Apple’s first vice president of inclusion and diversity, Denise Young Smith, has apologised for her statement which said it is possible for a group of white men to be diverse.
She made the comment during a summit in Bogota where she was asked if black women were a priority for her in her new role. She said that she focuses on everyone.
"I focus on everyone. Diversity is the human experience. I get a little bit frustrated when diversity or the term diversity is tagged to the people of color or the women or the LGBT or whatever because that means they’re carrying that around …because that means that we are carrying that around on our foreheads.”
“And I’ve often told people a story — there can be 12 white blue-eyed blonde men in a room and they are going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation,” she said.
Her comment on 12 white men being diverse then drew a lot of criticism online.
Now she has issued an apology saying through an email that she regrets her choice of words. Also, they were not representative of she thinks about diversity or how Apple sees it. She reassured employees that diversity includes women, people of colour and LGBTQ people among others.
Apple is not as diverse as it wants to be. Only 9 percent of its work force is black, 12 percent is Hispanic and 19 percent is Asian. A 56 percent of its workforce is white.
Like many Silicon Valley companies, Apple has been accused of being sexist and toxic. Mic magazine had even published an internal 50 page email thread from an Apple employee about how she had been treated by her male counterparts.
Smith, has been at Apple since 1997 and reports directly to chief executive Tim Cook. She was previously the vice-president of global talent and human resources.
Pic Credit: Quartz
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