Your comment may have been narrowly focused on academia, but I see the same perspectives being shared about Diversity and Inclusion in our whole industry. But i

Your comment may have been narrowly focused on academia, but I see the same perspectives being shared about Diversity and Inclusion in our whole industry. But it's a problem. Literally the exact same phrasing has been used to resist removing Jim Crow laws and civil rights legislation. There was always someone could point to a black man in America that was doing just fine without any new laws. Let's start with where you're right: You're absolutely right that if you're in the top 0.1%, hell even the top 1% of any field, you will do fine. No door will remain shut. Your comparison point is one of the most esteemed humans in the history of Computing Science. A person who was awarded one of the first 6 Turing Awards (The equivalent of the Nobel Prize in our field). At that level of intellect, you could make the claim there is no discrimination. And you'd be wrong (Let's just talk about what happened to Alan Turing HIMSELF, and the discrimination he faced, in spite of the ideas that were so revolutionary they named the award after him). But let's pretend that you're right. What about the rest of the field? What about the p90 of the industry - folks who want to succeed, who want to thrive, but encounter hidden and non-hidden biases. Spend 10 minutes with any woman in STEM and you'll be filled with stories of subtle and non-subtle discrimination they encounter. Is it necessary? I think not.