Blacks and Latinos Aren't Thriving in Silicon Valley's Meritocracy

Rebecca Greenfield

The Index is full of data points that show how uneven the growth falls in the area. Some highlights, emphasis mine:

RELATED: What Old Valleywags Think About the New Valleywag

  • The educational level of residents in Silicon Valley was higher than in California overall across all ethnic groups in 2011. These rates increased across all ethnic groups except African Americans and Hispanics.

  • The majority of ethnicities and races saw improved per capita income in 2011, except for African Americans and Hispanics whoseper capita income fell 18 percent and five percent, respectively.

  • Educational attainment across all ethnic and racial groups is notablyhigher in Silicon Valley than the state. Since 2006, gains have beenmade across a majority of ethnicities in the region. In 2011, theshare of Asian adults with at least a bachelor’s degree rose to 59 percent, compared to 49 percent statewide. However, the proportion of Hispanic and African American adults with higher education levels slipped, to 23 percent and 14 percent respectively.Statewide, California has made steady improvements across allethnic and racial groups since 2006.

  • With respect to college eligibility, the share of students meeting UC/CSU requirements varied greatlyby ethnicity, with a nearly 50 percentage point difference betweenthe highest rates (Asians) and lowest rates (African Americans and Hispanics). African Americans had one of the greatest increasesin graduation rates (+3 percent) from 2009-11, but experienced thelargest drop (-4 percent) in the share of graduates meeting UC/CSUrequirements.

Those are not the numbers that you would expect to see, if, as tech journalist and investor Jason Calacanis wrote earlier this week, "The fact is that the tech industry and tech media should be extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’re the most open meritocracy I’ve ever seen in industry." This study is not looking at the tech industry Silicon Valley, just the region to which it is home. You would expect, if that industry was welcoming to all comer, that the jobs and income it generated would be shared more evenly in the community. In fact, the numbers are worse than the rest of the country. As blogger Jamelle Bouie suggested in his blog post, overt racism may not be the cause. But it certainly merits consideration of whether the wider systemic issues that push certain classes and races away from lucrative fields also applies inside Silicon Valley's meritocracy bubble.