Is There an Institutional Bias Against Black Tech Entrepreneurs?

An anonymous reader writes sends this excerpt from CNN: "The vast majority of top executives at the leading Silicon Valley tech firms are white men. Women and Asians have made some inroads, but African-American and Latino tech leaders remain a rarity. About 1% of entrepreneurs who received venture capital in the first half of last year are black, according to a study by research firm CB Insights. ... 'The tech industry is pretty clubby,' said Hank Williams, an African-American entrepreneur in the NewMe program who had success in the Internet boom of the 1990s. 'There are really no people of color in Silicon Valley.' Others say the issue could be rooted deep within the black community. The NewMe co-founders said African-American families don't typically encourage business leaders or programmers to pursue interests in tech."

Comments

observing a lack is not proof

[wmeyer]

Observing an apparent deficiency in demographics is not proof of bias, it is merely an observation of what is.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but you're a racist so what do you know?

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Anonymous Coward]

If your theory is correct, then the current advent of masses of cheap-to-free computers is going to boost black presence in the tech field within the next 10 years.

Not necessarily. You're correct that access to computers is a big part of the equation, but equally important is the culture the child is raised in. You'd need to be sure the family that owns the computer encourages using it as a learning tool (like an Erecter set) and not just as a portal to youtube and facebook.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[WaywardGeek]

This has not been my experience so far. True, there are few black engineers, programmers, and people starting businesses in Silicon Valley. However, those I have met have generally been outstanding at their work, and gained plenty of respect as well as responsibility. I believe engineering in Silicon Valley is as close to a meritocracy as the world has ever seen. There are all races, religions, and frankly no one cares so long as you are good at what you do.

Now just some rough estimates... about 1 in 10 Americans are black roughly. American born engineers make up maybe 1 in 2 in Silicon Valley. The vast majority of these people did well at well respected universities. I'm going to guess that reduces the potential population of black men to hire by a factor of four, just because the black community is so much poorer and parents are typically not college educated. Multiply all that and I'd guess we come up with a pretty good estimate of why blacks are under represented in Silicon Valley. For one thing, white men are also under represented. Americans in general have for some reason decided to avoid real science, math, and engineering.

"Cluby"? Give me a break. You can be a black Jewish lesbian and get a great job if you have engineering talent in Silicon Valley.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Grishnakh]

Exactly. Also, it's not that the culture "doesn't support 'wasting time'" with (technology|hockey|etc.), it's that the culture has different priorities from causasian and asian cultures. Black kids spend all kinds of time playing basketball when they're young, because that's what they have access to, and it's popular in their culture. They don't play hockey, because it costs a lot of money to buy hockey equipment, and you have to have access to a frozen-over lake, or pay a lot of money for membership with an ice-hockey rink. Being frequently poor and living in the inner city, the northern blacks don't have much access to frozen lakes and equipment. Southern blacks have it even worse, because the idea of a frozen-over lake is like something out of a fairy tale for anyone living in the South. There's a reason all the best hockey players aren't even American, they're all from Canada or Russia or eastern Europe, and the few that do come from the USA come from places like rural Michigan.

These people complaining about a lack of black and hispanic technology entrepreneurs are idiots. I can tell you exactly why there's so few: because there's so few people from those groups who are engineers! It should be pretty obvious that tech entrepreneurs, largely being ex-engineers, are going to have a demographic makeup similar to the demographics of tech engineers (electrical and software mainly) in general, since they're really a subset of that group. As someone who's been an electrical and software engineer for 13 years, I can tell you that the number of hispanic and black engineers I've met throughout my college years and career I can probably count on one hand. In fact, I think I've met maybe 2 hispanic engineers total, and a handful of black ones (I had one who was my boss for a little while); blacks are definitely much more represented in my experience, though that's not saying much. However Indians, east/southeast Asians, Europeans of all types, and of course caucasian Americans are all very well represented, and there's even some middle-eastern Muslims and of course Israelis in this industry (I mean working in the USA).

If you want to do something about the lack of black and hispanic tech entrepreneurs, don't: do something first about the lack of blacks and hispanics in engineering. Only after you do something about that problem will you see a change with entrepreneurs. Otherwise you're putting the cart before the horse.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[tomhudson]

Part of the problem is that the barriers to entry into tech are now too low ... so low that there's no skill needed to get into it. Just look at all the interviews of people who are laid off who say that they'll try to make some money "doing web design" as one example. There's been a real tidal wave over the last 5 years of "computers by desperation" (though the trend really got its start back before the turn of the century).

