Here's the thing. Any white man who actually understands the problems with diversity in tech would also understand the problem with making themselves the face of it.

It's actually not that hard to see the signals of why people aren't ready for this work.
What's harder to see us why those white men can also raise $50MM when those who aren't white men cannot. More people need to understand that there are people who will put real money behind *sabotaging* diversity efforts.
There are a lot of people who have a vested interest in turning diversity efforts into window dressing and bullshit. They want to dilute the real work until it dies. And they will do that by pumping up people who will be ineffectual and ruin credibility in this space.
Having these white dudes fumble around and fuck things up after getting all this money and press does more to damage to these efforts than you can imagine. And I guarantee you there are people who were part of this deal who are well aware of that.

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More from @polotek

17 Sep
The idea of inheritance has been on my mind a lot lately. It’s pretty obvious that having a child reconfigures your priorities. It’s difficult to convey what it feels like to know if you died tomorrow she would be okay for at least a while.
I have a vivid memory of talking to my father in law on his 50th Birthday. We threw him a party, and everybody was asking him how it feels. He was pensive about it. Then he said “I’m not sure. To be honest I never thought I’d make it to 50.”

As a Black man, I felt that deeply.
Ever since then, I have been on a journey to stretch myself into being able to think longer term. I’ve learned a lot about the difference between people who grow up with money and safety vs people who don’t. It has so many effects. This is one of more subtle ones.
Read 5 tweets
16 Sep
I have talked a lot about how Whiteness resists examination. It does not allow us to talk about it in a way where we can start to understand it's qualities.

I believe one of the reasons for that is that it has scammery at it's core.
There is a growing conversation about the meaning of American freedom. In a very real way, it's about the freedoms to harm others.

This is still coming together for me. I keep telling y'all that I'm a poor student of history. But it makes sense with everything I see.
I've been talking to @operaqueenie a lot about what we see in the world since Trump emerged. One of the things that is clear is Trump declared that it's scamming season. This environment is filthy with people trying to take advantage of others.
Read 12 tweets
10 Sep
Sure. But in order to do that, I should unpack New Bullshit just a little. I sometimes speak in memes because I wanna be one of the cool kids. But the context matters here.
When I refer to New Bullshit at new jobs, it's mostly about adapting to change. Humans are highly adaptable. But we go through periods of stress and frustration whenever we have to change. Switching jobs brings a huge amount of change that it takes time to adjust to.
There is a lot of uncertainty that comes with the change. It's one thing to know a change is coming and try to find ways to prepare for it. But when you go into a new job, you can't really be prepared for a lot of the changes. You don't know until you're in it.
Read 7 tweets
10 Sep
This is a great thread. Not because I agree with everything in it. I don’t actually. It’s great because it gives more context on how to think about various important career decisions. It’s important to develop a perspective on how you think about your career moves.
It’s worth acknowledging that Corey is a white guy. So all of his advice should be viewed through that lens. There are certain kinds of career challenges that he just doesn’t have. And it affects how he makes decisions. I believe he’s more self-aware than most about that reality.
In most cases, I agree with the core point, but I would add more nuance.

For example, are you making your manager’s life more difficult by quitting? Yes.
Should they hold that against you personally? No.
Will the company be okay? Almost certainly yes.
Read 15 tweets
9 Sep
People find this thread again about once a month. It brings a new wave of Black people saying "yep" and white people getting mad and calling me "the real racist".
That's not surprising. What I always find amusing is the white people who show up loud and angry, but also want to paint me as the "close-minded" one. Thousands of Black people talking about our experience is "insanity". Because Whiteness is rightness.
Also, every single time white people find this thread and get mad, not one person actually asks me what "real talk" means. Even though I did the courtesy of putting it in quotes to signal that we're probably talking about something more than just the literal words.
Read 6 tweets
8 Sep
So many people fancy themselves some kind of "giant slayer" on here. Treating people with "big megaphones" like targets that need to be taken down a notch whenever they say something you disagree with. People need to get a handle on what this environment is doing to them.
I've gone through a lot of different phases in my relationship with twitter. There have been several occasions where I had to step back from the edge because I was doing way too much. This place turns good people into assholes without them even understanding what they've become.
When people get put on blast, they almost always accuse me of being "obsessed". They wanna do their dirt in replies where they think only a few people will see. When you shine a light, all of a sudden you're being mean to them.
Read 6 tweets

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