10 ms·

Facebook manager quit after being 'harassed' over views on diversity

70 points by allsunny 8y ago

NathanCH 8y ago
We're starting to see a backlash against cries of lack of diversity. Personally when I hear that word I just roll my eyes.
- vernie 8y ago
  That's very cool of you. Very youthful.
- toss1 8y ago
  Then you are part of the problem. Perhaps you might consider actually looking out for the struggles of other people and helping them, instead of just avoiding the uncomfortable issues.
  - NathanCH 8y ago
    I don't think it's uncomfortable. Enjoy your diversity hires...
- sgt 8y ago
  Looking at the numbers, my first thought was that it's fairly diverse as is, and apparently it's getting more diverse. 8% LGBT or trans+ is way higher than I would expect. Black employees being 4% sounds like little, but it's not exactly Facebook's fault that African Americans have been marginalized for a long time; the important thing is that they're giving everyone a chance. But that does not mean just hiring blindly if the market is not able to provide the candidates they are looking for. It's sad to hear about bullying still happening - you'd think FB culture would be beyond that. It's also worth noting that people are generally hypersensitive these days, so what is considered bullying by someone is seen as innocent by others. At some point you have to toughen up and handle some criticism and not see it as bullying (although I'm not saying that's necessarily the case here).
  - NathanCH 8y ago
    Why are you focused on gender and race? If there were 0% LGBT or 100% LGBT, it wouldn't matter. The fact that you think it matters is a problem.
- lgleason 8y ago
  [edited for typos] I am 100% for actual opportunity for all people, but sadly diversity and inclusion has become a code word today for tribalism/identifying people who have "progressive" political views and subscribe to it as a religion. When you have double standards and don't walk the walk it takes away the moral high ground. I've seen too many of the vocal Diversity and Inclusion types go after women, minorities etc. who truly grew up with every disadvantage because they do not have the correct political/ progressive pseudo religious beliefs. And when they go after these individuals, they try to destroy their career, their reputation, character etc.. Actions speak louder than words and for these types there is a big disconnect between the two.
xiphias2 8y ago
There may be lot of problems with diversity in Facebook, but you can't really be harassed on Blind: it's all about getting real raw opinions. If you don't want that, don't use Blind.
- lazyasciiart 8y ago
  Of course you can be harassed on Blind, "real raw opinions" and "harassment" are not the same thing. And "don't use Blind" doesn't really help with the knowledge that people you work with are willing to express those attitudes.
- talltimtom 8y ago
  True. It also seems rather odd to be mad at HR for not being able to find the person who posted anonymously about you on the app you specifically went on due to it being anonoumous. I mean it sucks that the world has racists, bigots, homophobes and all tons of other sorts of rubbish people. But you can’t really fault a company for the fact that they manage to get hired as long as they are dealt with when they are actually discovered. Where they supposed to ban every employee from making any kind of anonymous comments online after this case?
  - lazyasciiart 8y ago
    Who was mad at HR?
- toss1 8y ago
  Obviously, the comments on Blind are not direct harassment, as you are not expected to read them, or can obviously choose not to read them. The point is that it provides: hard data about the whispering campaign going on behind your back, the conversations from which you are excluded. that the harassment does actually exist, and is not a mere allegation by you being paranoid. that other people can go verify the hostile attitudes and expressions for themselves. provides real, externally verifiable evidence of problems at facebook, not coming merely from the famous "disgruntled ex-employee" Stop trying to minimize serious issues (and if you do want to minimize them, at least make sound points that are better than trivial sophistry, a half step up from complaining about typos).
byproxy 8y ago
Not that anyone ought to continue at a place they feel unwelcome, but if people that fall under the diverse demographic they're advocating for quit, aren't they just bolstering the status-quo they wish to disrupt? That said, according to the article's statistics diversity is continually increasing at Facebook.
deogeo 8y ago
> One where if I call out that our board has too many white men With only 1 woman on facebook's board of 9, men are considerably over-represented. But white people are not. The board has 5 non-hispanic white people, 3 jewish, and 1 black. US demographics for those groups are 60%, 1.77%, and 12.6%. This means white people are 92% represented, black 88%, and jewish 1880%.
- lazyasciiart 8y ago
  "Jewish" and "white" are not considered to be mutually exclusive. It's very odd to see that categorization. Why do you group them like that?
  - justtopost 8y ago
    How are the jewish people 'white'? Are black people white? Arabs? How are YOU drawing the line?
    - paganel 8y ago