Couple that with the "me-too-product" feeding frenzy that any idea that gets any publicity inspires, as others hope to cash in on the next big thing, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Now throw in VC terms that make vulture funds look like little angels ... "for our investment, we want 50%, plus we're taking out $X per month in management costs, plus we need to see an exit strategy in place for us." This is not some made-up instance, or something new - I had the misfortune of working for a startup in 1995 that had such a deal - the VCs got their initial seed capital back (and more) just in management fees and fees for getting second-round investors in and in a royalty from all revenues, etc ...

The interests of the VC are not aligned with the interests of the founders, not short-term, and certainly not long-term. They will make sure they will not lose money, no matter what. After all, it's their business.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Darinbob]

Knowing about computers doesn't make you a tech exec. Being a back stabbing SOB is what makes you an executive!

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Lord Kano]

A black person who goes to college for computers is not going to compete with a white kid who has been plastered to his computer monitor since he was 11, anymore than a black kid who starts playing hockey when he turns 18 is going to make an NHL team (or any kid who starts playing/doing/learning anything is going to make the Pro level of it if there are other people who have already been doing it 10 years - that counts musical instruments, sports, etc.)

The problem is twofold: Lack of access to computers for black children/teens, and a culture that doesn't support "wasting time" messing with technology. (Not that white culture was greatly supportive of my nerdy endeavors but at least my parents didn't stop me beyond demanding I go outside more.)

This is what Michael Gerson calls "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Oh, those poor negroes never really had a chance. The ghetto is such a terrible place... s Shenanigans! It's possible for anyone with the drive, determination and ability to achieve success. Racism may be an obstacle, but it's not insurmountable.

I've had a computer in front of me, nearly continuously since I was 8. I finish my Master's Degree in C.I.S. in five weeks. It's absolute bullshit that there are serious external impediments to black success. If people can find a way to buy $400 sneakers, they can buy a computer.

It's an open secret in the black community that there is a serious anti-intellectual influence. Black kids who strive and achieve academically are ostracized by other black kids and resented by the white kids for making them look bad. It takes a strong will and a strong support system for a kid to deal with that. My parents brooked no excuses for not living up to my potential. I will do the same for my children. I can't explain it, and I can't excuse it, but it's real and thank God that it's not universal. Just like in the society as a whole, you're seeing a bifurcation of the African American community. You have black achievers who are going to college and having successful careers and you have people who don't achieve. People who think that the drug game is their only ticket out of poverty. This is why you have 30% of black men being incarcerated at one point in their lives. It took generations to create the problem, and will likely take generations to fix it, however I don't know what the answer is. All I can do it be the best father I can and raise my children to achieve in life.

LK

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[MacDaffy]

I grew up in Silicon Valley. I will be 59 at the end of this month. I'm an African-American male who has worked his way up in the tech industry from a computer operator to the owner/operator of his own tech consulting firm and "beyond"...

The industry here is the closest thing to a meritocracy I've ever experienced. If you're an entrepreneur worth exploiting here, you will be exploited. Anyone with a good idea can get a hearing as long as they know how to present it to the right people in the right way. I can honestly say that the stakes here are too high for racism to interfere.

My experience was that I was competing against kids whose parents were among the pioneers in the industry. Most black kids were excluded from college by economic circumstance as well as bias when I was growing up. Kids whose parents worked for nascent enterprises like Intel and HP and Fairchild and Apple had--and still have--a leg up on everyone else. The children of BSEE's have more of a chance to become BSEE's than the children of carpenters or dock workers. That's just the way of the world. But I had a knack for the industry, and I got in on merit... and luck.

My son is one of the few kids in our area--black or white--who had an internet connection in his home by the late-eighties. He was one of the few kids in our neighborhood who had a personal computer at his disposal. He didn't nerd out, but he had the opportunity if he'd wanted to pursue it. That's the biggest factor in this; if your parents are nerdy, it's likely you'll be nerdy, too. The lack of access to college among Black Americans before the Civil Rights Movement was probably the single most formidable impediment to the fostering of significant numbers of Black Tech Entrepreneurs. If your parents don't know Avogadro from an avocado, it's unlikely you will either--no matter what color you are.

