Diversity + Equity + Inclusion
Photo by Mitchell Luo
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.”
The tech giant seems to be picking fights
