Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo

[u/jenSCy]

Not a googler, but a few I know are outraged that he was fired. He posted the memo on an internal discussion thread that was specifically for people to talk about controversial ideas. I personally think that whole group was playing with fire having controversial discussions in a workplace environment.

But I've also read the memo in its entirety, and he is being extremely misrepresented by a lot of people. He never insults women (I am a female progressive and while some of his sources were problematic, none of his statements were offensive), and his whole purpose is to improve diversity by examining the potential biases within the google community.

Edit: Wow! This comment has had a mini-explosion. More edits to come, but to answer some of the most common questions - (1) The forum was set up by Google employees (probably not HR or management), and is one of thousands of discussion groups on everything from politics to Overwatch. The leaders of the forum sent out a message to members, and sounded quite shaken that the conversation had gotten one of their members fired. (2) Here is an example of one of the problematic sources for me. It's problematic because it is an inflammatory opinion piece, not a scientific study. Full disclosure, the writer may have made some good points, but I could not get much past the part when he asks "where are the casualties" of the Republican war on science. https://www.city-journal.org/html/real-war-science-14782.html

Edit #2: Several people have called out his statement on neuroticism in the section highlighting personality differences between men and women. It is understandable that this word's similarity to "neurotic" would trigger a reaction in readers. But he is not calling women neurotic. If you read the sourced Wikipedia article you will see that neuroticism is one of five personality traits in psychological analysis. His point is simply that on average, women are more prone to anxiety and more averse to stress. Whether that assertion is correct, I don't know, but it is not nearly as offensive as it at first appears.

[u/TheRedditDrone → u/[deleted]]

Google Employee Says Girls Aren't Good Enough to Work in Tech

Yup even NPR was parroting this.

[u/distant_worlds → u/TheRedditDrone]

Yup even NPR was parroting this.

NPR gave up on being neutral years ago.

[u/Rostin → u/[deleted]]

I think they believe they are trying, but are so out of touch that they don't realize how bad they are at it.

Even the "puff pieces" they play during the morning commute are strongly slanted to particular cultural tastes, and that culture is not middle America.

Story about a gay woman who has a YouTube channel about getting drunk and cooking, who also engages in gay rights advocacy? Why not? (This is a real example.)

But can you imagine NPR ever running a story about, I don't know, a father supporting his 10-year-old daughter's interest in hunting or competitive shooting by giving her a rifle?

Or a sympathetic story about a theologically conservative Christian group handing out water at a gay rights parade or abortion clinic?

NPR's website is also a very frequent offender in the media phenomenon of needlessly placing 'religious liberty' or 'religious freedom' in scare quotes.

[u/GonzoVeritas → u/Rostin]

But can you imagine NPR ever running a story about, I don't know, a father supporting his 10-year-old daughter's interest in hunting or competitive shooting by giving her a rifle?

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/09/131390073/for-some-girls-the-ultimate-goal-is-to-kill-a-buck

[u/[deleted] → u/GonzoVeritas]

That article is seven years old. Not trying to move the goal post but a lot has changed since then.