      Most of the Ashkenazi Jews are certainly white, as in they have white skin. I’d say that even the Sephardic Jews would be considered white based on their skin color alone. But categorizing people by skin color is one of the stupidest things ever, though, as I for myself am white (as in I have white skin) while my brother is more brownish, the reason for that being that our father is white-skinned while our mother is more dark-skinned.
    - perfmode 8y ago
      Is zuckerberg white or jewish?
  - throwaway5752 8y ago
    To the point, they are orthogonal and it's an incorrect comparison (regardless of any viewpoint on diversity).
  - deogeo 8y ago
    They were treated as a separate group throughout most of Europe's history, and faced extreme prejudice and suffering because of it. Hardly seems fair to dilute their achievements and experience by lumping them under 'white'.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
- fzeroracer 8y ago
  Nice. Transphobia. Height of comedy, right here
jtms 8y ago
At what point is a workforce sufficiently diverse? Is it just a matter of “too many white males in this room - remove some of them, replace with politically acceptable demographics”? Feels like even in a diverse workplace there are always going to be people not happy about “not enough people like me here”. Do we set quotas and start passing over qualified candidates to hit them? I’m all for fixing real problems, but the target on this one seems exceptional fast moving and mired in destructive unintended consequences.
- perfmode 8y ago
  You're missing the point. There are structural problems that inhibit participation from underrepresented groups. The objective is to level the playing field so everyone has a fair chance at success. disclaimer: i am a black engineer who is tired of wasting time arguing with people who harbor views such as yours.
  - ng12 8y ago
    And what does that have to do with Facebook? If there are very few PoC software engineers, how is it your fault for not hiring enough of them? The article mentions the technical staff is 22% female which seems remarkable.
  - crowdpleaser 8y ago
    Alright, but the structural problems are upstream of recruiting and promotions. It's simply bad engineering to try to solve the problem downstream rather than at the root.
    - idrios 8y ago
      In this case, solving the problem downstream does tackle the problem at the root. A lot of people in engineering went down that path because they were inspired by someone when they were younger. If there were more women and minorities in engineering, then other (young) women and minorities would be able to see them as role models and follow suit.
ng12 8y ago
Well, what did she write? How did she "criticize the lack of diversity"? I feel like it's a non-story without detailing what she wrote and what the backlash was.
- mlindner 8y ago
  That's the key piece of information that's missing here. If you start complaining constantly about things not related to your job then yes you're going to be an earsore.
  - beaugunderson 8y ago
    part of what she wrote is in the article: > I want to spend my time at a place willing to push further on diversity and inclusion. One where it's not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn't exist. One where if I call out that our board has too many white men, I don't get harassed by other employees on Blind with transphobic messages saying I should be fired. workplace harassment is certainly related to one's job...
    - ng12 8y ago
      > One where it's not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn't exist For some reason Sillicon Valley missed out on a "golden rule" that exists everywhere else -- do not talk about personal politics at work. I don't see someone denying white privilege as a problem so much as the fact that such discussions were happening using company resources on company time.
crowdpleaser 8y ago
This headline is extremely non-specific. Wasn't James Damore also harassed over views on diversity?
protomyth 8y ago
Heck, I would like Facebook to start hiring some enrolled tribal members so we can stop seeing accounts closed for having fake names. Just an FYI to any Facebook employee, the last names Good Iron, Yellow Horse, Walking Eagle, and Flute Player are an actual family names. I would welcome some diversity when talking about your customers.
- ryanmonroe 8y ago
  Better yet, stop checking for "real" names. If I use something as a name of Facebook, it's because that's what I want to go by. What does it matter what's on my birth certificate?
  - purple_ducks 8y ago
    Even better, let users choose whatever but have _every_ user account backed by a (not publically displayed) verified government ID.
tippecanoe 8y ago
According to this article, Facebook is "still largely white." According to Facebook, in 2018 46.6% of their US staff identified as white and 41.4% identified as Asian (50.3% percent of US technical staff identify as Asian vs 42.7% who identify as white.) https://www.facebook.com/careers/diversity-report https://www.facebook.com/careers/diversity-report
- umeshunni 8y ago
  The article is just pushing an agenda - don't expect any fact checking there.
alexandercrohde 8y ago
What's the difference between going onto blind (a non-work-sponsored app as I understand) reading dumb/offensive internet opinions and going on to 4chan and reading dumb/offensive internet opinions? Was she required to use this app for her job?
- ryanmonroe 8y ago
