Google Anti-Diversity Manifesto Sparks Response From Company's VP Of Diversity

The tech-sphere was abuzz Saturday with news of a manifesto written by a Google employed engineer, which first went viral internally at Google and is now making its rounds on the internet.

Motherboard first reported about a 10-page document being shared among Google employees, detailing one engineer's opinions on diversity at the company. Gizmodo later obtained and published the document in full.

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Among his opinions, the Google engineer claimed that the gender pay gap between men and women stems from biological differences between the sexes. He stated that “women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things” and that women are prone to “higher anxiety,” and “lower stress tolerance,” making them favor front end positions at Google rather than the back end.

TL:DR

Google’s political bias has equated the freedom from offense with psychological safety, but shaming into silence is the antithesis of psychological safety.

This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed.

The lack of discussion fosters the most extreme and authoritarian elements of this ideology.

Extreme: all disparities in representation are due to oppression

Authoritarian: we should discriminate to correct for this oppression

Differences in distributions of traits between men and women may in part explain why we don’t have 50% representation of women in tech and leadership. Discrimination to reach equal representation is unfair, divisive, and bad for business.

- Google Engineer, manifesto obtained by Gizmodo

He also criticized Google for propelling leftist ideologies in its efforts to build gender and racial diversity within the company, while silencing employees with more conservative points of view.

The manifesto has not been taken well by several Google employees, who have shared their opinions on public social media. Many have also expressed their opinions on other platforms, such as Blind, an anonymous chat application for employees at major tech companies, according to Motherboard. However, for the many who disagree with the manifesto, there are several others who support the author and have also expressed similar opinions.

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The author of the manifesto remains unnamed. However, the company’s recently hired Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance, Danielle Brown, has issued a statement in response to the manifesto, which also served as her official introduction statement to Google.

Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions. But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws.

- Danielle Brown, Vice President of Diversity, Integrity & Governance at Google

Google released its 2017 diversity report in late June, which details that the company’s gender demographics include 69 percent men and 31 percent women. Its racial demographics include 56 percent white, 35 percent Asian, 4 percent multiracial, 4 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black and less than 1 percent Native.