An Apple executive is being shown the exit following backlash to her remarks about diversity. The NY Post reported that Denise Young Smith, who has been the tech company’s vice president of diversity and inclusion since May, will leave at year’s end. The controversy began at the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, Colombia:
“There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blond men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation,” the inaugural diversity chief said.
“Diversity is the human experience,” she said, according to Quartz. “I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of color, or the women, or the LGBT.”
Her comments appeared to defend Apple’s overwhelmingly white and male leadership at a time when the company’s makeup is markedly uneven.
The 20-year Apple veteran, who previously served as the company’s head of worldwide human resources, later apologized for her remarks, telling the staff that they “were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it.”
“For that, I’m sorry,” she said in an email. “More importantly, I want to assure you Apple’s view and our dedication to diversity has not changed.”
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Okay—you can totally see where the Left would blow a gasket, right? I see her point though, but in the uber-liberal world of the tech industry, such remarks could get you fired. Just look at the guy who wrote that innocuous memo about diversity at Google. The tech industry might want diversity, but when it comes to certain views, well—that’s an entirely different story. And the seat of hypocrisy.
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