Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces • Hacker News Board

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#631

Post by HPsquared » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

andrei_says_ wrote: post #547

lgleason wrote: post #247

Live by the sword, die by the sword. That said, firing him, like they did with Damore would have been more consistent. Because everyone is under arbitration agreements that always benefit the company, vs the courts where you might have a shot at justice, they have no incentive to do that. As repugnant as his past anti-semitic rant was, people change and sometimes say and do stupid things. In a sane world this guy wou…

“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” And hey, great news, now we have every line written by every man, woman and child automatically captured and archived forever in an easy to search dossier. Someone who wrote a racist or anti-Semitic comment in 2007 could have evolved to deeper understanding and to a more compassionate worldview…

This is why anonymity is so important on the internet.

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#632

Post by xdennis » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:16 PM UTC

hn8788 wrote: post #92

rightorwrong128 wrote: post #81

Is 14 years the new record or do we have higher bidders?

The Boeing communications chief resigned due to a 33 year old article where he said females shouldn't be allowed in military combat roles. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/business/boeing-resignati...

That's so weird considering the USA only recently allowed women in combat.

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#633

Post by chadash » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:17 PM UTC

nashashmi wrote: post #533

lgleason wrote: post #247

Live by the sword, die by the sword. That said, firing him, like they did with Damore would have been more consistent. Because everyone is under arbitration agreements that always benefit the company, vs the courts where you might have a shot at justice, they have no incentive to do that. As repugnant as his past anti-semitic rant was, people change and sometimes say and do stupid things. In a sane world this guy wou…

I don’t see how his words based on the article were anti Semitic. They were anti Israel. And I find that you and everyone here and at google are having a hard time distinguishing between the two. Further based on the other comment to this post he was quite an activist. Fighting for rights of the racially oppressed and in minority. He went against white people and Israel? He is not racist. He is just anti majority dom…

The quote was: "If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself"

Yes, the sentiment is (possibly) anti-israel, not anti-semetic, but the wording itself implies that Jews have insatiable appetites for war. I'm not saying it wasn't an honest mistake, but someone who is chief diversity officer at a major corporation should certainly be attuned to the difference between Jews and Israelis.

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#634

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

jaywalk wrote: post #510

mooseburger wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I wasn't sure about blacks' position relative to jews on the oppression stack. I guess jews are actually above them (i.e. blacks cannot criticize jews the way they can whites)? Was this always the case? As I recall, Louis Farrakhan gets away with worse.

Louis Farrakhan can't be cancelled. He doesn't work for a corporation that can fire him, and he doesn't rely on the media to spread his message.

[deleted]

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#635

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

cratermoon wrote: post #232

> Google announced it's removing its global lead on diversity strategy and research from his post after it was discovered he'd made antisemitic comments in a past blog post. That post is not anti-semitic, it's anti-Zionism.

[deleted]

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#636

Post by nwsm » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

globular-toast wrote: post #423

Gunax wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of the role is to be able to show that you have a diversity officer. Whether or not that actually helps diversity, or helps at all--is secondary.

So it's a bullshit job. I think the closest of Graeber's 5 categories [0] would be a "goon", ie. they are only there because other companies have one. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

> they are only there because other companies have one

This is not Graeber's description of "goon"

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#637

Post by pxc » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #542

nojokes wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have met Jews (Israelis to be more precise), Russians and Americans. All have been very nice people. But I think it could be said about all of them as nations to have to some degree "insatiable appetite for war and killing" considering their recent history. Naturally the Russians would label me a russophobe for saying that. Not sure what Americans would label me. I also understand the position Israelis are in and I…

People != nations. Conflating the two is bad because you start blaming people for the sins of their nation and that is how you get to dehumanization.

Also it's in the interest of the Zionist state to identify 'Israel' with 'Jews'

If you're opposed to Zionism or the state of Israel, you shouldn't grant them that identification.

If you assume or assert that all Jews support Israel's settler-colonial project, you're also playing into the state of Israel's rhetorical strategies that conflate the survival and military supremacy of the Zionist state with Jewish safety, opposition of Zionism with hatred toward Jews, etc.

Failing to distinguish between the people group and the nation-state that claims to represent or serve them is not only rude or dehumanizing or sloppy in this case, but counterproductive for anti-Zionism as a cause. Anti-imperialism is not served by racism.

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#638

Post by at_a_remove » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #310

agentofoblivion wrote: post #40

Only 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.

if you hang around long enough, you can watch the woke eat the woke. what is "pure" changes, and some who have delighted in getting scalps in the past will have theirs taken by someone else once the goalposts change. i'm thinking there is a decent chance trans-racialism will eventually become woke

The sadly-deceased Mark Fisher wrote a piece called "Exiting the Vampire Castle" about at least a portion of this problem.

Essentially, you gain "cred" by publicly taking down a more powerful figure than yourself. It's the problem of diablerie in Vampire: The Masquerade in that, once accepted, you create a set of rewards and initiatives that foster a constant churn of figures eager to snipe at those above them, to drain them of their woke cred and get at least a little for yourself in an act called "critique." Of course, there's only so much blood/cred to go around so figures rise and fall as these very public lives are examined for any kind of transgression: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." Twitter and Tumblr are not exactly structured for careful, nuanced thought and so produce an endless stream of hot takes which, when gone cold, can be mined for evidence.

And so the revolutionaries are declared counter-revolutionaries and come to be the next layer of corpses in the mass graves they have dug, Khmer Rouge style.

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#639

Post by drewwwwww » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

cheese_van wrote: post #466

I've lived in various ME countries, as well as Israel. I've tried to understand the core issue and frankly, failed. Both arguments about this historical conflict between Israel and the Palestinians seem as close to being morally equivalent as I could imagine. I have sympathies but I keep them to myself. I don't feel as though I have a right to take a particular side: I am not existentially threatened on a daily basis…

look to see who is using 5th generation multi role attack fighters and who is using rockets made from the water pipes of the buildings destroyed by the air assault.

which side, forgotten by the world, receives almost four billion dollars a year in military aid from the global imperial hegemon?

it’s not that hard

Re: Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

#640

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

cratermoon wrote: post #232

> Google announced it's removing its global lead on diversity strategy and research from his post after it was discovered he'd made antisemitic comments in a past blog post. That post is not anti-semitic, it's anti-Zionism.

[deleted]