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

#351

Post by joelbluminator » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

door101 wrote: post #319

joelbluminator wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> colonial A colony of what empire exactly? Jews were a group of massacred refugees. > massive support from the United States There is no massive support from the United States actually, at least not monetary. There is military help that is needed because Israel's enemies want to destroy it, still to this day. And it's not that big compared to Israel's gdp (4 billion to 400 gdp = 1%) and is completely meaningless to…

> Should the U.S exist? Last I checked California used to be part of Mexico - why isn't it being returned to it's rightful owners? Yes, the U.S. is also a colonial state. Not all states owe their existence to colonialism and occupation, but the U.S. is definitely one of them. We committed a genocide on an unimaginable scale, and took all the line of the people whose territory this was rightfully theirs. Not a good ex…

> Yes, the U.S. is also a colonial state

Who is actively calling for the dismantling of the United States? No one. But Israel is fair game.

> Its colonial territories in Africa should have been, and were, transferred to Africa.

How is that enough though when comparing with the much more minor "crimes" Israel did? Israel displaced 700000 people as part of a brutal civil war where it also suffered major casualties. Belgium, Germany, France and others destroyed millions of Africans and robbed their nations. How is it enough for them to simply retreat from their colonies? If you actively call out for Israel to be dismantled I would expect for Europe to at least give away 50% of it's wealth to the people it destroyed. That sounds somehow fair to me or at least morally consistent. If what happened 73 years ago in Palestine must not be forgiven I don't see why everybody else gets a pass.

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

#352

Post by megamindbrian2 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #293

>will be reassigned to a STEM research role Not fired, just reassigned. I'm ok with that as a policy. Presumably he isn't ok with those old statements and can move on. At the same time the folks who need to post some general statements about a whole group of people, religion, or whatever ... As far as I can remember I've never felt a reason to talk about a whole category of people and "insatiable appetite for war and…

Have you people ever met a Jew? They literally idolized "never again" which is what this guy's is talking about. They literally live by the principal that this guy was removed from his position over. And questioning any Jewish philosophy is labeled anti-Semitic and condemned. Write a story about being "God's chosen people" doesn't make you righteous, it just makes you last to do it.

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

#353

Post by koheripbal » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

His bigotry goes beyond anti-semitism. Kamau Bobb's blog posts were almost exclusively about White and Jewish people, as a whole, and their mistreatment of Black Americans both historically and today. He even targets progressive white people for their more unspoken racism.

There is a very obvious tone of distaste for white and Jewish people in his posts. Search for the word "white" or "Jew" in his blog [1] posts to see for yourself.

[1] http://kamaubobb.blogspot.com/

Since Google supports "cancel culture", Kamau Bobb should be fired. I don't see how he, having himself being accused of being a racist [2], can work in any diversity or HR department.

[2] http://kamaubobb.blogspot.com/2011/08/accused-of-being-racis...

Some choice excerpts...

> The cost of elite education for our children is extraordinary. I dropped my beautiful black star into a sea of white children and it hurt.

> among the increasing number of white women holding leadership roles in the academy and in the public and private sector, they surely see younger versions of themselves in the next generation of white girls. It is a natural instinct to want the very best for them.

> In a nation with a history such as ours, that imagery is connected to a much longer and darker legacy – a legacy where white men have abused black women and girls with impunity.

> I do not need to be convinced that diversity and excellence are intimately interwoven. But what of my White counterparts? I really do not know how White people learn about Black or Hispanic people in ways that are honest

> Perhaps it is time to focus the inquiry on our White counterparts. They may well feel marginalized by the shortage of academic inquiry into the complexity of their changing American citizenship alongside people of color. Their sense of self-efficacy may be undermined by their pending loss of majority status.

> I was learning about the resilient spirit of black people in America in the context of white American barbarism.

> It is still true that white people kill black people in America with impunity.

It goes on and on...

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

#354

Post by throwaway894345 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:50 PM UTC

balls187 wrote: post #298

rsj_hn wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No Damore sent supposedly confidential feedback when solicited to do so by diversity trainers. That content so enraged the diversity staff they leaked it to the rest of the company. Perhaps Damore was naive in thinking the feedback about diversity training was welcome or confidential, but he definately did not send a company-wide email to anyone.

I think the point being made was Damore's email was sent using company resources, while employed by the company, presumably on company time. Bobb's blog post was from 2007.

That seems like a pretty shallow distinction considering Google's "bring your whole self to work" policy and cultural norms. People at Google regularly expressed far more controversial opinions than Damore's using company resources on company time. Further, the explicit rationale for canning Damore was not that he was expressing himself on company time or with company resources, but rather the patently false notion that his criticisms of the company constituted a hostile work environment.

