We still care about the issue because it has a profound effect on mediocre software engineers of various ethnicities and with various genitals.
It’s frustrating to see, especially when somebody is discriminated against for e.g. being white, but fills “other” URM boxes that aren’t visible such as sexuality or gender identity. A well-off cis-het person with worse qualifications will be given higher priority at resume review stage than a destitute queer person just because they have the ethnicity the company is looking for.
Well, but maybe you will. Because if you’re not “diverse enough”, some more “diverse enough” person, maybe less qualified, will take your place.
It's bad for the ones who would have achieved these things on merit, but it's evidently good enough for the rest of them that (as a voting bloc) they will reliably support people who push these kinds of policies.
I think it's hard to understand when you're not part of a group that interacts this way with the political system. There's no Asian Jim Clyburn.
Talent capable of pushing the boundaries of science is extremely scarce in humans, and it makes no sense to make it artificially scarcer.
It's funny, I almost ended there but realized: I didn't even make the point that it demeans the work itself, and the people who actually can do it. And that's tantamount to acknowledging non-minority people's rights, and that is socially very dangerous thing to do right now.