Notes on diversity in Silicon Valley

Racial disparities abound in Silicon Valley. Web Editor Simon Gilbert explores the history of racism in the region and how inequality is almost always tied to one issue: discriminatory NIMBYism.

Two months since the police killing of George Floyd, discussions of race in America remain a daily occurrence. Silicon Valley is no exception. The Santa Clara County District Attorney is increasing oversight over police misconduct and introducing other prosecutorial reforms, while San Jose city councilmembers have taken more radical stances (at least rhetorically) during the passage of a pro-Black Lives Matter resolution. Considering the history of segregation in Silicon Valley, addressing racial injustice is an important task for lawmakers and citizens. However, the history of race in Silicon Valley is not without nuance. As such, policies attempting to rectify racism in the region must acknowledge historical and present realities rather than ignoring them in favor of a preferred narrative. Here are a few points about race in Silicon Valley that lawmakers might consider.

Silicon Valley’s demographics do not resemble California’s or the United States as a whole. 60.1% of the United States is white, 18.5% of people in the country are Hispanic of Latino, 13.4% are Black, and 5.9% are Asian. California is significantly less white than the rest of the country, with a much higher percentage of Hispanic/Latino people and Asians. 36.5% of Californians are white, 39.4% are Hispanic/Latino, 6.5% are Black, and 15.5% are Asian. Silicon Valley’s demographics follow similar trends—significantly more Hispanic/Latino (25.2%) and Asian (28.6%) than the rest of the country with white people only composing a plurality of people in the county (39.9%). Similarly, the proportion of bBack people in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is even lower than California’s or the country writ large, with only 2.6% of people in the county identifying as Black. This raw data says something interesting about the state of diversity in Silicon Valley. The region is actually incredibly diverse, being majority-minority. What is particularly noteworthy though is the low percentage of Black people and the high percentage of Asians. So when one opines that Silicon Valley “isn’t diverse,” what they actually mean (or should say) is that Silicon Valley has very few Black residents. The history behind these demographic trends is particularly important to understand when crafting legislation to address racial inequality.

Many of the inequalities between Black people and the rest of the county can be viewed as the result one issue: housing segregation. In his book “The Color of Law,” Richard Rothstein details how residential segregation leads to disparate health outcomes, unequal wealth, unequal incarceration rates, and much of the rest of inequalities that stem from racism in America. Silicon Valley’s story is no different than the rest of the country’s. East Palo Alto became an increasingly segregated community during the 1960s, which resulted in increased poverty rates in the area by the 1980s and early 1990s. Zoning laws—which drive residential segregation by keeping separate neighborhoods static—distort the market to keep Black people out of wealthier neighborhoods, as Opportunity Now has reported.

However, Silicon Valley also cultivates diversity. The aforementioned demographics of Santa Clara and San Mateo county show that Asians make up a disproportionate amount of residents in the area. Moreover, Asians earn higher incomes on average than white people, Hispanic/Latino people, and Black people in Silicon Valley. Many observers attribute this disparity to the tech industry, which employs many high-income high-skilled immigrants from East and South Asia. In fact, Silicon Valley might be one of America’s biggest immigration success stories, with a whopping 38% of its residents being foreign-born.

Keeping in mind the region’s past failures and triumphs with respect to race is incredibly important for crafting law that intends to deal with current racial disparities. If lawmakers ignore the ways in which the tech boom has boosted diversity in Silicon Valley, they could end up disproportionately affecting Asian immigrants. Conversely, if lawmakers ignore the specific history of residential zoning laws—perhaps one of the last institutional civil rights issues—as a method for segregation, they will fail to truly ameliorate the current condition of Black residents of Silicon Valley. 

Simon Gilbert is the web editor of Opportunity Now. He is currently studying history at Claremont McKenna College.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity.