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A friend of mine said something that& #39;s really sitting with me.
Github and a bunch of other companies spent years building a *brand* off pretending to care about diversity, equity and inclusion. Now the people they hired are holding them accountable. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjwwp/as-githubs-conference-begins-five-employees-resign-over-protest-ice-contract">https://www.vice.com/en_us/art...
Github and a bunch of other companies spent years building a *brand* off pretending to care about diversity, equity and inclusion. Now the people they hired are holding them accountable. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evjwwp/as-githubs-conference-begins-five-employees-resign-over-protest-ice-contract">https://www.vice.com/en_us/art...
It& #39;s as infuriating as it is predictable. These companies have long been co-opting DEI as a branding exercise rather than a real commitment to change. And they have profited from it as they hired people who were more loyal and more engaged based on these principles.
But we& #39;ve slowly watched as these same employees have become disillusioned. We& #39;ve watched their frustration as their internal efforts have been blocked. Rather than being welcomed and empowered, they& #39;ve been abused, retaliated against, and pushed out.
I went through my own journey of learning these harsh lessons. I don& #39;t regret it at all, but I do have more clarity today. "Companies" don& #39;t have principles. People do. DEI efforts have to centered around *people*, and continually influencing them to do the right thing.
Github got acquired. There are new people in charge. And they don& #39;t give a fuck about maintaining the good will that was gifted to the company through the efforts of many individuals in the past few years.
Don& #39;t sleep on this. Some of y& #39;all are still not understanding how this works. These companies have made it someone& #39;s *job* to capitalize off this movement. Including exploiting employees. But most of the time it& #39;s just PR. Smoke and mirrors. https://twitter.com/CoralineAda/status/1194702830495510529?s=20">https://twitter.com/CoralineA...
But this is what& #39;s real. These companies have always shown what they care about. You just have to be paying attention. https://mobile.twitter.com/Pinboard/status/1190018795873681417">https://mobile.twitter.com/Pinboard/...
Let me reiterate my point. These companies are mad that they& #39;re getting protested and people are walking out. But they *signed up* for this. They built their *brand* around hiring people with principles who stated *explicitly* that their goal was to hold the company accountable.
Before all the "here& #39;s why I& #39;m quitting" blog posts, there were the "here& #39;s why I& #39;m excited to join" blog posts. Go look. They& #39;re still there. I know for a fact these folks asked lots of questions and made it clear what they cared about before joining.
I know for a fact that it was someone& #39;s job to tell these folks exactly what they wanted to hear. Not because the company had made a commitment. But because the somebody had recruiting goals to meet. For the last few years, DEI is how you stayed competitive in the hiring market.
Don& #39;t get me wrong. I& #39;m not telling anyone that they shouldn& #39;t have joined these companies. Most of us tried to go into it with our eyes open. We knew there was *work* to do to improve things. We signed up willingly to be part of making a change. That was the right thing.
The real question is whether there ever any consistency to those goals among the leaders of these companies. Did *they* actually care? The truth is that even if they told themselves they cared, they weren& #39;t ready for what it was actually going to take.
