I'm not a Woman in Tech
I learned long ago that as an Asian(not White, but...) male working in technology, you are not to express your honest thought on issues with a designated "victim" class, unless you're a part of the class. Words have consequences and you can't share your intent with a toneless text. Not only are you easy to be misunderstood, but oftentimes inadvertently insult. No, not everyone is thin-skinned or "snowflake" as a denigrating term, but <i>non-zero</i> are.  I think many people learned this when Adria Richards got two engineers fired at the PyCon on an inoffensive(subjective) joke.<p>Nowadays, I self-censor more than ever. I've seen friends, people in my networks, or people two-degrees-apart getting torn apart by expressing their opinion. I don't want to waste the lessons I've learned in proxy. I find myself either avoid getting in the situation with "dangerous"(i.e., the "marginalized" group) people, or prefer people I trust when working with important/interesting project.(you can read <i>high-profile</i> instead). I may be stymying the junior developer girl's success by not giving her the opportunities she deserves by preferring "the guys" over her.<p>Am I a part of the problem? Based on the lambastings on sexism in tech, I guess I am. In fact, I know I'm perpetuating the diversity problem, and I should be more inclusive. Of course, I do not harass and work professionally, but the risk is just too high. Despite low likelihood, the risk of being misunderstood just <i>once</i> is too high. The optimal strategy is to protect myself by eliminating any potential situation as much as I can.<p>My only cowardly push-back is that I don't participate in "Asian-only" event, or the ilk that promotes exclusivity in the name of diversity, lest I perpetuate the issue.<p>Even in HN where I've been active for half of decade I couldn't comment on my original account.<p>Kudos to Maria(OP) with her expressions. I just wish I were as brave.