In July 2017 a brave person published a memo that was pro-diversity and anti-discriminatory to his google co-workers. On Aug 9 2017 James Damore was fired from Google.

The opening line in his memo said, “I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes.”

So why are The Verge and other organizations calling it the “anti-diversity memo”?

“I hope it’s clear that I’m not saying that diversity is bad, that Google or society is 100% fair, that we shouldn’t try to correct for existing biases, or that minorities have the same experience of those in the majority. My larger point is that we have an intolerance for ideas and evidence that don’t fit a certain ideology also not saying that we should restrict people to certain gender roles; I’m advocating for quite the opposite: treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group” Damore’s memo said, “In this so called anti-diversity memo Damore actually offered non-discriminatory solutions to the lack of diversity in Google.”

“De-moralize diversity. Stop ​alienating conservatives. Confront Google’s biases.Stop restricting programs and classes to certain genders or races.” Most of these are somewhat agreeable. Perhaps not your specific cup of tea, but still understandable.

Alienating those who have conservative viewpoints would create a significant loss of diversity, addressing Google’s supposed biases is necessary to have a healthy work area. Discrimination based on race and sex in regards to providing opportunity is a unfair in the truest sense.

In an official press release Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki said, “As a company that has long supported free expression, Google obviously stands by the right that employees have to voice, publish or tweet their opinions. But while people may have a right to express their beliefs in public, that does not mean companies cannot take action when women are subjected to comments that perpetuate negative stereotypes about them based on their gender.”

These asserted negative stereotypes are statistics provided by ‘Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman? Sex Differences in Big Five Personality Traits Across 55 Cultures’ by David P. Schmitt Bradley University, Anu Realo University of Tartu and The Estonian Centre of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Martin Voracek University of Vienna, Juri Allik University of Tartu and The Estonian Centre of Behavioural and Health Sciences.

As well as Gender Differences in Personality and Interests: When, Where, and Why? by Richard A. Lippa referencing differences in neuroticism and women being people oriented and men being thing oriented.
The claims were not an assault on women and perpetuations of negative stereotypes but statistics necessary to understand and therefore discuss the gender gap in STEM fields.

As Damore said, “When addressing the gap in representation in the population, we need to look at population level differences in distributions. If we can’t have an honest discussion about this, then we can never truly solve the problem.”

In the memo Damore makes several claims about discriminatory practices by Google “Programs, mentoring, and classes only for people with a certain gender or race.

A high priority queue and special treatment for “diversity” candidates.

Hiring practices which can effectively lower the bar for “diversity” candidates by decreasing the false negative rate. Reconsidering any set of people if it’s not “diverse” enough, but not showing that same scrutiny in the reverse direction (clear confirmation bias)”

If these claims are to be believed then Google obviously does have a bias, however not an “unconscious bias” like many claim the tech industry has, such as Katie Elizabeth Founder & CEO of GoHero.

“Every person faces some level of perception issues and unconscious bias from others, however, women often face greater scrutiny in male-dominated fields,” she said.

Taking into consideration Damore’s claims of racist and sexist hiring practices and workshops this doesn’t paint the image of Google as a male dominated man-cave but quite the opposite.

If Damore’s claims of discrimination are to be believed then Google has sexism and racism running rampant, but not in how many people interpret them to be.

A common argument for blatant black on white racism is that such as the one of the stars of netflix original series Dear White People, in an interview with the creator of the show Logan Brown says “racism is the oppression of a marginalized group” and even going as far as to state that “Black people can’t be racist.”

If Google’s search engine is used this is the definition that comes up:
—
racism noun
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
—

No mention of a marginalized group, but there is discrimination based on a racial basis.

And in regards to sexism Google’s first response is this:
—
sexism noun
Prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.
—

And if Damore’s claims are true, Google does exactly that, providing opportunities to some and not to others based on the sex of that person.

In an interview between Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro and Damore, Shapiro said “what is the purported illegal activity that’s going on at Google that you are attempting to expose.”

Damore said “ they treat people differently in the hiring process depending on what their race or gender is and some teams will preferentially choose certain groups.”

Damore’s memo said “Neuroticism (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance).

This may contribute to the higher levels of anxiety women report on Googlegeist and to the lower number of women in high stress jobs.”

In a Daily wire article By Amanda Prestigiacomo said “NPR reported that former Google employee Kelly Ellis said “some women who still work at the company stayed home on Monday because the memo made them ‘uncomfortable going back to work’.”