I just interviewed and gave a thumbs-up to a Black programmer. I didn’t inquire about his politics, not relevant. In my 40 years in the software business I hav

I just interviewed and gave a thumbs-up to a Black programmer. I didn’t inquire about his politics, not relevant. In my 40 years in the software business I have worked with quite a few Black programmers and technical managers, but they do seem under-represented. Women were more common in my workplaces until the mid-80s, then seemed to disappear for some reason. Until recently it seemed understood that the workplace was not the forum for airing political or religious views, so I probably worked with people I’m not particularly aligned with on those issues, but we didn’t conflict because it didn’t come up at work. I did have to fire a conservative programmer once because he insisted on bringing a handgun into the office, asserting his rights. Management (and I, and his other co-workers) did not agree. He had vocally expressed his conservative views at every opportunity but no one seemed to care until he armed himself at work.