It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes

[Carl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027092022

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:07 PM

OneGrassRoot (20,476 posts)

It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes
Disclaimer: I realize I am going to making broad-brush statements below, and I do intend to write a post or an article about this with specific references and links, but the gist of it all is what I'm trying to convey here. It's official to me, the fact that white guys own the Internet. This may be my first draft.

As a 52-year-old woman who has been focused on exploring funding options for my online ventures over the last few years, I've come to realize how much the Internet is -- and, more importantly, always has been -- dominated by men. Usually younger men (or at least they were when they created whatever entity has made them millions or sometimes billions of dollars).

I don't mean the Internet is dominated by men as the users, as that has become a more level playing field in the last five years with women having an equal presence online, but as those who are creating the business entities themselves and thus profiting off of them. Even when the websites or apps are created with women being the target audience, the founders are men (Pinterest).

Specifically, fairly young white men.

Now, I'm not knocking white men. Nor am I personally criticizing the individual men who created the vast majority of the most successful websites/apps. I do not know them personally and they may be wonderful souls.

What I do know is that the life experience of a white man, IN GENERAL, is different from the life experience, in general, of men with black and brown skin, and it is a life experience that is very different from women, of any color. And while youth has a a lot to offer, especially in today's rapidly changing, wired world, there is also a need for wisdom and perspective borne of life experience.

I just did another search (I was immersed in this topic earlier this year before crises intervened) of the most popular sites (top 100 or so on Alexa) and apps, with the most traffic/usage. Disregarding the more programming-oriented and country-specific sites, I made a list of 30, including Facebook, twitter, Amazon, Pinterest, Wikepedia, reddit, Paypal, instragram, kickstarter, HuffPo. I also included sites liberals tend to prefer, like DailyKos and Salon. DU is included in my list as well.

(First, I did NOT know that HuffPo was actually created by Arianna and 3 other men, including ANDREW BREITBART!!! Wow, that explains a lot, eh?)

Except for Gawker Media (created by 6 men and 4 women) IN EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE THE CREATORS|FOUNDERS ARE ALL MEN, PREDOMINANTLY WHITE MEN with a smaller percentage of the men being Asian.

Aside from the lack of diversity in general and the concentration of "new" wealth in the hands of a specific demographic...continuing what has been the norm for ages...here is why this disturbs me:

I adore the Internet. So much good has been done yet I do not believe we have even scratched the surface of the altruistic potential. We can reach critical mass toward transformation (positive or negative) much faster now. I search for the good, but the nastiness -- the culture of the Internet as a whole -- inevitably gets in the way. Look at the comment section of nearly any site and you'll see what I mean. The misogyny, racism and other forms of bigotry is STRONG.

I am not blaming the founders of any of the many websites for this culture of hate. I highly doubt any of them set out to create or contribute to a Petri dish of suck, but there is another aspect I believe is at play in this culture as well: a strong libertarian and anarchist vibe. These traits/values are embodied by many of the founders of these most successful sites (successful by Wall Street standards). The tone of a company's culture is set early on and manifests on the front end as well as the back end of the business.

Free speech, hands off, individualism.

Again, please don't get me wrong -- free speech is a core value of democracy. But what happens when the most vicious of voices are all that are heard because they live to attack and troll and drown out (and drive away) voices of reason? This nasty online culture has influenced the larger societal discourse, and we've all noticed the growing inability for people to engage in respectful discussion. Even though I respect the role twitter plays in our world, I don't consider tweets back and forth meaningful conversation. I'm talking about ongoing, meaningful, respectful discussion. And, let's face it: There is very little distinction between "online" and "IRL" now. Online IS a significant aspect of our daily lives.

Of course, financial profit is the goal and drives everything. It often encourages the "hands off" policy or perhaps encourages a cultivation of nastiness by said businesses in order to bring more eyeballs to their content which equals mo' $$$, y'all. So, there's that.

Even the so-called Sharing Economy ventures -- Airbnb, Lyft and Uber -- were founded by fairly young, white men. DUer Eridani's OP about the Sharing Economy, and how it's basically another word for capitalism, prompted this most recent search and this post.

So while I can appreciate what these innovators and entrepreneurs have offered the world, and have no animosity toward men (young men, old men, white men, men of color...it matters not), I am struck by the fact that WHO has created the foundations of the spaces which are influencing our culture is, by far, younger white men.

I absolutely believe that the lack of diversity at the very core, the very root , the creation of these ventures -- which are the new institutions of this modern era -- has contributed to the increasingly overtly disrespectful, often outright bigoted, racist and misogynistic culture.

