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> A butler has always been a person of authority, expertise, and responsibility. Why "houseboy"? Because he's Asian?

facepalm

The author describes Marc Andreessen's Gilded Age slash Roaring 20s lifestyle and attitudes, and then suggests that a hundred years ago, this person may have been referred to as "houseboy".

Marc Andreessen is the hypothetical person from a hundred years ago. It's a scathing criticism of Marc Andreessen.

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Yes, I took all that from the article as well, which after all is not so subtle. Implying that Andreessen would have been a British Empire-style racist is indeed a scathing criticism.

But a hundred years ago, a houseboy and a butler were still very different people. To say that a hundred years ago this highly competent professional would have been a houseboy is, in effect, to call him one now: a no less scathing (and unintended) criticism of the butler.

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