  One difference is that Blind requires you to verify your account through your work email address. So users of Blind's Facebook section are presumably Facebook employees, while (most) 4chan users are not.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    And Blind is explicitly for workplace discussion, whereas 4chan is just a random discussion website. A useful analogy would be that one bar near your work that lots of your coworkers go to often, and end up talking about issues at work. That bar isn't officially affiliated with the company, and you don't have to ever go to said bar to nevertheless be affected by what transpires there. Except Blind has more to do with the workplace than said bar because a lot of people post to Blind from work.
staunch 8y ago
What about calling for the big tech companies to move to a blind hiring system? You wouldn't see a candidate's face, name, hear their real voice, know their educational background, what economic class they're from. You would conduct interviews over chat and voice (maybe use voice morphing software), which seems entirely plausible these days. If anything, it would probably improve the hiring of qualified people. Interviewers can penalize candidates for all kinds of irrelevant things, not just sex and gender. This would largely eliminate the very toxic problem of "diversity hires" that serve to perpetuate stereotypes. It would truly level the playing field.
ebiggs 8y ago
As somebody who's just incapable of acknowledging group-identity diversity is a thing worth respecting (though, I find individual diversity beautiful and fascinating) This was something of a rollercoaster: Oh wow, a woman headed react? That's cool. Oh wait, a trans-woman... so that's socio-cultural diversity though not biological diversity - still born a white male. Unless transgenderism isn't a choice but part of somebody's biological nature, then it is biological diversity, right? erm, is being biologically predisposed to not liking chocolate also biological diversity? Wow, how much biological diversity goes unnoticed by diversity advocates? Maybe fb is biologically diverse after all!? Isn't it cool we're all unique individuals with unique interests, although fb has mostly people who all share an interest in tech. True diversity would be to get people not interested in tech at fb.
RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y ago
>“I want to spend my time at a place willing to push further on diversity and inclusion. One where it’s not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn’t exist.” As a person of color, I would be very happy if it became policy to never use the phrase “white privilege” inside a workplace. First of all it is making a blanket statement about an entire group of people. Saying <race> <attribute> is problematic as a principle. Second, this too close for comfort to “white supremacy” for me. Both phrases describe white people as having a superiority to other races through the virtue of their whiteness. Third, the phrase alienates people and makes them defensive. Most people can agree that having an environment where everyone can achieve their best is important. However, when you use words that cast people and their families as the villains and imply that they are not as deserving of what they earned as other people, then you turn them into your enemies. I understand the phrase is trying to emphasize the historic and ongoing injustices against people of color. However, I think Trevor Noah’s phrase “black tax” is much more useful. This puts the focus on removing barriers and disadvantages, rather than on trying to remove someone’s “privilege”.
- bargl 8y ago
  If this was reddit, I'd give you gold. Well said.
- purple_ducks 8y ago
  Not being American (and not being from a European country that colonised), I think POC is misleading as people of Asian descent don't seem to be nearly as stigmatised as people of African descent.
matte_black 8y ago
It’s unfortunate that the more diverse an organization becomes the more drama it seems to invite.
peterwwillis 8y ago
Recently I was at a tech meetup event at a bar with about 30 people, and two elderly ladies were leaving. They came over to our tables and asked, "What kind of group is this that there's all these men and only one woman?" "It's a, uh... a technology meet-up." "Ah, I see!"
- ad-hominem 8y ago
  And then the whole bar erupted in applause
ariabuckles 8y ago
Sophie was the best thing to happen to React. She lead React’s adoption at the first company outside of Facebook, and single-handedly answered almost every question about React on stackoverflow for the first two years of its existence. She was the number one github contributor to and bug-fixer for React before she joined Facebook. React as we think of it today simply would not exist without Sophie. The entire front-end ecosystem would be drastically worse. It’s really sad to hear she won’t be leading the react team anymore, and worse to hear how some employees of Facebook treated her. She’s hands down the best engineer I’ve ever worked with, and also a wonderfully kind and caring person. Her leaving Facebook is a loss for the entire tech community. I hope her next endeavours treat her with the respect she deserves.
bluecalm 8y ago
She is openly racist and sexist so good riddance. Let's hope she never is in position of power again. It's interesting that those posts are always flagged on HN. Being openly racist and claiming moral high ground is increasing cultural problem. More discussion on it could be helpful.

