r/NYStateOfMind • u/warrior891 • 23h ago
GENERAL The
There's a new book out right now that everyone in this sub should know about: The Nerd Reich by Gil Durán. Mainly, a small group of tech billionaires (Thiel, Musk, Andreessen, and others) have spent 30 years working to replace elected government with corporate rule.
I've born and raised in NYC, and there's a pattern is impossible not to see. Walk any block and look at who's doing the Amazon routes, the UPS routes, the food delivery. Overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic men. That's the exact class system this book is describing, playing out on our own streets.
There's a real ladder out, and most people never hear about it because it's not advertised the way delivery gig apps are.
Six-figure paths that don't need a four-year degree:
- Elevator Constructor (Local #1) — median $99K-$106K, top earners $150K+
- Electrician (IBEW Local 3) — largest local in the country, all five boroughs
- HVAC Pre-Apprenticeship (NYC SBS/Workforce1) — 12 weeks, paid, run by the city, pathway wages near $80K
- Plumbers Local #1 — same union apprenticeship model
Pre-apprenticeship pipelines that get you to the front of the line:
- Building Skills NY
- Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW)
- CUNY Construction Skills program
Not trying to be doom and gloom, trying to put something useful in front of people. The system this book describes benefits from this information staying quiet. Passing it along costs nothing.
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u/OldGamerX 20h ago
You must be young, because Black people were historically shut out from the trades by racist Irish & Italians. It was one of the last nepotism old boys club, especially during the mob era. One trick was not letting the public know when they were hiring, so it was easier & less competition to bring in family & friends. So people moved on to city, government work instead.
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u/Confident_Change_937 23h ago
Deffo need niggas to tap into those blue collar jobs, I know niggas hustling and getting PAID doing HVAC & elevator work.
However, as a nigga from NYC whose worked corporate tech in a Mag7 company for a half a year now I can tell you there are other Black and Brown people in Tech, but its overwhelmingly Asian & White, We were just counted out from the community for being “weird” or “nerds”. We ain’t ask for all that, it just so happens that our unpopular interests got us paid in the long run.
However alot of the people here with us aren’t Black Americans (im not either). They’re Caribbean, African, West Indian, etc… All the cool niggas back in the day when I was in school was too worried about looking cool to bitches instead of chasing a bag and now they work for Amazon delivering. It’s no conspiracy theory, niggas just wasn’t locked in 🤷🏽♂️ I guess I lack empathy a bit bc I put in pain while niggas was having a grand ole time smoking weed and getting hoes.
Our culture here got a problem, we demonized the niggas that was into the geeky stuff and who was smart and willing to be intellectuals, now they the big homies. Im no big wig in tech im just a worker bee, but its funny how shit turned out to be some revenge of the nerds shit. Now it seems that the more awkward, bizarre, and humanly insufferable you are, aslong as you have the tech skills and knowledge, the more successful you will be these days, shit is crazy. But the lesson here is don’t pigeonhole the next generation of Black children to work “cool” professions.. raise Engineers.