Diversity and equality must to be part of the creation -- the foundation -- or else nothing is ever going to change. Not really. Not meaningfully.


That's the change I'm trying to bring to the table, so if you know anyone who wants to support such a social enterprise, please send them my way.

In other words wishadupe didn`t make you any money because only deadbeat democrats used it to beg.

Response to OneGrassRoot (Original post)

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:23 PM

Star Member LWolf (41,992 posts)
1. This is something to think about.

I've always thought that the blatant misogyny, racism and other forms of bigotry were the result of anonymity. People feeling free to celebrate their hate, instead of their better natures.

I feel like capitalism definitely helps create the culture you are referring to, and, of course, our entire culture is built on the supremacy of white male property owners.

Online, though...we aren't face-to-face, we'll probably never meet the vast majority of people we talk to, and we don't have to see, or read, or listen, or hear, their responses. We can find some like-minded people and celebrate our own "wisdom," and hate the rest without any social consequence.

I haven't thought about lack of diversity being at the core, but I will.

Minority business owners in Ferguson were unavailable for comment.

Response to OneGrassRoot (Original post)

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:26 PM

Star Member cali (104,053 posts)
2. what a great thought provoking post

Only because a bowl full of rotting toadstools still is smarter then you Eva.

Response to OneGrassRoot (Original post)

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:27 PM

Erich Bloodaxe BSN (10,332 posts)
3. Anyone can create any kind of website.

Even on a pretty small budget at first. There are websites to 'bid out' coding jobs, so you don't have to be a coder, or even a designer, and still get stuff done for you on the cheap.

So why aren't women or non-white people creating as many websites?

Response to Erich Bloodaxe BSN (Reply #3)

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:36 PM

OneGrassRoot (20,476 posts)
5. True...

But nearly all of the sites got A LOT of venture capital investment. A LOT.

That demographic remains the greatest recipient of such funding.

Unless you're independently wealthy, finding time to give a venture all of your time and energy to REALLY push it out there is a tremendous struggle.

I created sites over the last few years. One is known to many DUers, Wishadoo; it has proof of concept.

Yet finding funding in order to relaunch and take things to the next level -- and be able to devote my time to that rather than paycheck-to-paycheck survival -- has been discouraging, to say the least.

Age and gender matter in that world. They truly do. It is changing, especially via programs which are focused on teaching girls and all kids of color coding, but it will be a while before we feel that impact.

Still, my fear is that it will continue to be segregated.

Or you can be Mr Shelly Moskwa with an email list to sell.

Response to OneGrassRoot (Original post)

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:56 PM

daredtowork (3,609 posts)
12. Yep and Those Young White Dudes Are Literally Kicking Old, Poor, People of Color Out of Housing

in the San Francisco Bay Area Young White Dudes come pouring in to make their Internet fortune and push everyone out of their way in the name of "innovative disruption", "youth", and "market demand". They don't care if San Francisco has been your home for decades, whether there used to be a diverse neighborhood or a thriving arts community, or whether their boring hype-laden drivel is ruining everything. They advocate for big development over Victorian architecture so they can have $4000/month apartments to live in while elderly people are kicked out of their apartments by Ellis Act evictions. They network with each other at invitation-only clubs and, you are quite correct, they own the Internet.

When in force what do they do? Amass votes to evade taxes and undermine labor law. This empowers the entitled young white dudes at the top at the expense of everyone else.

What do they do with that power? Often they provide Internet safe spaces to cultivate misogyny, racism, and homophobia. Silicon Valley taught them the rule of law just gets in the way of them making money and enjoying infinite entitlement: why would they vote for an alternate form of civil society that protects rights for everyone and would limit their full potential so other people could enjoy rights and prosperity, too?

Damn those conservatives that run San Francisco.
Torchy given you a cut yet,leech?

 

[obumazombie]

I'm not getting any of this.
AlGore invented the internet.
Why can't they be happy one of their heroes made it big ?

[GOBUCKS]

tl;dr

As indicated by her brainchild WishaDUpe, DUmmy OneGrassRoot is a pinhead.

She's also one of those excruciatingly boring, long-winded DUmbasses who plague the DUmp.

Compared to them, the drunken Pitt is a snappy read.

[thundley4]

So why aren't women or non-white people creating as many websites?

Lack of ideas, lack of desire to work for something? Stupidity?

[USA4ME]

OneGrassRoot

It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes

Disclaimer: I realize I am going to making broad-brush statements below, and I do intend to write a post or an article about this with specific references and links, but the gist of it all is what I'm trying to convey here. It's official to me, the fact that white guys own the Internet. This may be my first draft.   

