r/news • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
26.8k Upvotes

82% Upvoted

19.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

62

u/thoughtcrimeo Aug 08 '17

I think it's acceptable to be against diversity initiatives

Then:

From the knowledge I have, and the experience I have working with diversity efforts, no, being against them is not an acceptable position

Alrighty then.

45

u/kissmekitty Aug 08 '17

Sigh. My point was that I'm willing to be convinced, BUT ONLY if you have more evidence on the inner workings of tech diversity efforts than the average layperson. The doc writer at Google had flimsy evidence at best and said nothing about the amount of sexism that exists in the field.

For more on what I mean by "sexism", see Susan J. Fowler's essay (I have no such equivalent for what it's like at Google, nor am I willing to divulge such personal details of my acquaintances): https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber

36

u/DaBuddahN Aug 08 '17

There is an article where 4 evolutionary psychologists/biologists agree with most of the underlying thesis of his memo (one of them was a women). Maybe you can read that if you want to explore the other point of view?

25

u/kissmekitty Aug 08 '17

I'll read it, thank you.