CHANGE: Apple’s Diversity Chief Is Leaving After Only 6 Months.
She had irked some critics in May when she commented during a conference, “There can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blonde 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.” Her comments were seen by some as insensitive to people of color, women, and members of the LGBT community, who have long faced an uphill battle in the workplace.
Denise Young Smith later apologized for her comments, saying that they “were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it.”
“For that, I’m sorry,” she said in a staff email. “More importantly, I want to assure you Apple’s view and our dedication to diversity has not changed.”
Her sin was being honest that there’s more to diversity than skin color or sexual orientation.
UPDATE (From Ed): I’m so old, I can remember when Apple’s marketing slogan was “Think Different.”