70 points by allsunny 8y ago

We're starting to see a backlash against cries of lack of diversity. Personally when I hear that word I just roll my eyes.

vernie 8y ago
That's very cool of you. Very youthful.
toss1 8y ago
Then you are part of the problem. Perhaps you might consider actually looking out for the struggles of other people and helping them, instead of just avoiding the uncomfortable issues.
- NathanCH 8y ago
  I don't think it's uncomfortable. Enjoy your diversity hires...
sgt 8y ago
Looking at the numbers, my first thought was that it's fairly diverse as is, and apparently it's getting more diverse. 8% LGBT or trans+ is way higher than I would expect. Black employees being 4% sounds like little, but it's not exactly Facebook's fault that African Americans have been marginalized for a long time; the important thing is that they're giving everyone a chance. But that does not mean just hiring blindly if the market is not able to provide the candidates they are looking for. It's sad to hear about bullying still happening - you'd think FB culture would be beyond that. It's also worth noting that people are generally hypersensitive these days, so what is considered bullying by someone is seen as innocent by others. At some point you have to toughen up and handle some criticism and not see it as bullying (although I'm not saying that's necessarily the case here).
- NathanCH 8y ago
  Why are you focused on gender and race? If there were 0% LGBT or 100% LGBT, it wouldn't matter. The fact that you think it matters is a problem.
lgleason 8y ago
[edited for typos] I am 100% for actual opportunity for all people, but sadly diversity and inclusion has become a code word today for tribalism/identifying people who have "progressive" political views and subscribe to it as a religion. When you have double standards and don't walk the walk it takes away the moral high ground. I've seen too many of the vocal Diversity and Inclusion types go after women, minorities etc. who truly grew up with every disadvantage because they do not have the correct political/ progressive pseudo religious beliefs. And when they go after these individuals, they try to destroy their career, their reputation, character etc.. Actions speak louder than words and for these types there is a big disconnect between the two.

xiphias2 8y ago

There may be lot of problems with diversity in Facebook, but you can't really be harassed on Blind: it's all about getting real raw opinions. If you don't want that, don't use Blind.

lazyasciiart 8y ago
Of course you can be harassed on Blind, "real raw opinions" and "harassment" are not the same thing. And "don't use Blind" doesn't really help with the knowledge that people you work with are willing to express those attitudes.
talltimtom 8y ago
True. It also seems rather odd to be mad at HR for not being able to find the person who posted anonymously about you on the app you specifically went on due to it being anonoumous. I mean it sucks that the world has racists, bigots, homophobes and all tons of other sorts of rubbish people. But you can’t really fault a company for the fact that they manage to get hired as long as they are dealt with when they are actually discovered. Where they supposed to ban every employee from making any kind of anonymous comments online after this case?
- lazyasciiart 8y ago
  Who was mad at HR?
toss1 8y ago
Obviously, the comments on Blind are not direct harassment, as you are not expected to read them, or can obviously choose not to read them. The point is that it provides: hard data about the whispering campaign going on behind your back, the conversations from which you are excluded. that the harassment does actually exist, and is not a mere allegation by you being paranoid. that other people can go verify the hostile attitudes and expressions for themselves. provides real, externally verifiable evidence of problems at facebook, not coming merely from the famous "disgruntled ex-employee" Stop trying to minimize serious issues (and if you do want to minimize them, at least make sound points that are better than trivial sophistry, a half step up from complaining about typos).

byproxy 8y ago

Not that anyone ought to continue at a place they feel unwelcome, but if people that fall under the diverse demographic they're advocating for quit, aren't they just bolstering the status-quo they wish to disrupt? That said, according to the article's statistics diversity is continually increasing at Facebook.

deogeo 8y ago

> One where if I call out that our board has too many white men With only 1 woman on facebook's board of 9, men are considerably over-represented. But white people are not. The board has 5 non-hispanic white people, 3 jewish, and 1 black. US demographics for those groups are 60%, 1.77%, and 12.6%. This means white people are 92% represented, black 88%, and jewish 1880%.

