> any perceived layoffs of white males at tech companies is just correlation with their overrepresentation in the software engineer population

Whites are 41% of software engineers [1], but 57% of the US population [2], so they are under-, not over-, represented.

[1] https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/software-engineer/dem...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...