The current political attitude toward funding education makes it likely that things will stay that way unless people demand change.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Howitzer86]

As a black nerd guy, the only thing I think you got right is the culture aspect. My parents didn't like me 'wasting time' with computers, but I worked around them and 'wasted time' with computers anyway.

Granted I am not the picture of success, but I think I did OK for what I had. In my opinion, we don't need assistance, we get enough of that. This isn't a problem the government can fix. It has to be fixed from within, by people like myself who know better.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd need to be sure the family that owns the computer encourages using it as a learning tool (like an Erecter [sic] set) and not just as a portal to youtube and facebook.

It's not just a home culture thing either...there's the culture at school as well.

I can't speak for the current situation, but as of the early 90s, there was significant peer pressure to value things like sports and violence over learning and pursuing more traditional avenues for societal advancement. African-American students who did well in school or pursued intellectual hobbies were labeled sell outs or "house n...s" (lesson learned from my two years at that school...I'm not allowed to use that word.) There seemed to be a pervasive attitude that if you went about trying to succeed while playing by the rules of the establishment that you were somehow betraying your race. There was a belief that if you learned to speak proper English, you were somehow denying your racial identity. This was even codified by the school district trying to claim that Ebonics was a legitimately distinct language rather than admit that they couldn't teach the actual language to the African-American students (yes, I went to a school in that district...I was really fortunate to get into a private high school.)

If you want African-American tech entrepreneurs, you need to foster an environment for them to grow up in that nurtures their tech interests rather than persecutes them for it. My two years in that school environment makes me completely unsurprised by the numbers in the story and highly doubtful that they represent a racial bias.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[dokc]

Sorry mate, but that's crap. My wife has a degree in CS and she desperately tries to find a job in the field (in Germany). The reason why there is so few woman engineers working like engineers is because company bosses think like this:

1. if she doesn’t have children, she will get pregnant and the company must search for replacement during maternity leave
2. if she does have children, she will think more about children and tend to go home when regular working hours are over instead of staying and showing "loyalty" to he company
3. I can squeeze more energy from man then from women because they they think less about their health and the future then women (who cares about burnout, projects must be finished as fast as possible with as least engineers possible)

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you know why the bosses think this way? Because it's true. To illustrate, starting with item #1, I worked at a startup where the Director of Marketing had a baby 2 months before the first product ship date. Needless to say, it caused much anxiety on the part of the marketing and sales team, as well as ripples throughout the other 20 employees. She was MIA for the critical six month period bracketing the release of our product. When she returned she immediately went into the mode of #2, and the entire sales/mkt team had to pick up her slack (but she still drew a nice fat check). Meanwhile me and my fellow single, male engineers were squeezed exactly as noted in #3, and part of the reason was that we wanted the company to succeed so we did what it took.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[hairyfeet]

Sadly no and here is why: Its the culture, not the lack of tech. I know this because for more than half a decade i played in an all black band (The singer Charles used to diffuse the situation at the clubs by saying "This is our token white boy, gotta support affirmative action ya know") so I got to go to many a place where white folks simply weren't welcome and it didn't take long until i was just treated like another guy.

What I saw frankly broke my heart, families that would cheer if they played sports or music while seriously treating like shit anybody that tried to get an education or really did anything "geeky". you'd hear shit like Oreo and Uncle Tom and a hell of a lot of 'you think you are better than me?' bullshit. many in the community from what I saw looked upon someone more educated as someone looking down upon them and got downright hostile over it.

While I also saw that to some degree with the poor whites nothing like the scale i saw it in the black communities and we played all over the south and often were invited into their homes and to their parties afterwards so I got to see it up close all over the place. Being a band we got invited to everybody's parties, reunions, you name it, and it really didn't take long at all before everyone just forgot I was there.

Why someone would do such a thing i'll never understand. my oldest is going to premed now and if brains were a gun he'd BFG my ass while if I was lucky I'd be packing an AK. hell I'm glad he is smarter than me and has the skills to go to medical school, as I WANT him to go farther than I did. But from what I saw many black folks look upon it as a direct insult to their intelligence and will come down hard on those not going into music or athletics.

