Google advised mental health care when workers complained about racism and sexism

NBC News / Comcast ^ | March 7, 2021 | By April Glaser and Char Adams

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Benjamin Cruz, a former instructional designer in Google’s Cloud division, was caught off guard when a colleague told them that their skin was much darker than she expected.

Cruz, who is Mexican American prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them, reported the incident to human resources in 2019 where personnel told them they should “assume good intent.”

Cruz’s experience with Google’s internal human resources personnel echoes that of several former and current Google employees, including two prominent Black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, who were pushed out of Google at the end of last year. Both women were known for their advocacy for increased diversity in the tech industry, and when their complaints about how the company handled racial and gender discrimination reached human resources, they were both given the same advice: undergo mental health counseling and take medical leave.

They consulted human resources after colleagues made comments about their skin color or Black hairstyles, or asked if they were sexually interested in their teammates. They also contacted human resources to report retaliation after protesting sexual harassment issues and to advocate for raises for Black people to match white employees’ pay. Each time, human resource personnel recommended the employees take medical leave to address their mental health — despite their mental well-being having nothing to do with their complaints.

Gebru and Curley worked in vastly different parts of Google. Gebru was a lead researcher on Google’s Ethical AI team and is one of the highest-profile Black women in her field, known for her work uncovering racial bias in facial recognition systems. Curley was a tech recruiter who brought in new talent from historically Black colleges and universities. Workers said they felt motivated to speak after Gebru and Curley’s departures, in which both women said they were fired .

[usurper]

I hope Google is devoured by the woke monster it helped create.

Same here, don't look to us for any support you fake woke snowflakes of a company.

[suthener]

“Black women in her field, known for her work uncovering racial bias in facial recognition systems. Curley was a tech recruiter who brought in new talent from historically Black colleges and universities.
Obviously critical workers in the company’s bottom line.”

They’re token black female employees. And, true to form, the token black female employees immediately start causing unnecessary, and totally unproductive, strife within the company.

[Vaduz]

It’s what the gubment call a quota system.

[Bon of Babble]

I have no sympathy for Google and believe it gets whatever is coming to it - they’ll most likely have to settle large “Civil Rights” lawsuits, the CEO will have to step down and they’ll have to sign some kind of pledge to BLM to “diversify - meaning they’ll have to come up with make-work positions for blacks.

My son recently graduated college with a degree in Computer Science and Math - didn’t see a single black in his graduating class at his large, public university - Asian, White and Indian, but no blacks.

I have scrubbed Google off of my system and hope everyone else here does same.

[EEGator]

Trust me, I know.
I work in electrical engineering, specifically distribution design.
If you aren’t White, or have a vagina, you’ll get promoted.

[Vaduz]

Understand it’s the trend of the left purge then rule.

[EEGator]

They’ll wind up ruling like those in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
I hope they enjoy the ashes.

[Vaduz]

Agree so far it looks that way

[aquila48]

“Cruz, who is Mexican American prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them, reported the incident to human resources in 2019 where personnel told them they should “assume good intent.””

Stop this insane asylum of a planet, I want to get off!

[aquila48]

I need some help.

I’m having trouble deciding whether I should rejoice at Google getting hung by its own petard vs crying at what this country has become.

[Knocker]

Intentional misuse of pronouns bastardizes the language by conflating the singular with the plural. Imagine the mischief unscrupulous lawyers could do enforcing contracts, or prosecutors indicting several individuals for the crimes of a single miscreant.
Sound far-fetched? Wait and see. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Benjamin Cruz, a former instructional designer in Google’s Cloud division, was caught off guard when a colleague told them that their skin was much darker than she expected. Cruz, who is Mexican American prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them, reported the incident to human resources . . . "

When I read the first sentence, I was confused - it was ungrammatical, and I wondered who the "them" and "their" were, since the subject of the sentence was an individual man. Then the second sentence explained it - the man demands that those pronouns be used. So the newspaper acquiesces, resulting in the butchering of language in order to appease a mentally-ill person. Truly, the inmates are running the asylum.