why are they moaning about asians? Most asians work like crazy, save like there's no tomorrow and study hard -or committed suicide of they fail.
Now they have a 9% slice of the VC business and people bemoan that?

Anonymous said...

Rolling into the Club with an iced out grill and makin' it rain is BALLIN'!
Saving and investing are NOT.

~AV~ said...

Here...
we have a perfect example of...
NIGGER capitalism...

12 Georgia election officials indicted on election fraud...

Anonymous said...

Hi..its kevin Joseph out in soviet monika..
can you do a piece on factcheck?

Factcheck:
Easton said the nearly $317,000 figure is "misleading" anyway because it includes more than just her salary. He said the figure "also includes a performance bonus, a one-time signing bonus (she had other, competing offers at the time), and a one-time mandatory payout from a terminated retirement plan." This is reflected in the fact that her 2006 earnings were less than in 2005.
The first lady, a graduate of both Princeton University and Harvard Law School, was quite accomplished before she joined the University of Chicago in 1996 and ultimately the medical center in 2002.
Her prior work experience included stints as an associate with the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago’s City Hall and executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies



John treed.com

Another test of the application of affirmative action to admit Michelle Obama instead a more qualified would-be lawyer is what kind of a lawyer did Michelle turn out to be?
For sure, a short-lived one.

I could not find the exact duration on the Internet, but the Obama campaign Web site has only this to say about her stay at the Sidley Austin law firm:
...corporate law was not her calling...
Actually, apparently no other kind of law was her calling either. She never attempted to practice law again.

Playing Roots Backwards said...

I used to work with an engineering company in Georgia that was owned by a guy who had married into an old money family that was top-heavy with venture capitalists.

They were the hands-on type of investors who would not only put up cash for a project, they would oversee the venture all the way from an idea to some point just prior to production. They would then sell to people who liked to invest closer to the return.

I was involved with one of their projects in '02-'03 that sought to create and market anti-terrorist inserts that would make it difficult to put deadly substances into the water supply through fire hydrants. It was a dumb idea, but in those days after the fall of the Twin Towers a lot of government money was available to anyone who could provide a product or service that would make all of us shivering American puppies feel safer.

We built a working prototype for demonstrations, lined up Chinese manufacturers and vendors to supply the components used in the inserts and hired a lobbyist/salesman who knew everybody he needed to know in order to get a hold of those government dollars.

The family investment consortium then sold the entire ready-to-roll enterprise for several million dollars to some Black venture capitalists in Atlanta.

As far as I know, not a single anti-terrorist fire hydrant insert has been installed anywhere in this or any other country.

Were those cannibal geniuses too dumb to recognize a useless product, or were they too dumb to sell one?

bubo said...

Since Asians are also over represented in VC, am I to think that YT just doesn't have the time to hold them down like we do those poor black and hispanics? I'd like for gawker to answer that for me.

Lib: evil white racists hold minorities down

me: what about Asians?

Lib: they don't count, they're not poor and live in the ghetto. Stop being so racist stop it stop it.

I've always wondered why Asians are thrown in with whites in every category of the lib handwringing game of "underrepresentation" of minorities. Now I know it's just because libs are liars.

Blacks are mostly dumb. Far dumber on average than Whites, Asians or Hispanics. That's why. That's the reason, Gawker. It's the only reason there ever was, or ever will be. And like those silly internet memes you love so much, you'll just have to deal with it.


Gawker is a sickening leftist shithole of a website. Truly the asshole of the internet.

make it rain TRUTH said...

To get down to brass tacks, venture capitalists are doing the jobs banks USED to do.

At least, used to do before they found out they could bribe politicians to cover their asses and bail them out. Which of course, led to the silly bank lending strategies of today..

There was a time when getting a loan, especially an unsecured loan for a prospective (read: unproven as of yet) business was harder than flying a rocket to the moon. If you didn't have all your ducks in a row, be able to convince a banker of your competence/intelligence/sound ideas/impeccable honor etc, along with business plans for several years, you weren't getting a loan. And the bank would often be quite hands-on with your business in the early years since it was THEIR money on the line.

This is what venture capitalists do today. There is everything COMMON SENSE about this approach, and yet they are vilified for it.

They add to the productivity and growth of economy and country.

And at the end of the day, isn't THAT why you don't find many blacks in VC? Blacks add literally NOTHING to society beyond bassetball, football, and rap music. And all three of those are debatable as to what they actually add (productivity wise) to society at large.

YT said...

"Where the fudge is Evergreen? "

MIA since that story about the chimney sweep that was arrested a few posts back. I guess we know what he looks like now!

countenance said...

People who work in VC are are responsible for the investment of venture capital have to be adept at taking calculated risks. "Calculated" = Educated and forward thinking = White, and "Risks" = Testosterone = Men. Ergo, most VC employees are white men.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, this is completely off topic...my brother-in-law spent months training for a Tough Mudders competition. It sounded like the sort of training Marines do. He knows my worldview and told me of the hundreds of participants he noticed only one was black. But there were many white women there.

Van said...

"Where the fudge is Evergreen?"

On the "So This is What the Civil Rights Movement was For" thread I got him to (unintentionally) admit that he only cared about the well-being of himself and other blacks, even at the expense of whites and their rights. He's not too bright, so it wasn't hard to do.

He hasn't been back.

Yes, I'm patting myself on the back for that one. Of course, there's always a good chance he's lurking, and now will be unable to resist returning...

Fair enough. If he wants to keep proving our point for us, he's more than welcome.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Evergreen might be studying for a Doctorate and doing some Theology or both so that he could have a more impressive name. To impress us with the academic degrees. From fine outstanding institutions.

Anonymous said...

Capitalism be rayciss.

Zenster said...

Anonymous: Capitalism be rayciss.

If by that you mean how Capitalism tends to favor those with higher IQs and a willingness to engage in deferred gratification; then I suppose you could look at it that way.

In reality, Capitalism is amoral, much like a gun that can be used to hunt food or, conversely, commit crime. It is a tool that can be supremely benevolent or incredibly destructive based upon the actors involved. Unlike Socialism and Communism or other forms of command economies, Capitalism is extremely sensitive to bad actors.

The crony Capitalism we are now witnessing throughout America's government, corporate and financial institutions is unparalleled and represents trans-generational theft on a scale that dwarfs the 20th century robber barons and all previous monarchies in history, combined.

GFKjunior said...

I agree 100%. I am a mexican kid living and working in sillicon valley and I can not think of a single black male in the industry. Sure there are a few at large companies like google and ebay but none that I know in start ups.

I agree to a point with latinos, there are probably not a lot of VC's yet but there are tons working at hi-cap tech companies to 6 person start ups. I expect this trend to continue because from what I read (including from my "prestigious" university) is that Hispanics are enrolling and graduating from engineering programs in record numbers.

Anonymous said...

The crony Capitalism we are now witnessing throughout America's government, corporate and financial institutions is unparalleled and represents trans-generational theft on a scale that dwarfs the 20th century robber barons and all previous monarchies in history, combined.


The companies were so badly run they should have been let go rather than saving the management so that they will be needed to be saved again sometime in the future.