A friend of mine said something that'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

It'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've slowly watched as these same employees have become disillusioned. We've watched their frustration as their internal efforts have been blocked. Rather than being welcomed and empowered, they've been abused, retaliated against, and pushed out.

I went through my own journey of learning these harsh lessons. I don't regret it at all, but I do have more clarity today. "Companies" don'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'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't sleep on this. Some of y'all are still not understanding how this works. These companies have made it someone's *job* to capitalize off this movement. Including exploiting employees. But most of the time it's just PR. Smoke and mirrors. https://twitter.com/CoralineAda/status/1194702830495510529?s=20

But this is what'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

Let me reiterate my point. These companies are mad that they'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's why I'm quitting" blog posts, there were the "here's why I'm excited to join" blog posts. Go look. They'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'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't get me wrong. I'm not telling anyone that they shouldn'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't ready for what it was actually going to take.