Is 14 years the new record or do we have higher bidders?
Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
81–90 of 1001 posts
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#82Slightly shocking that he didn't get fired. (yet?) They fired Damore for writing an email that was tone-deaf, insensitive, but largely supported by research. Bobb goes on a clearly antisemitic rant, and just gets reassigned. Is Google inconsistent, or has their policy on how to deal with these things changed over the past few years?
A blog post from 13 years ago.. which has since been removed.. is different from an email sent internally.
Hopefully nobody will hold me accountable to all the slashdot comments I wrote 10-15 years ago. Taken out of context, I've probably made fantastically horrific statements too.
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#83Here is a classic case of someone conflating the state of Israel and Jewish people and lumping it all together. Plenty of Jewish people that live both inside and outside of Israel are critical of the state. People can be critical of the state of Israel, but they should not be antisemitic. His comments are offensive for this reason.
>>People can be critical of the state of Israel, but they should not be antisemitic. As long as you (the general you, not you specifically) subject all countries that (allegedly) mistreat their citizens or neighbouring countries to the same level of criticism. When you single out the world's only Jewish state for criticism it looks kinda racist.
You can't even describe other states as "the world's only German state", or "French state" or "Polish state", "Russian state" etc. because racism, so what are we even talking about?
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#84So, it took some digging, but here is the text https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:luIscB... As you can see, it's a quite well written critique of Israel, and it is definitely NOT anti-Semitic. I find it quite ironic that it took Google's cache to find the thing Google itself wants canceled
Doesn’t matter. The JIDF will scour the world for anything negative of Israel
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#85This is the only instance relating to offensive social media I've ever heard of where someone got reassigned and not fired
Should you really be fired for things you said 13 years ago?
Also we didn't see the entire context..
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#86For anyone who is interested, the actual blog post on his website was deleted. It's available on the Way Back Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20210601160519/https://www.kamau...
Thank you. Everyone on this thread should read the original words instead of the pull quotes. I am a staunch progressive and am afraid to make my own comment on his words. We are living through a strange political moment.
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a Jew. If he apologized publicly and it was a long time ago, I think it would be ok. We have to be able to give people second chances and the ability to evolve their views. If someone was a neo nazi as a youth and grew out of it and regretted their past then they should be allowed to live a normal life. Preventing this just leads to more radicalization.
While in sentiment I agree with you, this is not being applied consistently throughout society. We are currently in an environment of maximum consequences, no tolerance afforded. Until something pulls us back from the brink, it needs to be that way consistently or more tensions will be inflamed.
You are not wrong in that enforcement is definitely applied inconsistently and with extreme bias with regards to race and gender. I struggle with the correct approach to take though and if its cracking down on everyone or hoping that this at least is a crack in the door and people will realize the current trend of punishing people for decades old comments is wrong and should be stopped. Unfortunately it is likely that the rules will just continue to be unevenly enforced stoking anger and further dividing people.
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#88> Instead of firing him, though, Google is moving Bobb into a STEM-focused role. That's surprising, but I think it's good. He's obviously not viable in the diversity role, but there's no reason to go ballistic over a 15 year old blog post.
Imagine being a Jew and suddenly finding this guy not only not-fired but on your team. I'll take hostile work environment for 1000, Alex. Thing is, I wouldn't want to work with this person at my company period.
There’s lots of circumstances where you’ve gotta accept that your coworkers might believe offensive things. Imagine being a gay man and finding a devout Muslim on your team who wholeheartedly believes it’s wrong to be gay - if she’s willing to treat you respectfully and not bring it up at work, would you insist she be fired?
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#89Somewhat tangential, but who is the right kind of person for a diversity job? What does a job well done look like? Changes in hiring? Changes in company culture? I'm skeptical of roles with a "my job is to care about X" kind of definition. That includes, for example, "customer advocate" and similar, especially someplace as complicated as google. I don't think they can have much success beyond the surface level. EDIT:…
> but who is the right kind of person for a diversity job?
> I'm skeptical of roles with a "my job is to care about X" kind of definition.
Reframing it a bit (admittedly slightly off, but to get the point across):
"Who is the right person for a job all about caring about race?"
...I don't think anyone seeking that role should be hired for it.
Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces
#90Only the purest of the pure can lead a diversity effort. And it doesn’t count unless you were pure from the beginning. Growing to overcome past problems is not sufficient.
Ya, I wonder at what point someone is accepted as having changed.