There used to be severe amounts of antisemitism in this country. Even as late as 1997 Donald Trump sued so that Jews and blacks could attend country clubs in Palm Springs.
Richard Feynman wanted to attend Columbia University but was turned away because of the Jewish Quota.
But even with the antisemitism there were always firms who ignored the prejudice and hired on the basis of merit where merit was important. There were never diversity programs.
I believe there are firms in tech and other firms that need good computer tech that hire on the basis of merit and could care less the sex or color of skin of the individual. Who would want to work in a firm that isn't merit based anyway?
But even with the antisemitism there were always firms who ignored the prejudice and hired on the basis of merit where merit was important. There were never diversity programs.
And there were and still are plenty of firms which didn't/don't hire based on merit. Your argument here is basically "oh well, let's just sweep that under the rug and be hopeful that in the future it'll get better". Diversity programs are about taking the norms of the future and starting to implement them now, because telling people to wait another generation, or another century, for the discrimination against them to fade away naturally is not a great thing to do.
Someone who is highly competent, is deserving of merit, never want to work for a firm that doesn't hire on the basis of merit. So those firms that don't hire on the basis of merit are turning these people away. There is a shortage of people with competence and merit in computing, so that person will find a job and with a firm who values that person for their abilities.
Just as the case with antisemitism, no need for diversity programs. Physics Nobelist Richard Feynman was turned away from Columbia University because of the Jewish Quota. He went to MIT instead. MIT wanted someone like him and didn't care whether he was Jewish or not. The fact that MIT accepted him and Columbia did not demonstrated that MIT was the better school.
In a world where every market participant was perfectly informed and perfectly rational, and always acted in perfectly enlightened long-term self-interest, then you might have an argument.
We do not live in such a world. Your Feynman anecdote is a rare exception rather than a norm. Tech companies and software engineers will give up their racial and gender biases only when absolutely forced to, and at the moment nothing in the market is forcing them to -- you might not become the most profitable company in the world, but you can have major bias and still do well enough that it's simply not perceived as a problem for the companies which do it.
I agree! Unfortunately, right now there's quite a bit of evidence that we hire based on skin color and sex, disregarding merit. Let's fix that.