lazyasciiart 8y ago
"Jewish" and "white" are not considered to be mutually exclusive. It's very odd to see that categorization. Why do you group them like that?
- justtopost 8y ago
  How are the jewish people 'white'? Are black people white? Arabs? How are YOU drawing the line?
  - paganel 8y ago
    Most of the Ashkenazi Jews are certainly white, as in they have white skin. I’d say that even the Sephardic Jews would be considered white based on their skin color alone. But categorizing people by skin color is one of the stupidest things ever, though, as I for myself am white (as in I have white skin) while my brother is more brownish, the reason for that being that our father is white-skinned while our mother is more dark-skinned.
  - perfmode 8y ago
    Is zuckerberg white or jewish?
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  To the point, they are orthogonal and it's an incorrect comparison (regardless of any viewpoint on diversity).
- deogeo 8y ago
  They were treated as a separate group throughout most of Europe's history, and faced extreme prejudice and suffering because of it. Hardly seems fair to dilute their achievements and experience by lumping them under 'white'.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

fzeroracer 8y ago
Nice. Transphobia. Height of comedy, right here

jtms 8y ago

At what point is a workforce sufficiently diverse? Is it just a matter of “too many white males in this room - remove some of them, replace with politically acceptable demographics”? Feels like even in a diverse workplace there are always going to be people not happy about “not enough people like me here”. Do we set quotas and start passing over qualified candidates to hit them? I’m all for fixing real problems, but the target on this one seems exceptional fast moving and mired in destructive unintended consequences.

perfmode 8y ago
You're missing the point. There are structural problems that inhibit participation from underrepresented groups. The objective is to level the playing field so everyone has a fair chance at success. disclaimer: i am a black engineer who is tired of wasting time arguing with people who harbor views such as yours.
- ng12 8y ago
  And what does that have to do with Facebook? If there are very few PoC software engineers, how is it your fault for not hiring enough of them? The article mentions the technical staff is 22% female which seems remarkable.
- crowdpleaser 8y ago
  Alright, but the structural problems are upstream of recruiting and promotions. It's simply bad engineering to try to solve the problem downstream rather than at the root.
  - idrios 8y ago
    In this case, solving the problem downstream does tackle the problem at the root. A lot of people in engineering went down that path because they were inspired by someone when they were younger. If there were more women and minorities in engineering, then other (young) women and minorities would be able to see them as role models and follow suit.

ng12 8y ago

Well, what did she write? How did she "criticize the lack of diversity"? I feel like it's a non-story without detailing what she wrote and what the backlash was.

mlindner 8y ago
That's the key piece of information that's missing here. If you start complaining constantly about things not related to your job then yes you're going to be an earsore.
- beaugunderson 8y ago
  part of what she wrote is in the article: > I want to spend my time at a place willing to push further on diversity and inclusion. One where it's not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn't exist. One where if I call out that our board has too many white men, I don't get harassed by other employees on Blind with transphobic messages saying I should be fired. workplace harassment is certainly related to one's job...
  - ng12 8y ago
    > One where it's not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn't exist For some reason Sillicon Valley missed out on a "golden rule" that exists everywhere else -- do not talk about personal politics at work. I don't see someone denying white privilege as a problem so much as the fact that such discussions were happening using company resources on company time.

crowdpleaser 8y ago

This headline is extremely non-specific. Wasn't James Damore also harassed over views on diversity?

protomyth 8y ago

Heck, I would like Facebook to start hiring some enrolled tribal members so we can stop seeing accounts closed for having fake names. Just an FYI to any Facebook employee, the last names Good Iron, Yellow Horse, Walking Eagle, and Flute Player are an actual family names. I would welcome some diversity when talking about your customers.

ryanmonroe 8y ago
Better yet, stop checking for "real" names. If I use something as a name of Facebook, it's because that's what I want to go by. What does it matter what's on my birth certificate?
- purple_ducks 8y ago
  Even better, let users choose whatever but have _every_ user account backed by a (not publically displayed) verified government ID.

tippecanoe 8y ago

According to this article, Facebook is "still largely white." According to Facebook, in 2018 46.6% of their US staff identified as white and 41.4% identified as Asian (50.3% percent of US technical staff identify as Asian vs 42.7% who identify as white.) https://www.facebook.com/careers/diversity-report https://www.facebook.com/careers/diversity-report

umeshunni 8y ago
The article is just pushing an agenda - don't expect any fact checking there.

alexandercrohde 8y ago

What's the difference between going onto blind (a non-work-sponsored app as I understand) reading dumb/offensive internet opinions and going on to 4chan and reading dumb/offensive internet opinions? Was she required to use this app for her job?