As a 52-year-old woman who has been focused on exploring funding options for my online ventures over the last few years, I've come to realize how much the Internet is -- and, more importantly, always has been -- dominated by men. Usually younger men (or at least they were when they created whatever entity has made them millions or sometimes billions of dollars).

I don't mean the Internet is dominated by men as the users, as that has become a more level playing field in the last five years with women having an equal....blah, blah, blah...

Somebody's Daddy didn't give them all the attention they wanted when they were growing up.

.

[DumbAss Tanker]

So, DUmmie, I gather that your wire fraud schemes are not bearing fruit as you'd hoped they would...

[SVPete]

Ya know, if these DU-folk really find the Internet "too white" and "too male", there's a simple solution. GTH off the Internet!

Or maybe create something better and get rich from what they created (kinda like what the creators of the Internet did!).

I won't even (rhetorically) ask why these DU folk resent creators. The question is self-answering; they've been hating creators since they started hating the Creator.

[Mr Mannn]

Erich Bloodaxe BSN (10,332 posts)
3. Anyone can create any kind of website.

Even on a pretty small budget at first. There are websites to 'bid out' coding jobs, so you don't have to be a coder, or even a designer, and still get stuff done for you on the cheap.

So why aren't women or non-white people creating as many websites?

I'll help you out a bit with a few basic reasons.

1) Literacy. This leaves out much of the inner city
2) Porn, the rest of the inner city can't get past this.

as for women they have lots of websites, They are everywhere!
Look for the gals at the millions of cooking forums.  But face book is where the gals really shine.
Women were always a part of the net. Only a liberal white supremacist would be unaware of that.

[Big Dog]

Oh, shut up and make me a sammich, DUmmy.

[tanstaafl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027092022

Torchy given you a cut yet,leech?

Don't take any butt wipe sawbucks from her.

[98ZJUSMC]

tl;dr

As indicated by her brainchild WishaDUpe, DUmmy OneGrassRoot is a pinhead.

She's also one of those excruciatingly boring, long-winded DUmbasses who plague the DUmp.

Compared to them, the drunken Pitt is a snappy read.

Yeah.  I thought about dragging this slop over, but the headache became too intense.

[delilahmused]

Gawd, the things that don't offend them would be a very short list.

Cindie

[BlueStateSaint]

So, DUmmie, I gather that your wire fraud schemes are not bearing fruit as you'd hoped they would...

Said DUmmie was too shady for Nigeria, eh?

[JohnnyReb]

Hey DUmmies, you can use the internet invented by blacks..... beat on a drum.

[SVPete]

Oh, shut up and make me a sammich, DUmmy.

I'll bet many women's websites have recipes for delicious sammiches ...

[Big Dog]

I'll bet many women's websites have recipes for delicious sammiches ...

No doubt!

[delilahmused]

Oh, shut up and make me a sammich, DUmmy.

Not sure I'd want them making me a sandwich since most of them prefer this kind:

[67 Rover]

Not sure I'd want them making me a sandwich since most of them prefer this kind:

Well at least now we now know why his goal at Subway was to get into smaller pants. 

[CollectivismMustDie]

They don't care if San Francisco has been your home for decades, whether there used to be a diverse neighborhood or a thriving arts community, or whether their boring hype-laden drivel is ruining everything.

I wonder how many times that sort of sentiment has been been expressed and in how many places, regarding illegal immigration.

You DUmmies support illegals and sanctuary cities, yet don't seem to care so much about "our homes" when it comes to that topic.



CMD

[Ptarmigan]

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:07 PM

OneGrassRoot (20,476 posts)

It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes
Disclaimer: I realize I am going to making broad-brush statements below, and I do intend to write a post or an article about this with specific references and links, but the gist of it all is what I'm trying to convey here. It's official to me, the fact that white guys own the Internet. This may be my first draft.

As a 52-year-old woman who has been focused on exploring funding options for my online ventures over the last few years, I've come to realize how much the Internet is -- and, more importantly, always has been -- dominated by men. Usually younger men (or at least they were when they created whatever entity has made them millions or sometimes billions of dollars).

I don't mean the Internet is dominated by men as the users, as that has become a more level playing field in the last five years with women having an equal presence online, but as those who are creating the business entities themselves and thus profiting off of them. Even when the websites or apps are created with women being the target audience, the founders are men (Pinterest).

Specifically, fairly young white men.

Now, I'm not knocking white men. Nor am I personally criticizing the individual men who created the vast majority of the most successful websites/apps. I do not know them personally and they may be wonderful souls.

