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Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

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

#691

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

slim wrote: post #569
lalaland1125 wrote: post #403

The main thing I find odd about that person's blog post ( https://web.archive.org/web/20210601160519/https://www.kamau... ) is that it also doesn't really make any sense mechanically. The first five paragraphs are all comments on how it must be difficult for a progressive Jew to simultaneously support progressive values and Israel > If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented. I would find it increasin…

He was angry. Feeling the injustice of what was happening in Lebanon at that time.

I wish this part would get more attention. People say and do stupid shit when they're highly emotional & vulnerable. Everybody has "wrong" feelings and thoughts now and then. You wouldn't be human if you didn't. Sometimes people vent those thoughts/feelings, and that can hurt other people's feelings. We should obviously deal with that and take responsibility for that, but then the other side needs to accept that apology so both can reconcile. Otherwise everybody stays hurt.

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

#692

Post by ABCLAW »

ant6n wrote: post #648
chadash wrote: post #633

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But it was also quoted worse in the tweets. "If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself," (…) "If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented. I would find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has now acq…

I think with the more fulsome context you've provided that the prior post's attempt to reduce his statement as critical of Israelis alone is a bit reductionist; his argument here extends to the diaspora that also unwaveringly support Israel in their expansionary policy.

I don't feel that position is anti-Semitic either, but I think it needs to be noted for the sake of intellectual honesty. He is critiquing a LOT of Jews here.

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

#693

Post by KittenInABox »

lainga wrote: post #166
KittenInABox wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

13 years should be plenty of time to have some studies covering this; do you have studies to prove this claim?

Plenty of time... the totalitarian principle of QM notwithstanding, not everything not forbidden is compulsory at a macro level; academia is not a deterministic machine for yielding studies given the appearance of a phenomenon. Otherwise I'd ask you to provide some studies quantifying "plenty of time".

I feel 13 years should at least be producing nonfiction essays or something that passes for journalism. It took 4 years for 5000 trump books to come out. 13 years for the upending of racism towards being against the whites should be plenty, too.

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

#695

Post by rzimmerman »

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…

There’s a post (“If I Were a Jew”) that accuses Jews in general of responding to the collective trauma of the Holocaust with “an insatiable appetite for war and killing” in pursuit of self defense rather than compassion for the oppressed. It’s naive, muddles Jewish identity with Israel, and assumes the worst about the motivations of Jews in general. Imagine how offensive it would be to make a similar argument about any other minority group that had experienced oppression in America or elsewhere.

From the post:

> If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself. Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering others. My greatest torment would be that I’ve misinterpreted the identity offered by my history and transposed spiritual and human compassion with self righteous impunity.

There’s definitely more than criticism of the Israeli government here (some dog-whistle and overt antisemitism, whether the author understood that at the time or not). But I agree with the commenter - people can change and grow up. I don’t know the full story so it’s hard to really say what’s justified and what’s an overreaction.

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

#696

Post by dragonwriter »

throwaway2162 wrote: post #690
dragonwriter wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd think that the global head of diversity would know the difference between Jews and Zionist. AFAIK, he wasn't “global head of diversity” for any organization when he wrote it, but only many years later. That’s not to say that being able to distinguish between Jews, Zionists, Israelis, and the Israeli government isn’t basic threshold knowledge that should be expected of anyone publicly commenting on Israeli pol…

>AFAIK, he wasn't “global head of diversity” for any organization when he wrote it, but only many years later. He was literally a founding senior director for "equity in computing" at Georgia Tech and was a national strategy advisor to the Obama administration for bringing "equity and justice" to STEM (when he wrote this blog post). Please update your post as you're spreading FUD. >AFAIK, he wasn't “global head of di…

> He was literally a founding senior director for "equity in computing" at Georgia Tech and was a national strategy advisor to the Obama administration for bringing "equity and justice" to STEM (when he wrote this blog post).

Neither of those is “global head of diversity”.

> Please update your post as you're spreading FUD.

No, I’m not and I see no need to update my post. If the upthread post were updated to refer to his actual position at the time of the post, I might be bothered to simply empty out my response as it would be moot, but given that it seems (like your post defending it) to be from a single-use throwaway account, I don't expect that to happen.

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

#697

Post by olivermarks »

A major reason why today's politicians are so bland and uninspiring is because they have been groomed to never say anything controversial or contentious. Trawling through adults adolescence photos and shaming/blaming them for some youthful indiscretion is another aspect of this societal disaster.

The anti war candidate Tulsi Gabbard in the recent US election is an example of someone relentlessly ridiculed and destroyed despite the absence of anything controversial in her background and is a dismal example of the way politics works today.

Now we have the pretentious corporate diversity industry insisting no one in their orbit has any opinions that might offend. Hopeless.

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

#698

Post by old_fart_dev »

throwawaycuriou wrote: post #123
andrewla wrote: post #63

The post is now deleted, but is available at https://web.archive.org/web/20210601160519/https://www.kamau... Repeated here for clarity: > If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented. I would find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has now acquired. This reconcili…

Thanks for the full context. Much of the reaction here is due to his mistake of placing 'If I were a Jew' when based on the rest of the essay I'd estimate he meant to say 'If I were Israeli'. Had he done so the tea shop would still have all its crockery intact.

Absolutely on the nose. I'd go a step further - if he had said "If I were Isreael", then he's imagining being policy maker directly responsible, instead of merely being a citizen.

It's not empathy to put one's self in someone else's shoes, but then dismiss the viewpoint that comes with wearing those shoes. This is simply another version of the "No true Scotsman" fallacy.

Moreover, using collective guilt as an underpinning of any political stance is garbage. It's not enough to say racists and racist policies are bad - white people are collectively guilty, regardless of their own personal behavior and history. It's not enough to say Israel's out of line with their policies - all Jews are collectively guilty. So on and so forth. And it's alienating and insulting to anyone sympathetic policy-wise, but don't want to be lumped in with bad actors.

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

#699

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#700

Post by 8note »

joelbluminator wrote: post #317
paganel wrote: post #241

Israel, which defines itself as a Jewish state, is one of the most militaristic states in the world. So in fact we do know that the only present Jewish state has a “propensity for war”, not sure how this is seen as controversial. Of course, I think pretty much the same thing about the US government and about its citizens, the Americans, after all they’re the ones supporting said militaristic propensity.

> is one of the most militaristic states in the world Just for fun? Or does Israel face real security concerns?

Every country faces real security concerns when they're trying to settle land somebody already lives on.

Nazi Germany was one of the most militaristic states in the world as well, and they too had real security concerns for the same reasons

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