A pattern in dealing with sexist incidents, for both corporations and individuals, is to donate money to a diversity-related cause. Especially when unaccompanied by an actual apology for -- or sometimes, even acknowledgment of -- the incident, this looks like a use of the offender's superior economic power to silence critics. Sometimes, the recipient of the donation is one that is not particularly challenging to the status quo and thus cannot ameliorate the harm done by the original incident.
Examples
- In January 2015, Intel announced they would donate an additional $300 million to diversity initiatives in tech and gaming. This was apparently prompted by Intel's October 2014 to cede to demands by the Gamergate coordinated harassment campaign to pull advertising from Gamasutra because they criticized gamers. However, there has not been an official statement from Intel acknowledging their actions or that they were mistaken.
- In a discussion on this wiki in February 2015, Bruce Perens insinuated that donating money to the Ada Initiative should protect his actions from criticism.
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