Apple’s head of diversity Denise Young Smith has apologized for comments she made at a conference in Bogota in which she suggested that “there can be 12 white, blue-eyed, blonde men in a room and they’re going to be diverse too because they’re going to bring a different life experience and life perspective to the conversation.”
In her apology email, Smith said, “I regret the choice of words I used to make this point. I understand why some people took offense. My comments were not representative of how I think about diversity or how Apple sees it. For that, I’m sorry.”
Apple’s performance on key diversity metrics has not improved since 2015.