For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business

Is it possible that when put in unfamiliar situations, people will by default direct themselves toward others who are most like themselves?

A hypothetical: Reverse all the races in the VC/CEO situation. Who would the black VC assume was the CEO?

Repeat the experiment with whichever combination of race/sex you like.

Perhaps the answer is obvious, but what's the point of such a thought experiment? The issue is how to deal with the world we actually live in. "It would be just as bad in an opposite world" does not sound like a useful finding.

Definitely possible, but unlikely. You’ll find that people of all minority groups make similar assumptions. There were even a few examples in this thread and the article.

That’s a part of why there is such a big push for better minority representation on all fields. VC partnerships, boards, upper management, etc. More diversity means more models of what a successful VC, CEO, Entrepreneur, etc looks like.

People base their beliefs on prior probabilities, before any new evidence is provided.

If all you've ever seen are white CEOs, then it's probably very reasonable to assume that the white guy in a meeting also is the CEO.

It's not racist, but just how your brain works on the priors.

I know that people should strive to not be assuming, but in the end, the brain is an exceptional pattern recognizer, and very much works in subconscious ways.

edit: And before anyone starts claiming racism; I'm just saying that this is how humans work. You collect data all the time, and (hopefully) update your beliefs on said new evidence.