Yes, "no Asians" as a hiring policy is absolutely racist. It is of course possible to be prejudiced against white people (and that's bad) but on a societal level white people don't suffer from prejudice so there can be no comparison to the racism people of color face.
> Why is the solution not more accountability? More policies in place to make complaints about discrimination more vocal?
That also needs to be part of the solution. Racism is such a pernicious problem that it can only be tackled with an "all of the above" strategy. You also have to realize that any empowerment of women and people of color necessarily comes at the expense of white men, because societal influence is a strictly zero sum game. There is no difference between saying "more minorities in the senate" and "fewer white men in the senate". This is discrimination against white men in the technical sense, but this isn't a situation where everybody can gain at nobody's expense. If minorities are to be represented in politics and in business then white men will have to step aside to make room.
> on a societal level white people don't suffer from prejudice so there can be no comparison to the racism people of color face
You can only argue that this is true in "white" countries (I'm not even sure if I would agree that it's a country-wide thing either). In Asia, this statement is _far_ from true -- white people are very much stigmatised (especially in Japan). The world is much bigger than California.
> because societal influence is a strictly zero sum game.
Employment, especially in the tech industry, is far from a zero-sum game. There are more job openings than university graduates. "Societal influence" is such a hazy term that I'm not sure I can make any meaningful comment on it.
White skin is still looked at favorably in Japan. Japan isn't very open to any kind of outsiders, but white people still get treated much better than black people or darker skinned Asians. Western/European beauty standards also dominate Japanese culture.
That said, the subject was Github's diversity program, and Github is in California. So Japan really doesn't have anything to do with it.
Instead of worrying about immaterial discrimination against white men, perhaps worry instead about people who actually suffer from discriminatory practices. Just google "diversity in silicon valley" and you'll find plenty of articles (with charts) showing you exactly how widespread real discrimination still is.
> Why is the solution not more accountability? More policies in place to make complaints about discrimination more vocal?
That also needs to be part of the solution. Racism is such a pernicious problem that it can only be tackled with an "all of the above" strategy. You also have to realize that any empowerment of women and people of color necessarily comes at the expense of white men, because societal influence is a strictly zero sum game. There is no difference between saying "more minorities in the senate" and "fewer white men in the senate". This is discrimination against white men in the technical sense, but this isn't a situation where everybody can gain at nobody's expense. If minorities are to be represented in politics and in business then white men will have to step aside to make room.