ryanmonroe 8y ago
One difference is that Blind requires you to verify your account through your work email address. So users of Blind's Facebook section are presumably Facebook employees, while (most) 4chan users are not.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  And Blind is explicitly for workplace discussion, whereas 4chan is just a random discussion website. A useful analogy would be that one bar near your work that lots of your coworkers go to often, and end up talking about issues at work. That bar isn't officially affiliated with the company, and you don't have to ever go to said bar to nevertheless be affected by what transpires there. Except Blind has more to do with the workplace than said bar because a lot of people post to Blind from work.

staunch 8y ago

What about calling for the big tech companies to move to a blind hiring system? You wouldn't see a candidate's face, name, hear their real voice, know their educational background, what economic class they're from. You would conduct interviews over chat and voice (maybe use voice morphing software), which seems entirely plausible these days. If anything, it would probably improve the hiring of qualified people. Interviewers can penalize candidates for all kinds of irrelevant things, not just sex and gender. This would largely eliminate the very toxic problem of "diversity hires" that serve to perpetuate stereotypes. It would truly level the playing field.

ebiggs 8y ago

As somebody who's just incapable of acknowledging group-identity diversity is a thing worth respecting (though, I find individual diversity beautiful and fascinating) This was something of a rollercoaster: Oh wow, a woman headed react? That's cool. Oh wait, a trans-woman... so that's socio-cultural diversity though not biological diversity - still born a white male. Unless transgenderism isn't a choice but part of somebody's biological nature, then it is biological diversity, right? erm, is being biologically predisposed to not liking chocolate also biological diversity? Wow, how much biological diversity goes unnoticed by diversity advocates? Maybe fb is biologically diverse after all!? Isn't it cool we're all unique individuals with unique interests, although fb has mostly people who all share an interest in tech. True diversity would be to get people not interested in tech at fb.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 8y ago

>“I want to spend my time at a place willing to push further on diversity and inclusion. One where it’s not OK to write on Workplace that white privilege doesn’t exist.” As a person of color, I would be very happy if it became policy to never use the phrase “white privilege” inside a workplace. First of all it is making a blanket statement about an entire group of people. Saying <race> <attribute> is problematic as a principle. Second, this too close for comfort to “white supremacy” for me. Both phrases describe white people as having a superiority to other races through the virtue of their whiteness. Third, the phrase alienates people and makes them defensive. Most people can agree that having an environment where everyone can achieve their best is important. However, when you use words that cast people and their families as the villains and imply that they are not as deserving of what they earned as other people, then you turn them into your enemies. I understand the phrase is trying to emphasize the historic and ongoing injustices against people of color. However, I think Trevor Noah’s phrase “black tax” is much more useful. This puts the focus on removing barriers and disadvantages, rather than on trying to remove someone’s “privilege”.

bargl 8y ago
If this was reddit, I'd give you gold. Well said.
purple_ducks 8y ago
Not being American (and not being from a European country that colonised), I think POC is misleading as people of Asian descent don't seem to be nearly as stigmatised as people of African descent.

matte_black 8y ago

It’s unfortunate that the more diverse an organization becomes the more drama it seems to invite.

peterwwillis 8y ago

Recently I was at a tech meetup event at a bar with about 30 people, and two elderly ladies were leaving. They came over to our tables and asked, "What kind of group is this that there's all these men and only one woman?" "It's a, uh... a technology meet-up." "Ah, I see!"

ad-hominem 8y ago
And then the whole bar erupted in applause

ariabuckles 8y ago

Sophie was the best thing to happen to React. She lead React’s adoption at the first company outside of Facebook, and single-handedly answered almost every question about React on stackoverflow for the first two years of its existence. She was the number one github contributor to and bug-fixer for React before she joined Facebook. React as we think of it today simply would not exist without Sophie. The entire front-end ecosystem would be drastically worse. It’s really sad to hear she won’t be leading the react team anymore, and worse to hear how some employees of Facebook treated her. She’s hands down the best engineer I’ve ever worked with, and also a wonderfully kind and caring person. Her leaving Facebook is a loss for the entire tech community. I hope her next endeavours treat her with the respect she deserves.

bluecalm 8y ago

She is openly racist and sexist so good riddance. Let's hope she never is in position of power again. It's interesting that those posts are always flagged on HN. Being openly racist and claiming moral high ground is increasing cultural problem. More discussion on it could be helpful.