Today, Business Insider fired their Chief Technology Officer. The only question is why it took so damn long.
Late yesterday, Valleywag posted an article showing some "highlights" of Pax Dickinson's Twitter feed over the years. Key tweets from that article:
aw, you can't feed your family on minimum wage? well who told you to start a fucking family when your skills are only worth minimum wage?
— Pax Dickinson (@paxdickinson) August 29, 2013
feminism in tech remains the champion topic for my block list. my finger is getting tired.
— Pax Dickinson (@paxdickinson) September 9, 2013
Who has more dedication, ambition, and drive? Kobe only raped one girl, Lebron raped an entire city. +1 for Lebron.
— Pax Dickinson (@paxdickinson) July 13, 2010
Please note that there are some much more offensive tweets at the article.
Following the story, Anil Dash, a well-respected blogger and cofounder of ThinkUp, as well as the founder of Expert Labs, fired off a great tweet:
Wow, didn't realize @businessinsider hired such an asshole in @paxdickson. Getting memcahce to build made him an expert on misogyny!
Pax has been an asshole for years. Go through his Twitter account and
even his comments at Business Insider's website. When such filth is tolerated for so long, it's no wonder we start to see amazing, heart-breaking letters
such as this one. It's a gripping story of a young lady in high school suffering the same misogynistic attitude that Pax was allowed to publicly push for years:
...my daughter emailed to tell me that the boys in her class were harassing her. "They told me to get in the kitchen and make them sandwiches," she said. I was painfully reminded of the anonymous men boys who left comments on a Linux Pro Magazine blog post I wrote a few years ago, saying the exact same thing.
(snip)
For her entire life, I'd encouraged my daughter to explore computer programming. I told her about the cool projects, the amazing career potential, the grants and programs to help girls and women get started, the wonderful people she'd get to work with, and the demand for diversity in IT. I took her with me to tech conferences and introduced her to some of the brightest, most inspiring and encouraging women and men I've ever met.
Sadly, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and you, sir, created a horrible one for girls in computer programming.
Did you not see her enthusiasm turn into a dark cloud during the semester? Did you not notice when she quit laughing with and helping her classmates, and instead quickly finished her assignments and buried her nose in a book? What exactly were you doing when you were supposed to be supervising the class and teaching our future programmers?
Pax has no place in a prominent position, and I'm glad to see he was fired. I'm disappointed that it took so long.
With a booming technology field, and constant advances in technology, we need more women in the field. Pax has encouraged, fostered, and taught the attitudes and sentiments that will keep women as far as from the field as possible. My heart breaks for the young ladies that are turned away from their dreams over such attitudes.
Rec List? The standards have slipped!
Thanks all.