Hadi PartoviVerified account

Here is the @codeorg about page in 2013, our 1st year, before the first #HourofCode, same mission as today "increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color." https://web.archive.org/web/20131021042214/http://code.org/about …

Glad to see this was actually a “documented” goal however it certainly wasn’t a primary focus or highlight of your work initially because you all didn’t know how. Thus the outreach to orgs like mine and other educators of color. This happened.

We've always had a focus on diversity, our mission honestly hasn't changed. Maybe you noticed it later. And I'm also sure we reached out to anybody who had more experience for help. I personally spoke to at least 100 experts in CS and diversity in 2011-2013 to learn.

I'm writing this because I can understand that if you truly felt we changed mission to focus on diversity to "follow the money," you might resent that about us. What I'm sure has evolved is our messaging around it, as we've learned over time.

Well one correction here. One thing I’ve learned after 7 years as a founder is to focus on MY work. I have no resentment or really negative feelings of any type towards Codeorg. You all do good work.

If I have an issue at all Hadi? It’s with how “you” tell the story around this collective work around CS, it’s about you do or do not show respect for the work of other founders, and it’s how you spoke as an expert on issues on which women in this space were the actual sme’s.

This seems the heart of your concern. I agreed earlier I can do more to uplift other orgs, and that @codeorg president Alice Steinglass should do more speaking. She's not only more charismatic, she's a more authentic spokesperson on workforce gender issues.

If my responses ever come off as defensive, it's because I *feel* like you're saying only women can be the experts. But as I reflect, I think what you mean is I don't have the authentic personal experience working in tech as a woman or POC, which is true.