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The problem is, you're asking her to choose: techie, black woman, white man or gay man. She's spent a career trying to pass for a 'techie' in a world where everybody wants to assume she's a 'black woman'. In a world where being a 'techie' means wearing t-shirts and jeans, playing FPS's, going out for beers, and basically being a white guy. So yes - she could be a 'techie' - but that means she doesn't get to be a black woman.

Diversity doesn't mean 'we let anybody wear a polo shirt and come along to our beer socials'.



I think you may have misunderstood the parent. The suggestion is to not choose a label.


Society stamps that label on your forehead. Down to gendered pronouns, which means everyone's communicating your gender label, no matter how irrelevant it is. (Not to mention violent attacks.)


I agree that "avoid labels and be yourself" naively ignores societal realities. I was just trying to clarify what looked like a misunderstanding.




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