Many under-represented minorities (URMs) in tech quickly learn that who your manager and team-members are matters more than overall company culture. Majority people often learn this too, but non-conformance with stereotype means this lesson is often learned faster/earlier. The friction that comes with non-conformance is like any workplace friction -- It's noticed, and maybe commented on. A team with a good culture will adjust to accommodate (within reason), a bad culture will use techniques to erase the friction and increase conformance.
Some people will never be able to achieve full conformance due to visible differences. Others can get really close, so long as they edit how they present to the world. For those who can't visibly conform due to skin color, visible disability, or other reasons, sometimes conforming extra hard in other ways can make up for it. You've maybe heard these pieces of advice, if not given to you, but second-hand:
"You have to dress better than them so they take you seriously."
"You have to learn the King's English to go anywhere."
"You can't show too much skin or all they'll think of is fucking you, and not what you actually do."
"No one can tell you're in a wheelchair on Zoom."
"Learn the Christian holidays, you'll need to know the basics to get by."
"Always turn on video so they can see you're smiling."
"Never raise your voice. They can, you can't. Soon as you do, they won't respect you."
All of this paring away of yourself can be greatly reduced if your team culture, and the culture your manager builds, is good. You will spend less time working on conformance, and more on what you want to be doing. These are the people you work with most of the hours you're at work, so this is the culture that matters the most to you. This shit matters so much.
Which brings me to one of the big pathologies in tech-hiring at big companies. We all know the 20 plus hours of "phone" screens, live coding challenges, take-home tests, and six-hour marathon interview panels has some problems, but there is a thing that often happens after the candidate has already invested half a work-week trying to get a job with a specific manager/team:
We like what we see, but we think you'll be a better fit with Manager UnknownBozo as a Level 2 than Manager DudeYouKnow as a Level 3.
$138K/year, 5% bonus oppo, and $50K in stock, with a 1 year cliff and 4 year vest. You have three days to reply or we'll rescind the offer.
The old bait-and-switch. You put in all that fucking work, including several interviews with DudeYouKnow and his team, only to be told that you're going to be given to someone else you've never even heard of. Thank you ever so much for wasting my fucking time (respect for ExampleCorp drops).
Or as hiring managers like to think of it, making sure a qualified candidate doesn't get away.
No, really. That's what they think.
I really like this candidate, but they're not quite there for the team they requested. But we have open requisitions elsewhere, let's try to see if they'll accept one? We put in all that work to qualify them.
As I've gotten more senior, seen my share of team-based trauma, trauma-recovery, helped others get over their trauma, and watched URMs realize that the team I'm on is actually not a hellpit that forces compliance, I'm really feeling this right now. I'm damned picky over who will be my manager, because I've seen what bad ones do to teams. A good corporate culture is nice clue that their teams will also be mostly-nice, but the specific manager still matters more in my calculus.
For URMs this calculus happens all the time. For companies looking to improve their minority hiring, getting a reputation for bait-and-switching offers will hurt your goals. The old axiom of, "The candidate is interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them," is so true, only for URMs and senior ICs we're also interviewing the team not the company.
I'm looking to work for DudeYouKnow, who happens to work at ExampleCorp. Not ExampleCorp and DudeYouKnow if I can get him. So if I can't work for DudeYouKnow? I'm going to hate you so much and reject the offer, or insist on another round of interviews so I can re-interview the new team.