Re:observing a lack is not proof

[hairyfeet]

Oh its more than just a a corrupt culture and I'm sure i'll get hate for repeating it but Charles explained it this way and i think he was right after seeing it with my own eyes. He said "You got the black folks and you got the niggers and sadly we just got too damned many niggers". He said you can tell the difference because black folks value education and hard work, want their kids to succeed in things other than playing ball or music, and they try to avoid being around the niggers just as the blacks from Kenya you described.

Then you have what he called the niggers that revel in stupidity, treat getting out of jail like its a cause for celebration like they graduated from college (we were actually hired to play more than one party that turned out was a "coming home" party) while treating anybody that tried to better themselves as an oreo or "house nigger", while singing songs like "Its' free, swipe your EBT!" (Its on Youtube, look it up, you won't believe that shit) and doing everything they can to get out of any kind of legitimate work. Oh and they play the race card at the drop of a hat, which REALLY pisses off the black folks.

I'd say it really has split the community, with the black folks doing everything they can to disassociate themselves from the "Thug life!" ers as I call them, while the thug lifers blame everything on whitey and expect a position not a job. I'd say it certainly isn't be helped by the Rev Als of this world who play on the victim mentality instead of telling the community to work hard and support education. As my friend Dru put it "I didn't get to where I am, running over a dozen locations as regional manager by sitting on my ass and blaming white folks for my troubles, i got here by busting my ass and working my way up. Now most of the discrimination I see is because some nigger came along and rented from the landlord I want to rent from and tore shit up and acted like a damned fool and now the landlord is afraid to rent to me, afraid i'm like them."

Not just blacks, what about other minorities?

[Faizdog]

So this story is based off the CNN documentary "Black in America: Silicon Valley." I haven't seen the actual show, but CNN has been pushing it a lot the past week and showing clips from it.

One really interesting clip that I saw had an Indian who had experience with VCs and start-ups and was also a professor somewhere giving a talk to the African American entrepreneurs.

Now Asians in general, and Indians specifically I don't think are as rare in Silicon Valley and are found amongst high level executives. Additionally, this particular individual was well spoken and articulate, capable of creative thinking, didn't have a strong accent, and in other ways didn't fit the stereotype of an Indian caricature.

However the ONE thing that he said was to get a good looking white guy to be your front man when going to VCs. He said that when we wanted to get funding, he got a (admittedly very capable and accomplished) white guy to be his partner. He said that's just how things work in the Valley. The African American audience he was speaking to was very shocked by this.

The point made was that VCs look for what works. And if they see a bunch of "successful" start-up companies run by young white guys, that's what they look to fund. Plus add in the inherent bias towards good looking white guys in business who fit the common archetype (with as Dilbert says good hair).

While we're on the topic, what about women (white or otherwise)? Are VCs more likely to discount a company being led by women as they're not thought to be "techy"?

So, any thoughts form people with experience here, either for or against this argument. Do all races (not just African Americans) need Caucasian male partners to improve their chances for success.

Re:No.

[Anonymous Coward]

In regard to an issue as important as this (why a certain sector is not reflecting society), it would be a lot easier to accept someone's opinion if they could refer to some kind of research or statistics instead of just offering blunt statements and/or rants.

Why isn't the NBA reflecting society?

Re:No people of color my ass

[fragfoo]

Ever heard of Vinod Khosla? How about legions of Asian programmers? Oh, no people of *his* color. Yeah, just another conspiracy by The Man to keep the bruthas down.

Seriously, when will this victim mentality shit ever end?

It will only end the day a black president is elected.

Re:No people of color my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

as a middle aged USA born white guy, I find myself VERY MUCH in the minority in the engineering areas of silicon valley.

I have no idea what this guy is talking about, but if you want to complain, complain about being passed over for a job because you are *not* desi. or even if you are desi but from the wrong part of india.

silicon valley may be white at the top, but its not in the worker classes. and the top is the 1% guys; who the fuck cares about which 1-percenter gets this or that.

Re:Access to a Computer

[raehl]

That doesn't matter. The computer has to be in the child's home already. A kid who doesn't have a computer doesn't know that he wants to mess around with his computer. He has to have a computer, then be one of the few kids who would rather mess around with it than just play on it or do something else.

