why stanford As Stanford students, we occupy a position in an institution of higher learning that allows us to produce knowledge that is considered legitimate and holds influence over the broader cultural and economic conversation. In other words, we have social influence due to our place at this university, as well as economic resources due to Stanford’s connection with Silicon Valley. We seek to use our position to elevate the voices of marginalised communities organising against the racist tech pipeline, as well as to disrupt the culture of complicity present in tech conversations and practices. Stanford’s complicity in border violence is not new. Leland Stanford, a robber baron and railroad tycoon, founded the university. This act was made possible only by the genocide of indigenous people and the exploitation of workers. Without displacing the Muwekma Ohlone people who lived where we now call Palo Alto and Stanford, there would be no land to build Stanford on. Only by stealing the land of the Ohlone as a settler colonial project was it possible to found the university. Furthermore, the actual construction of the buildings that make up Stanford was done by Chinese workers and servants.16 Although Leland Stanford imported many numbers of Chinese workers to build both his railroads and his university17, he publicly stated his anti-Chinese views. He believed that Chinese people were an “inferior race” whose immigration must be “discouraged”16 — despite himself being a white settler on land that did not belong to him. Without Stanford, Silicon Valley as we know it would not exist. Stanford has played a crucial role in the formation of tech companies and Silicon Valley, providing land in the Stanford Research Park since the early 1950s. Even before the Vietnam War protests in the 1960s, Stanford researchers had contracts with the military, and there was a Department of Defenseaffiliated Stanford Research Institute.18 Although a student-led movement called the April 3rd Movement19 succeeded in reducing Stanford’s military connections, in 2013 many policies were reversed. Now, defense contractors have an increasing presence at career fairs, including Lockheed Martin, the Air Force, and Marine Corps.18 In addition to profiting from the military industrial complex, Stanford directly feeds into the entrepreneurial tech industry of Silicon Valley. Since 2013, Stanford invests in its own student’s companies, just like a venture capital firm.20 StartX is an organisation that connects entrepreneurs, early startups, and tenured professors, most of whom are millionaires or billionaires.21
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