What I do know is that the life experience of a white man, IN GENERAL, is different from the life experience, in general, of men with black and brown skin, and it is a life experience that is very different from women, of any color. And while youth has a a lot to offer, especially in today's rapidly changing, wired world, there is also a need for wisdom and perspective borne of life experience.

I just did another search (I was immersed in this topic earlier this year before crises intervened) of the most popular sites (top 100 or so on Alexa) and apps, with the most traffic/usage. Disregarding the more programming-oriented and country-specific sites, I made a list of 30, including Facebook, twitter, Amazon, Pinterest, Wikepedia, reddit, Paypal, instragram, kickstarter, HuffPo. I also included sites liberals tend to prefer, like DailyKos and Salon. DU is included in my list as well.

(First, I did NOT know that HuffPo was actually created by Arianna and 3 other men, including ANDREW BREITBART!!! Wow, that explains a lot, eh?)

Except for Gawker Media (created by 6 men and 4 women) IN EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE THE CREATORS|FOUNDERS ARE ALL MEN, PREDOMINANTLY WHITE MEN with a smaller percentage of the men being Asian.

Aside from the lack of diversity in general and the concentration of "new" wealth in the hands of a specific demographic...continuing what has been the norm for ages...here is why this disturbs me:

I adore the Internet. So much good has been done yet I do not believe we have even scratched the surface of the altruistic potential. We can reach critical mass toward transformation (positive or negative) much faster now. I search for the good, but the nastiness -- the culture of the Internet as a whole -- inevitably gets in the way. Look at the comment section of nearly any site and you'll see what I mean. The misogyny, racism and other forms of bigotry is STRONG.

I am not blaming the founders of any of the many websites for this culture of hate. I highly doubt any of them set out to create or contribute to a Petri dish of suck, but there is another aspect I believe is at play in this culture as well: a strong libertarian and anarchist vibe. These traits/values are embodied by many of the founders of these most successful sites (successful by Wall Street standards). The tone of a company's culture is set early on and manifests on the front end as well as the back end of the business.

Free speech, hands off, individualism.

Again, please don't get me wrong -- free speech is a core value of democracy. But what happens when the most vicious of voices are all that are heard because they live to attack and troll and drown out (and drive away) voices of reason? This nasty online culture has influenced the larger societal discourse, and we've all noticed the growing inability for people to engage in respectful discussion. Even though I respect the role twitter plays in our world, I don't consider tweets back and forth meaningful conversation. I'm talking about ongoing, meaningful, respectful discussion. And, let's face it: There is very little distinction between "online" and "IRL" now. Online IS a significant aspect of our daily lives.

Of course, financial profit is the goal and drives everything. It often encourages the "hands off" policy or perhaps encourages a cultivation of nastiness by said businesses in order to bring more eyeballs to their content which equals mo' $$$, y'all. So, there's that.

Even the so-called Sharing Economy ventures -- Airbnb, Lyft and Uber -- were founded by fairly young, white men. DUer Eridani's OP about the Sharing Economy, and how it's basically another word for capitalism, prompted this most recent search and this post.

So while I can appreciate what these innovators and entrepreneurs have offered the world, and have no animosity toward men (young men, old men, white men, men of color...it matters not), I am struck by the fact that WHO has created the foundations of the spaces which are influencing our culture is, by far, younger white men.

I absolutely believe that the lack of diversity at the very core, the very root , the creation of these ventures -- which are the new institutions of this modern era -- has contributed to the increasingly overtly disrespectful, often outright bigoted, racist and misogynistic culture.

Diversity and equality must to be part of the creation -- the foundation -- or else nothing is ever going to change. Not really. Not meaningfully.


That's the change I'm trying to bring to the table, so if you know anyone who wants to support such a social enterprise, please send them my way.

Anything else to whine about Whites? DU is owned by Whites. Are you going to leave DU because of that?

[Chris_]

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:07 PM

OneGrassRoot (20,476 posts)

It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes

[DumbAss Tanker]

Wed Aug 19, 2015, 06:07 PM

OneGrassRoot (20,476 posts)

It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes

[/b]

HAHA, ALL YOUR INNERWEBZ ARE BELONG TO US!!!

 

FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

[delilahmused]

Well at least now we now know why his goal at Subway was to get into smaller pants. 

H5! Just because this is so twisted!

Cindie

[RobJohnson]

Anything else to whine about Whites? DU is owned by Whites. Are you going to leave DU because of that?

Good point!

[SVPete]

Anything else to whine about Whites? DU is owned by Whites. Are you going to leave DU because of that?

If so, please do so soon, and lock the door behind you.