the response would inevitably be "look around you and see all the white men working here at all levels of the company. Obviously your concerns are invalid." I believe this is essentially what you're saying too.

That's not exactly what I'm saying. I'm talking more about the psychology.

Victimhood mentalities are very powerful. People from many different groups believe it - many groups claim to be disenfranchised.

Then confirmation bias is also very powerful. If you believe you're a victim, your brain will find and focus on examples that confirm your belief.

If we're going to say that white men are discriminated against, we shouldn't use our perceptions or anecdotal examples. If it's true (and maybe it is), it should show up in real data.

What I said originally was that I believe that these Nike employees believe that they were discriminated against. But their belief doesn't necessarily mean they were actually discriminated against. Maybe they were! I don't know.