Ethnic Minorities and Major Achievers

I had the opportunity to sit in on a day long series of panel discussions hosted by the Latin American diaspora showcasing the successes of many in their tribe - men and women in Silicon Valley and beyond. First point of distinction one of my audience colleagues pointed out was that a Latino or person of Latin origin was someone that linked their heritage to the Americas (specifically central or southern American continent) as opposed to the Hispanic people who claim their lineage to the European nation of Spain. Perhaps the former has more to do with the language that was spoken by certain European natives who eventually migrated to the South American continent in search of new land and opportunity. Although both speak Spanish as their first language from first hand experience I can vouch for the fact that the spoken Spanish in Spain is vastly different from the one that the muchachos south of the border communicate with. Within Spain alone there were four distinct types of language variations much like India with its dialects. Getting back to the topic at hand - while it was laudable to see how these individuals overcame variety of adversity to carve a niche for themselves what struck me was the theme of the day - Leadership. Now not given to silly emotical adjectives and phrases like leadership, sponsorship et al it was clear that for anyone to differentiate themselves and stand out required the ability to communicate, persevere and some luck. Leadership is one aspect of success but not the only way to qualify success. In that it is a trait it is one of the most abstract ones to define and is always customzied to the circumstance. To that end the idea that someone is a minority is merely another in a series of obstacles that I think one must overcome in order to achieve the type of success one decides for oneself. Not being born with any spoon in my mouth and qualifying for the status of an ethnic minority myself I can attest that I do encounter race bias today. But it is not a unique American phenomenon. It is evident all over the world. If it is not race it is monetary segregation or some other form of classification that the overall system exercises. Not to belittle the point that social injustice in the form of preferential treatment of a race over another purely out of subjective bias is wrong but sometimes that is just how the road turns. I have seen Indian companies in the US often hire white sales teams to sell their wares because it gives them the comfort of knowing that the potential clients (who likely are white folk with money) will better affiliate themselves with that brand and not cause a barrier to entry. This among many other tactics happen to be part of the capitalist model of survival and success. So in conclusion I think a big deal is made of any form of minority whether out of race, color, sexual preferences or habit and as long as we keep discussing it as a topic I think it underscores the idea that humanity is still childish and needs to grow up. Intellectual potential and cold hard ROI based analysis should drive decision making and nothing else unless the mission of the enterprise is to discriminate in favor of a certain intangible. It was hilarious to see a sitting US senator lash out at one of the Latino Facebook founders who took off from the US to a more tax friendly island renouncing his US citizenship since he made a boat load of money selling his share of stock to gullible buyers. Well he did it legally and within the bounds of the very system that the United States stands for and its called Capitalism. Again that he was a minority with major success happens to define the way things should work out. Lets not forget that he made a lot of white guys rich too.