December 23, 2020
December 23, 2020
Google made news recently for its controversial firing of a highly regarded AI researcher who was focusing on diversity. Now, they seem to be stepping in it yet again.
April Christina Curley, a former Black diversity recruiter, took to Twitter earlier in the week to explain her side of her firing.
She details a history of accomplishments and strong metics, but also a history of being passed over for promotions and advancement. According to April, her direct manager had told her that her Baltimore accent was a disability she needed to disclose before meetings. Some of her accomplishments include cultivating a relationship with HBCUs, something Google lacked when she joined in 2014.
The majority of the her thread is embedded below. While this is clearly only one side of the story, Google does not have a strong track-record on diversity, particularly when it comes to black and Latinx employment. When compared to other tech giants, Google's record is challenging at best. After a disastrous diversity report in 2014, where the company was (after significant pressure) forced to reveal its record, the company vowed to do better.
Their results havbe been mixed, and the data is (seemingly intentionally) being massaged by the organization. Google has altered its internal counting methodology in a way that effectively double-counts multiracial employees as belonging to multiple categories, or “Black+” and “Latinx+”: a Googler who is Black and Latinx now gets counted toward both minority hiring goals.
Even with the fuzzy accounting, they are struggling at diversity. This chart shows a minimal improvement in black and Latinx populations at the company:
Recently, the company has significantly rolled back its diversity and inclusion initiatives in an apparent effort to avoid being perceived as anti-conservative, according to reporting from NBC News. “One of the major motivations for cutting Sojourn is that the company doesn’t want to be seen as anti-conservative,” one Google employee familiar with the company’s diversity programming said in an interview. “It does not want to invite lawsuits or claims by right-wing white employees about Google discriminating against them.”
April's thread follows. RNN has reached out to her, as well as to Google, for additional comments.
UPDATED: Google PR's response: “We have a large team of recruiters who work incredibly hard to increase the hiring of Black+ and other underrepresented talent at Google, including a dedicated team that partners and strengthens our relationships with HBCUs. This work is critical - in 2019 we welcomed graduates from 19 HBCUs and over the past decade, we’ve expanded our recruiting efforts to more than 800 schools. At the same time, we are absolutely committed to maintaining an inclusive and supportive workplace. We don’t agree with the way April describes her termination, but it’s not appropriate for us to provide a commentary about her claims.”
I'm finna tell yall why @Google fired me- their MOST successful diversity recruiter in the history of their company- with the receipts to support that statement.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Reading about what happened to @timnitGebru at Google is both triggering and yet super encouraging. While I don’t want to capitalize off of her moment, I do want to share my experience as a black queer woman at Google.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
On September 11, 2020, I was terminated from Google. Even having to type those words still feels fucking awful. I'm admittedly still processing and working through all of the emotions that surround being fired from my whole ass job.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
I’ll try to keep this thread short and write a more robust medium article at some point but here's what I'll say...
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
In 2014, I was hired at Google to fundamentally shift the relationship (or lack thereof) that Google had with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Before my role existed, Google had NEVER, and I mean fucking NEVER hired an HBCU student into a tech role-
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Please read that shit again. It’s as egregious as it sounds. At the time of my departure, I had single handedly increased Google’s black engineering hiring from HBCUs by over 300%. Meaning- I brought in over 300 Black and Brown students from HBCUs who were hired into eng roles
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
The reason Google never hired an HBCU student straight out of undergrad into one of their key engineering roles is because they didn’t believe talent existed at these institutions- until I showed up.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
When I started at Google, I quickly became aware of all the racist shit put in place to keep black and brown students out of their pipeline. I routinely called out shady recruitment practices such as “screening out” resumes of students with “unfamiliar” school/university names.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
In many instances, Google engineers who were interviewing HBCU candidates would leave demeaning and absolutely insulting feedback about students which would ultimately result in a rejection at the hiring committee stage.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
In several cases, students were questioned IN INTERVIEWS about the quality of the computer science curriculum that they were receiving at their HBCU and criticized for “not meeting the bar” compared to “elite”, white institutions.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Often, I found myself arguing and pleading with white women who lead recruitment teams for internships and full time roles, BEGGING for students who were MORE than qualified to be considered for offers.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Because of my adamant advocacy of black and brown students to be fairly and justly considered for roles at Google, I experienced active abuse and retaliation from several managers who harassed me- and many other black women.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Despite STELLAR performance metrics which can be supported by multiple data points, I was repeatedly denied promotions, had my compensation cut, placed on performance improvement plans, denied leadership opportunities, yelled at, intentionally excluded from meetings, etc.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
Ultimately my last manager, his manager and HR decided that the best way to shut me up was to fire me. My last manager had his ego bruised FROM JUMP when I refused to discuss my sexuality with him (once asking me which of my teammates I would sleep with-TF)
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
My skip-level manager, a white woman, told me VERBATIM that the way I speak (oftentimes with a heavy Baltimore accent) was a disability that I should disclose when meeting with folks internally.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
My skip-level manager, a white woman, told me VERBATIM that the way I speak (oftentimes with a heavy Baltimore accent) was a disability that I should disclose when meeting with folks internally.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020
This white woman also told me that she never felt comfortably supporting my work because she was “intimidated” by me and therefore never considered me for leadership opportunities.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril) December 21, 2020