Forbes Article Promotes a Racist and Sexist Agenda

I was not planning on blogging today but after innocently turning on my Mac I saw a story on Yahoo! via Forbes Magazine about commonalities among billionaires. So I clicked to see what they were. The article is one of those cream puff pieces that sites like Yahoo! adore--lots of sizzle--no protein.

I was not surprised by what I saw, at least at first. The financial leaders were mostly Ivy League, had usually worked in finance, a great many had suffered some sort of financial failure, yadda yadda. But slowly I was stunned by what was NOT there. The two most overwhelming common traits is that almost all of them, perhaps every one, is white and male. But those two facts are not mentioned, nor even hinted at in the piece. 

• parents good at math?       crucial
• fact they have XY chrmosones?     trivial
• born in the fall?     crucial
• have European ancestors?     trivial
  

Look at the picture above--it is the lead picture for the store. By all appearances, that Anglo child is male, donning the culturally significant blue jumper. So even though their picture, most probably selected by a photo editor, explains the story's raison d'etre, not a peep about these key facts appear in the story.     

White males continue to rule the world; those white men who don't admit to that power differential are actively taking part in the continued oppression of all outside of that elite class.       

By the way, I looked up the author of the piece, one Duncan Greenberg. Guess where the author falls on the gender/ethnicity grid?    

(lack of acknowledging the playing field is not level) = maintaining the status quo