Note that not everything was a misunderstanding on Jeff's end, just the early stuff before she was fired, which Timnit did not know. To be honest, I don't think Timnit would even believe that now. It's maybe one place where I diverge from her on this. She would find what I wrote about Jeff way too charitable. Her view is valid and is one of the reasons I rarely discuss this in public anymore, because it's hard for me to do so and not emotionally want to defend Jeff, and it's hard to defend Jeff on just the things I believe he ought to be defended for and still hold him accountable, and not gaslight Timnit or minimize what she went through. I probably messed up somehow above too.

It's hard to believe sometimes that someone so smart in some ways can miss such obvious signals. It took a long time for me to come to that conclusion and to understand, and I'm still very upset with how Jeff reacted.

These are all people though, they make mistakes, Timnit included. The way she was treated is still not at all OK, and sometimes when we are in positions of power like Jeff we still hold responsibility for our mistakes. Even if Jeff genuinely misunderstood, he should have apologized for his role and moved to repair harm, rather than reinforcing and exacerbating harm in his public response.

I won't say anything else about Jeff in public. I did try to help minimize damage and pain in all directions. It was painful and exhausting and not very fruitful.

(Also sorry but who are you? Just because you addressed me by name and it feels weird when that happens unless I know who is talking to me.)