If YC partner selection is anything like YC founder selection the data says YC is for white and asian men who went to Stanford or Harvard, with few exceptions. YC partners, being only human, will tend to be biased in favor of people who are like them.
I'm pretty sure YC has not published any background diversity numbers. It would be good for the world if you did but I doubt you would find it flattering. I think this issue is just an understandable blind spot for you.
(TLDR; YC has published diversity numbers - see references. It might be useful for you to read some of the YC essays to understand what they look for.)
Note that originally YC was based around the idea of funding college students to try a startup instead of an internship over their semester break. At that point it was physically based near MIT & Harvard, with a winter (?) campus near Stanford.
As you'd expect, early intakes were dominated by people from those places (ie, mostly white and asian males who attended MIT, Harvard and Stanford). Also as you'd expect, success takes time, and so we are seeing those early successes moving into roles within YC.
I agree that increasing diversity of the YC partners, but it is important to understand the reasons why it is like that currently.
I think it is excellent that YC is aware of this problem, and is taking steps to correct it amongst the companies they fund[1][2].
I don't see it as a "look at the data" thing I see it as a human behavior thing.
I think it's actually a decent barrier which may correctly hold back people who are easily scared off (or who read situations wrong) at what appears to be a challenge that they don't or aren't able to face. In that case it's probably a good thing, not a bad thing. [1]
The "take your jack and shove it" parable applies here:
From my personal experience I've had cases where people have spammed me and I've ended up selling them things. (In one case in particular, a $160,000 sale...)
[1] In old school business these people were sometimes called "triflers". In ads people selling things would put in "no triflers" or "serious inquiries only" or "if you don't know what a junket is don't bother to even call". A person with (for lack of a better way to put it) "balls" would not be deterred by that at all.
Maybe, by no means am I referring to my past rejections, I know I lacked a team or maybe project idea itself. But look around the room next meetup, its lacking something.
