I don't know if that's the intention nor the message this generates. It's easy and popular amongst tech folks to say "Why don't we just take the best?" or "Let'

I don't know if that's the intention nor the message this generates. It's easy and popular amongst tech folks to say "Why don't we just take the best?" or "Let's make it based on merit". The reality is that Silicon Valley, like much of the world, has its biases and faults. Statistically speaking, we don't have enough women or black people building and leading tech companies. Just compare the percentage of female and black students at Ivy League institutions with the percentage in tech. Racism and sexism might explain some of that, but pattern recognition also plays a major factor. Many hiring managers / VCs have had success in the past with a particular type of engineer / entrepreneur and, whether or not its a conscious decision, make choices influenced by that experience. Y Combinator and others in taking a stance in supporting women and black entrepreneurs are not doing it out of pity or niceness. They recognize the existence of bias on race and sex, which should have nothing to do with how successful an entrepreneur should be, and are trying to correct it. They stand to gain a competitive advantage if they are able to remove bias from their investment decisions, and they can make a real impact on the valley. Kudos to them.