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Google removes its head of diversity after 2007 blog post surfaces

businessinsider.com

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

#831

Post by thelopa »

throwkeep wrote: post #818
thelopa wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit. They have their self-regarding entitlement feminism, and ceaselessly vaunt their independence, but the reality is, come the epidemic plague or foreign invasion, they’d become precisely the sort of useless baggage you’d trade for a box of shotgun shells or a jerry can of diesel.” “PMMess,…

Out of context excerpts from a 500 page book written in the style of Hunter S. Thompson is not compelling evidence to anyone but the mob and those seeking to be offended. People who have actually read the book don't find them to be so problematic, including the reviewers at New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, Techcrunch and others who gave the book a big thumbs up.

Please try to contextualize those quotes. The context I’ve seen has actually only made them seem worse.

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

#832

Post by mandliya »

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…

14 years is such a long time. I am not the same person I was a year ago. There is no excuse to what he did, but what if he is a different person altogether now.

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

#833

Post by ejanus »

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…

So, why do you think that conversation with them would de-radicalize them?

We need to send clear message to the world that we don't stand with such people.

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

#834

Post by ejanus »

sirjee wrote: post #660
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…

Pretty sure he was not chief diversity officer 14 years ago but I agree it should have been "If I were an israeli...".

Was he unread then?

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

#835

Post by sirjee »

ejanus wrote: post #834
sirjee wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure he was not chief diversity officer 14 years ago but I agree it should have been "If I were an israeli...".

Was he unread then?

He was conflating jews with Israeli government and zionists, so I can assume he was unread on the topic.

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

#836

Post by fabbari »

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.

After the bombs on Lebanon I was mainly angry at myself. I overheard the news during dinner - "Beirut has been bombed" - and kept eating. Somehow growing up I ended up in a mental state where bombs being dropped on Beirut was 'normal'. It bothered me to no end: it would have been a completely different reaction if I heard "Paris has been bombed".

I ended up taking up an international cooperation job in Beirut, worked there for about three years. I danced, drank, worked, ate, drove around and enjoyed time with people that to this date consider very close friends.

I guess I just suck at blogging.

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

#837

Post by [deleted] »

sanity31415 wrote: post #197
nazca wrote: post #37

Slightly 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?

> They fired Damore for writing an email that was tone-deaf, insensitive, but largely supported by research Damore was asked for his feedback on Google's diversity policies, and that's exactly what he provided. Most of Damore's critics haven't actually read his memo[1], but rather formed an opinion based on the character assassination campaign against him, a campaign his employer publicly sided with. Over the 4 years…

[deleted]

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

#838

Post by TMWNN »

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…

"If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself" is a straight quote from the last paragaraph of the post in question, not a paraphrase or elided excerpt. https://web.archive.org/web/20210602000424/https://www.kamau...

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

#839

Post by syshum »

ipaddr wrote: post #781
andrei_says_ wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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…

The wise enough to not use their real name will survive. The culling of the real name begins. This is the literal killing of the 'you have nothing to hide' meme that goes to show you have something to hide.

I am still baffled by the use of Real Names online..

As a late 70's child that got the internet when I was in my late teens it was unthinkable at that time to give anyone any personal info about you online. "Stranger Danger" and everyone online should be thought of as an axe murder was the dominant position

I am not sure when or why this shift happen to where it was common for people to not only post their full personal info but also post real time location information about where they are and what they are doing...

It is all baffling to me even today

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

#840

Post by danShumway »

slibhb wrote: post #653
danShumway wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that categories are often fuzzy does not make them useless as a general heuristic for finding people who are more likely to share similar experiences with each other. Almost every kind of categorization system shares the problems you talk about: people can call themselves "programmers" for a variety of different reasons, even though they're working in wildly different environments and might be totally unsuit…

> Those categories are still be a useful heuristic for trying to find people who are more likely to share certain attributes or who have had certain life experiences. In other words, prejudice is a "useful heuristic".

> In other words, prejudice is a "useful heuristic".

If you don't see any difference at all between community and othering, or if you think we need a single universal metric that defines whether categories are being used for evil in every single scenario, then I don't think you understood what I was saying about fuzziness.

Categories are a neutral tool, it's how they're used and the effects of their usage that determines whether or not an action involving them is problematic -- just like every single other tool in existence.

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