Yes

[br00tus]

I worked at a Fortune 100 company in a large IT department in a major coastal city. We had some choice in where we worked. I first worked in a group alongside a black guy, who told me he worked in his group because he didn't get along with someone in another group, he was vague about who. I then went to work for that group. I got along with my manager, but he had it in for this black guy from the other group. In fact I would socialize with the manager and co-workers. At the bar, he would sometimes speak disparagingly on Arabs, Muslims, blacks, Mexicans and the like. When there were layoffs, the black guy was let go. He didn't have direct influence over the group, but having one of the managers there against you was certainly not a help. There didn't seem to be a logical reason for the antipathy either. Honestly, I still get along with this former manager, although I don't agree with his thinking in this respect.

I worked at another company, Fortune 1000. I worked alongside a black co-worker, with whom I had a common manager - white, from the Midwest, late 20s. Again, the manager had a lot of antipathy and made life hard for this co-worker, for no reason I could see. I think it's difficult to work in conditions when your manager is against you and is waiting to jump on any error you make (it happened to me once when a new manager wanted to push me out and get his friend in my position, which is a long story itself). Eventually my co-worker left, or was pushed out, or whatever - the co-worker never wanted to talk about it when I spoke with him after.

So from my experience, the racism is usually not from co-workers, or from upper management and HR, who would probably be happy with some functional, if token, black faces. It's usually from lower management types, who in my experience are often a bundle of neuroses and incompetence to begin with.

On another topic, to quote George Jefferson, with enough green you can always get people to forget the black. When the dot-com boom happened years ago, money flowed into the web properties of Vibe magazine, UBO, BET, Black Planet etc. Plenty of companies were interested in reaching the "urban" market. There is even cross-over - plenty of white teens listen to not only Eminem, but black hip-hop artists. I just read a piece in Adweek on how Android had captured the African-American demographic in the US. Of course, this still is a ghettoization of sorts - it really opens up when blacks get venture capital for new chip designs, or software products or the like, not just web and social media properties geared toward the urban market.

Re:Access to a Computer

[aix tom]

When I was a kid the computer "wasn't there" already. (Of course that way about 1980.) There wasn't any in school either.

My parents basically bought me a VIC-20 to make me stop taking apart the household electrical appliances I found in the house or in the garbage. Someone who likes to tinker with technology can't be stopped by not having a ready-made computer around.

I also volunteer in a youth / children centre. There is a HUGE gap between kids that DO stuff and are INTERESTED in stuff, and a large group of "Me, I don't care about anything, do something for me, entertain me...." kids.

An *entrepreneur* can only come from the first group. The others might still be able to get well-paying jobs somewhere, even in programming and/or IT, but the will almost never really *start* something like a company themselves.

Re:Option 5: Victim Mathematics

[haggholm]

Yes, that would be a good analogy if black people and latinos were physiologically incapable of computer programming.

Affirmative Action Won't Work

[Atypical Geek]

Unless, of course, you find a way to make computers care about what the person writing code on them looks like. Good luck with that.

Re:No.

[AK Marc]

Have you got evidence that the NBA in fact doesn't reflect society?

Would you ask for proof if I stated the sky was blue? Look out the god damn window, you lazy racist bastard.http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_NBA_players_are_black> (about 82%) And the US is about 13% black. I'll leave it for you to confirm that. So, now that you have evidence you asked for, are you going to answer the original question, or were you never going to answer it and were just being a jackass by lying (by implication) that the reason you were not answering is that you have no reasonable idea about the racial makeup of the NBA vs the USA (which if that is the case, no one will care what you have to say, as you'll be so dumb that nothing you could say would be worthwhile).

Re:Access to a Computer

[scamper_22]

yeah, tell that to the thousands of Indians and East Asians in tech. Many of whom come from more poverty than you could imagine.

Its not a rich and poor thing, it's a cultural thing.

Blacks in Technology are Viewed as Space Aliens

[ZenMatik]

Well this is an interesting article. I am black ... and I would like to add my voice - since most of the voices are very likely not black. There are many facets to a story like this. For one white folks do NOT like to be lumped into the same pot and also do not like to be made to feel guilty about racism. But racism does exist (look at the Yahoo message boards - very OVERTLY racist comments all the time).

