Writing this under a pseudonymous account because making even good-faith arguments that deviate slightly from the orthodoxy regarding "diversity" is a dangerous game on the internet.
"Assuming you have access to a first world education"
Have you been to any large company in silicon valley? Say, Google? If you did, you might find that a very large proportion of employees are not from US/Europe.. places you might consider providing a "first world education".
Assuming so many variables that actively stop people from succeeding
There's a huge world out there with huge amount of disparity in access to food, water, shelter, health care etc. A middle class upbringing in say, India or Nigeria or China can lack even the basic necessities easily available in even the poorest cities in the US. Something like a public library say, or consistent access to electricity, water even.
The original blogpost is making the point that despite those conditions, thousands upon thousands of people from places like India, China, Vietnam, Nigeria, Peru, Chile, Pakistan manage to come to silicon valley and find work. I'm one such immigrant myself. I didn't find the culture hostile to me. As long as I was willing to work hard, prove myself technically capable to carry out the job at hand, I was welcomed at the highest levels of the industry.
To accuse a culture this accepting, this welcoming even of "having a diversity problem" because it doesn't have the requisite proportion of women or black people is ignoring how the industry stands in comparison to the rest of the American society.
Does it have more or less diversity at the highest levels compared to say, Medicine, Finance, Law, Marketing etc.? Other industries where high educational and professional achievement is handsomely rewarded? Take the top 10 thousand highest paid professionals in each of these industries and compare them to the same group in Tech. I'll guarantee you the tech industry will have less homogeneity. You'll see far more non-white-men in high positions in tech than you would in any other high paying industry. It doesn't mean the industry has achieved diversity nirvana. It just means that the increasing attacks on the industry are opportunistic and knee-jerk reactions to the growing influence of silicon valley on the rest of the society.
"Assuming you have access to a first world education"
Have you been to any large company in silicon valley? Say, Google? If you did, you might find that a very large proportion of employees are not from US/Europe.. places you might consider providing a "first world education".
Assuming so many variables that actively stop people from succeeding
There's a huge world out there with huge amount of disparity in access to food, water, shelter, health care etc. A middle class upbringing in say, India or Nigeria or China can lack even the basic necessities easily available in even the poorest cities in the US. Something like a public library say, or consistent access to electricity, water even.
The original blogpost is making the point that despite those conditions, thousands upon thousands of people from places like India, China, Vietnam, Nigeria, Peru, Chile, Pakistan manage to come to silicon valley and find work. I'm one such immigrant myself. I didn't find the culture hostile to me. As long as I was willing to work hard, prove myself technically capable to carry out the job at hand, I was welcomed at the highest levels of the industry.
To accuse a culture this accepting, this welcoming even of "having a diversity problem" because it doesn't have the requisite proportion of women or black people is ignoring how the industry stands in comparison to the rest of the American society.
Does it have more or less diversity at the highest levels compared to say, Medicine, Finance, Law, Marketing etc.? Other industries where high educational and professional achievement is handsomely rewarded? Take the top 10 thousand highest paid professionals in each of these industries and compare them to the same group in Tech. I'll guarantee you the tech industry will have less homogeneity. You'll see far more non-white-men in high positions in tech than you would in any other high paying industry. It doesn't mean the industry has achieved diversity nirvana. It just means that the increasing attacks on the industry are opportunistic and knee-jerk reactions to the growing influence of silicon valley on the rest of the society.