Nicole, I cannot thank you enough for writing this. Sometimes it’s so hard to articulate the issue around diversity and inclusion in the tech industry because people get so caught up in trying to account for data and percentages instead of actually listening and hearing what’s happening from the people who are most negatively impacted.

I myself integrated my fraternity at the University of Texas at Austin (a 100-year-old chapter) and experienced quite a bit of friction during my pledge process, but ultimately was able to make it through and have forged some lifelong friendships out of it. I actually met one of my lead investors at the wedding of one of my white fraternity brothers, but I have a feeling this story would not have been possible had I attended college in the 1960s as your father had or perhaps even in the ‘70s or ‘80s.

Stories like yours (and your father’s) need to continue being posted, recommended, shared, told, tweeted, Facebooked, etc. until people truly begin to grasp the extent by which the tech industry would be better off, more prolific, more beneficial to society, and solve bigger problems with greater diversity and inclusion. Again, thank you.