Hi Freada,

Having spent a decade working and flourishing in Silicon Valley — Apple most notably — I struggle to see how any these ideas will do much to drive significant change. I want to. I just don’t believe it.

Brown faces are few and far between here because the US is deeply segregated. In fact I now — sadly — believe we are more segregated then when I was born.

I was lucky. The friends I made in CS grad school morphed into co-workers at Apple. Morphed into a loose network of fellow computer graphics nerds across the Valley. For most black/brown kids interested in CS this scenario will never take place because of de facto educational apartheid.

Canonical pattern repeated across the US every day: Software company. White hiring manager (man or woman, makes no difference) sitting across the table from a black/brown candidate. For the hiring manager this is the first time in her life she has had a technical discussion with someone who is her intellectual peer who is black/brown. She is quietly freaking out. The candidate is screwed.

Freada, no amount of policy changes, legal framework changes, etc. will change this pathetic scenario.

Note: I think conflating sexism in tech with race/segregation issues is not helpful. Very different dynamics.