The questions as posed, is whether this prejudice applies to Silicon Valley. If your idea is good ... you should get a fair shake ... I think if you are a graduating PhD from Stanford with some new fangled technology, then you will get a fare shake. I know this, because the blacks at Stanford are very happy and they innovate. I have seen some UNHAPPY black people at MIT - I think for a long time they had no tenured black faculty and the one head of department was run off after his department revolted. So MIT from I have heard is not the best place if you are black person ... at Stanford, all I have seen is happy people - they get VC money, they start companies, they get faculty positions ... I heard Berkley is good too ...

No one should be asking if there are smart, qualified black people - There are. There are smart qualified people of all kinds of backgrounds. If you discriminate, you shrink the talent pool.

I do think though that African people (Black Americans, West Indians, Africans and others) working in American technological firms can be viewed as space aliens ... there are usually very few and when one appears in a project - there can be a reaction - or no reaction at all depending on the attitude of the team. Prejudices can come out ... prejudice is stupidity - let me say that now.

I am a programmer - I program in C++ and C mostly ... Linux and VxWorks are my lingua franca ... my experiences over the years have been fun ... a lot of great projects networking, codecs, robotics ... a lot of cool stuff ... Today it would be highly unusual if I encountered direct and overt racism - I would likely have a very very hard time with that. I am fortunate - I know that some black people do work in hostile environments where they are second guessed or berated ... it does happen. I went to a private technological University - I had lots of black classmates - some of them have done really really cool stuff. I met fellow black peers at MIT, Stanford, Caltech and Berkeley ... there are many smart black people ... that go to some of the best schools. The challenge is that many us are buried away in great companies in labs or offices ... we are here ... but sometimes not seen.

I think one challenge may be that SOME white people do not know how to interact with black people in general. This is not controversial or alarming at all. Why? Well when I look at my managers - I see 40 something, 50 something and 60 something year olds. For the older ones, they very likely did not go to schools with black people due to segregation - I understand that! This is America, and there is a social consequence that affects guys who graduated in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Heck even guys I knew in college, that was their first time interacting with a black person. Truly for a good deal of white people there are sometimes few blacks in their elementary and high schools. Not to be an apologist for people - but from a social studies aspect - when a black person is suddenly introduced, people can act like a space alien fell from outer space. Will the black person lower the API score of my school (for Californians), is he qualified to work at my company? Did he get in through affirmative action? These are things black people think white people think about them.

So in o

The resume test needs to be redone

[Sycraft-fu]

The problem isn't that they were comparing "black" names to "white" names it is that they were comparing ghetto names to American names. "Jill" is a very normal, neutral, name in America. "Shaniqua" is a name you tend to only see come from, well, the ghetto. It is not a name that comes from African roots or anything. It sounds, well, lower class.

However turns out it isn't just "black" names that have that. Try hillbilly names. Have "Shaniqua" run against "Sheri-Moon" and see how that goes. Both names are "odd" to the American ear and both speak of a lower class upbringing.

In terms of "black" names I might note that someone who has a REAL "black name," as in one that has an African influence, currently holds the highest office in the land.

There's also alother pressure on smart black kids

[Sycraft-fu]

There is this expectation that they should go and do some sort of civil rights work, or something like that which helps the "black community". Neil DeGrasse Tyson gives a great talk on that at the HHMI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I5Fl1Qn-Do.

In it (at around 32 minutes) he talks about an experience on college where another smart, motivated, black student found out he was working to be an Astrophysicist and said to him "Astrophysics? The black community cannot afford the luxury of someone with your intellect to spend it on that subject."

So there is this pressure for smart black kids that you need to go do something that directly helps the black community. Be a leader in some respect. That of course negates doing engineering or anything like that.

Now if you continue to watch the video, Dr. Tyson points out how his path has done ever so much, despite not working for "the black community." The man is the director of the Hayden Planetarium, a minor celebrity, a living, breathing, example that it doesn't matter if you skin has more melanin in it, you can still be brilliant and excel in your chosen field.

But there's that pressure there. Once you've got out of the anti-intellectual community, which as you point out is EXTREMELY strong for black kids, you then face this pressure from the intellectual community that you should be doing some specific things. Doesn't matter what you are interested in, you "owe" your community to use your smarts in some way.

Hopefully, time and people like Dr. Tyson will change that. People will see him, and more people like him, and say "It is ok to be smart, no matter my skin colour, and it is ok to use my smarts on the field I like."