Apple Diversity Chief Who Said Whites Can Be Diverse Out After Outcry

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Nov. 19, 2017

Apple's Vice President of Inclusion and Diversity, Denise Young Smith, who was forced to apologize last month for saying a group of "blue-eyed blonde men" can be diverse, stepped down from her job after only six months and announced she's leaving the company after 20 years.

"Diversity is the human experience," Smith said in early October at the One Young World Summit in Bogota, Colombia. "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."

"There can be 12 white blue-eyed blonde men in a room and they are going to be diverse too because they're going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation," Smith said.

Though her comments were well received by many, race-hustlers were outraged and demanded her resignation.

"I regret the choice of words I used to make this point. I understand why some people took offense," Smith said in an internal memo on October 13th. "My comments were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it. For that, I'm sorry."

Christie Smith, a white woman who we can be sure will not make the same "mistake," will be taking Young's place, TechCrunch reported Thursday.

"We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation," an Apple spokesman said in a statement to TechCrunch. "We're thrilled to welcome an accomplished leader like Christie Smith to help us continue the progress we've made toward a more diverse workplace."

To quote from the top commenter at TechCrunch: "Be a real shame if they just hired people based on merits rather than just picking people based on race or sex..."

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