Adrianna Tan

RE: https://mastodon.art/@petrikas/116125821528139989

Middle class kids like me can get one throw every decade maybe. I’m about to throw a dart again.

I’m aware lots of things had to have happened for me to even be able to do this. Primarily that my parents without college degrees experienced a once in a lifetime economic growth story in a country that suddenly became rich in their lifetimes. And that I have a passport that lets me go anywhere i want.

Feb 24 at 5:59pmWeb
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24

And unlike many other middle class kids in my country with almost exactly the same life and financial situation, I also have more darts because

Not having to be financially responsible for my parents (because they are economically comfortable without me) is a huge gift they gave me. I give them money for fun but it’s not like many of my friends who have to keep their own family and their parents and siblings fed.

Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
I also went to schools surrounded by people with lots of darts and have learned that I can take theirs sometimes. Many of my classmates even owned dart factories.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
I also had parents who told me I deserve to have as many darts as I want, which is also exceptionally rare for an autistic and female presenting person in my society.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
Also I grew up Chinese in a society where that basically makes me white. In many ways. It would be very different somewhere else. I had no qualms asking people for money at any point in my life including when I was young and relatively inexperienced.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
Many in Asian societies are part of the 'sandwich generation' where they have to provide for their children AND their parents / uncles / aunts.
Show threadjohn.brown_typefaceFeb 24
@skinnylatte
bánh mì familia
Show threadCamiloFeb 24
@skinnylatte this does seem to be happening to every country that felt the baby boom after ww2
Show threadDaniel ReedersFeb 24
@skinnylatte Oh, super intrigued to hear you say that confidence in asking for money is a white people thing. Made me reflect on my upbringing which was 'aspiring middle class' i.e. educated but very poor. We didn't talk about money at all, and when I started to specialise in program design and funding applications I had to work through A LOT of yucky feelings about asking for money. I was 'working the fairground' to use your striking metaphor.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
@onekind oh not a specifically white person thing, more of a 'it's not out of the ordinary for someone like me to ask for money if i want to no matter what i feel about it'
Show threadDaniel ReedersFeb 24
@skinnylatte Ohh got it! So a level of familiarity with capital flows and mechanisms?
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
@onekind that and people not questioning your competence because you are not a racial minority
Show threadDaniel ReedersFeb 24
@skinnylatte Yep, got it. Without disagreeing with your overall take, I note that as recently as my mother's early career, her Irish Catholicism was seen as a marker of being not quite white. 'Micks' couldn't get jobs at the tax office, for example, because of the stereotype they are not good with money. I actually suspect it was racism towards non-white skilled migrants that finally consolidated the Micks and the Prods into one single 'white' category in the eyes of the employment market.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24

@onekind yeah, I’m certain there are varying levels of whiteness, and also poor white people’s experiences are different.

But it is also hard for someone not Chinese in Singapore or any kind of white most other places to get a certain sort of competence ascribed to them by default

Show threadLa GuiriFeb 24

@onekind let me add another layer: in a lot of places, to "play darts" you need to "pay the entrance ticket for the fair". So that way you get, for example people
who can't afford to study
studying on a loan because they don't have every requisite for a scholarship
on a scholarship
Paying full tuition without much problem.

So many systems are "you pay half and the system pays the other half". Subsidies to buy cars. Tax breaks for mortgages. And so on. There are SO MANY things you don't access if you can't cover your half.

@skinnylatte

Show threadDaniel ReedersFeb 24

@laguiri @skinnylatte vouchers *shudder*

A very American way of giving the middle class extra darts

Show threadPetrikasFeb 24

@skinnylatte I have utmost respect for people who can recognize and understand their "starting point". Similarly, while I didn't get many darts, I was under no pressure to hit or miss, since I always had the safetynet of "I can always come back to live with my parents". That alone is like unlimited darts in itself, that not all people have "by default".

So I never had the weight of "If I miss - I'm homeless" weight on my shoulders.

Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
@petrikas yeah same
Show threadHumToTableFeb 24
@skinnylatte One can really expand on this whole dart dealio. Cishet women can sometimes pick up a male partner's unused dart.
Show threadzbrownFeb 24
@HumToTable @skinnylatte but also he might outright steal her darts, and be encouraged to do so
Show threadHumToTableFeb 24
@skinnylatte @zbrown Oh yeah.
Show threadSally LaitFeb 24
@skinnylatte For some reason I saw this post first and was pretty confused until I got to the top of the thread, haha 😆
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
@sally could have been more fun
Show threadAlex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKFeb 24
@skinnylatte @sally I had thought at first it was about actual darts, as I know a lesbian dart player (she used to work in same office as me), its a sport taken quite seriously here in Britain due to our pub culture and decent darts (especially the flight bits) are surprisingly expensive and have to be specially ordered..
Show threadEsparta Feb 24

@skinnylatte

> Poor kids aren't visiting the carnival. They're the one working it

should we told them the ones working on the fair/carnival are not only poor, they are also (usually) exploited immigrants on H-2B visas?

Show threadEric BonoFeb 24

@skinnylatte

My problem was I didn't realize I was on the livestock maintenance crew at the carnival

Show threadHuubjeFeb 24
@skinnylatte this one hits home. People usually don't register staff
Show threadEric McCorkleFeb 24

@skinnylatte

That take is spot on. Also, I hope your dart lands.

Show threadJoe Cooper 🇺🇦 🍉Feb 24
@skinnylatte yep, I'm from working class roots. I got lucky in the stock market during the first tech boom which funded my first throw. Then I got into Y Combinator, which helped with a second (though it was back when Y Combinator invested a laughably small amount of money). After nearly a decade working a regular tech job, maybe I can take another throw...but, now I'm old enough to need good health insurance and a retirement account, so the risk is higher.
Show threadJoe Cooper 🇺🇦 🍉Feb 24
@skinnylatte but, also, it took me years to begin to understand how wealth moves. If you go to Stanford, you're already rubbing elbows with the money people at 22. If you go to community college, you're...not. You're just so much more likely to succeed on your first throw when your dart is accelerated by a huge sum of money from connected investors.
Show threadStrider Uwe 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽Feb 24
@skinnylatte Good luck & success with your next dart throw!
Show threadShafik YaghmourFeb 24

@skinnylatte

I want to one of the NYC technical high schools and going back for reunions is very eye opening.

You have some of what were the brightest tech kids in NYC and most of them are doing ok but they are mostly middle class working very hard.

I feel like reading "Fooled by Randomness" was such an revelatory book for me. Realizing that probably most big success is actually just luck.

When he figured out that by including all the failed portfolio managers in the tables their performance as an industry was basically a coin flip.

Once you see that, it is hard to look at success the same way.

Show threadM.Feb 24
@skinnylatte Well written! So what is the solution to this problem?
Show threadFlipper 🐬🏳️‍🌈Feb 24
@skinnylatte good luck with your dart.
Show threadDanny Jay DonnellFeb 24
@skinnylatte this is a very odd framing to me. It implies that wealth comes from starting a business, I.e. throwing a dart. It's rather straightforward to build wealth by going to college, getting a decent gig in corporate America, starting to invest wisely at an early age, then climbing the corporate ladder. I say this as someone who grew up poor by American standards where no one in my immediate family finished high school, including my younger siblings.
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 24
@ddonnell I get what you’re saying, but that crowd is talking about generational wealth, though. Also, that corporate ladder is quickly being pulled up for most folks. Not saying that entrepreneurship is any easier for minorities, but it is frustratingly difficult to land a stable and long term corporate role these days.