Of course he was only fired because he was criticizing popular regressive policies and that provoked the wrath of employees who identify with those kinds of policies, and management decided it was easier to give in to the authoritarians (indeed, Google's management the authoritarian employees in question are probably not distinct groups--they certainly overlapped).

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

#355

Post by antisemtexism » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

zpeti wrote: post #348

antisemtexism wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criticism of Israel's apartheid policies isn't antisemitism. It's such nonsense how the two have been conflated in recent years.

Most of the stuff I've seen recently is not criticising the "apartheid policies" (debatable) of Israel. It's actual anti jewish rhetoric.

Well, I've seen the opposite. I suspect it's not leftists you're witnessing saying such things.

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

#356

Post by yoavm » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

door101 wrote: post #319

joelbluminator wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> colonial A colony of what empire exactly? Jews were a group of massacred refugees. > massive support from the United States There is no massive support from the United States actually, at least not monetary. There is military help that is needed because Israel's enemies want to destroy it, still to this day. And it's not that big compared to Israel's gdp (4 billion to 400 gdp = 1%) and is completely meaningless to…

> Should the U.S exist? Last I checked California used to be part of Mexico - why isn't it being returned to it's rightful owners? Yes, the U.S. is also a colonial state. Not all states owe their existence to colonialism and occupation, but the U.S. is definitely one of them. We committed a genocide on an unimaginable scale, and took all the line of the people whose territory this was rightfully theirs. Not a good ex…

It's not about taking example from the US, it's about how popular it is to say that Israel shouldn't exist while many other countries had a much worst history. Not many of the places people live in now were empty when their ancestors arrived there.

More importantly, I keep hearing about the Israeli colony and am a truly interested to know what empire my family are representing. As far as I heard they were massacred pretty much everywhere and came to Palestine with literally nothing, some being jailed in Cyprus by the Brits to prevent them from entering the country. No one told them about the big empire that was backing them up.

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

#357

Post by Macha » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:51 PM UTC

zpeti wrote: post #133

logicchains wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is Google inconsistent, or has their policy on how to deal with these things changed over the past few years? Simple explanation is Google's Democrat-leaning leadership are more aligned with Bobb than Damore (in the US, the left are generally anti-Israel while the right support it, and the left are pro-affirmative-action while the right oppose it).

This is the correct answer. The amount of anti-semitism shown during this recent Hamas Israel conflict in the woke left has been very worrying. We are likely to see a big resurgence of anti-semitism in the next period. It's more and more socially acceptable on the left.

I am curious how much actual vs perceived anti-semitism there is. I've seen more people conflate "Criticism of the state of Israel" with "criticism of Jewish people" and further still with "discrimination against Jewish people" than I have seen actual antisemitic sentiment on the left.

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

#358

Post by busterarm » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:52 PM UTC

masterphilo wrote: post #332

I read the blog post and while the author's tone was a little bit harsh, I really doubt it can be called anti-semitic. I guess that's why they re-assigned him and he wasn't fired. You probably don't want a "head of diversity" to be controversial in that way.

That was one of the most heinous, blatantly bigoted screeds I'd read in quite a long time. There isn't anything defensible about it.

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

#359

Post by ebin1 » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:52 PM UTC

Something says to me that if he said "Europeans" instead, it would be ok. Of course, it is hard for me to back up this claim, other than with the anecdotal data that such comments are common on (liberal) Twitter and the like. In a world with so many protected classes, this former head of diversity made the really foolish mistake of not making a remark at the expense of one of the lesser protected classes, instead.

Edit: found in a related comment that he did make such a comment, and that those such comments are precisely the ones not really mentioned or cared about in the media...

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

#360

Post by Zababa » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 3:53 PM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #180

ostenning wrote: post #6

Here 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.

Honest question here - how do you criticize Judaism the religion without being called a bigot? Christians and Muslims are fair game for discourse. Is the Jewish religion and its followers not fair to criticize? They have many of the same arcane and backwards beliefs as other Abrahamic religions.

I don't know how to answer your question, but a thing to keep in mind is that Jewish people are usually less than 1% or 2% of the population. For example (in France), I'm worried about Christian and especially Muslim homophobia, but Jewish not so much because it's way easier to navigate around. I don't even have anecdotal evidence of Jewish presence or absence of homophobia because I didn't meet many of them.

Edit because I realized I may not have been clear: what I mean is that in a lot of country Christian and Muslims are in power. For Jewish people, it's the case in one country, and there's not much big minorities like there are Muslim minorities in Chrisian countries and the opposite.