[dcrn]

It's always eye-opening to see how things like this are received on HN. A private company is free to do whatever it wants, and investing in the under-served and/or minority communities does no harm to others. Sure, Apple doing this is self-serving; I don't believe that it would have been done otherwise. However, these programs will help impart useful skills, and may have the effect of allowing for more economic mobility for these communities, which is wonderful and still hurts no one. I mean, seriously, $100 million pales in comparison to the institutionalized wealth disparity between the majority white population and long-marginalized minority communities, but it's a start.

[malwrar]

It’s a start, you’re just seeing dissatisfaction at how “underserved community” is being tied to race in the context of 100mm of aid distribution. A much better indicator at least would be something approximating class or general financial opportunity. I’m totally into the idea Apple can spend their money how they want, it just bugs me no one wants to call their strategy racist.

I myself came from an underprivileged community (or at least one that was poor and not particularly mobile), and I can think of several friends growing up who were also into tech and programming like I was. None of them could afford college, and last time we talked they had just stopped pursuing tech altogether since it’s pretty hard to do without a degree. When I eventually lucked into working for a FAANG, most of the people I ended up working with came from all the good schools I never really had a chance of getting in either way, or at least largely weren’t white. There was probably still privilege specific to white males that helped along the way, but being lumped in with the billionaires and compared to a another set of large and similarly generalized non-white and/or non-male communities has always felt unjust and frustrating to me. I wish I could have ended up working with my childhood friends, maybe if they had this sort of attention things could have been different.