An anonymous Google employee reportedly wrote a critical memo about the tech giant’s diversity initiatives and “ideological echo chamber,” and the document was circulated throughout the company’s ranks.
The document, first reported by Motherboard and obtained by Gizmodo, is a 10-page critique of not only the diversity programs at the tech giant but the very need for those programs.
A male software specialist at the company sent out the memo — entitled, “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” — internally to other employees who have viewed the document en-masse.
The author flatly denies that women make up a smaller percentage of high-tech workers because of some innate sexism in the industry; rather, he says basic psychological variances account for the gap.
“We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism,” he wrote, adding, “Discrimination to reach equal representation is unfair, divisive, and bad for business.”
The memo has garnered both popularity and notoriety as Google is embroiled in a U.S. labor department investigation that has charged the internet collosus with pay inequity for women performing similar jobs to men.
“Google’s political bias has equated the freedom from offense with psychological safety, but shaming into silence is the antithesis of psychological safety,” the author said.
“This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed.”
The writer acknowledged that while most of us “have good intentions,” “we all have biases which are invisible to us.” He contends that Google has “several biases” but debate about these biases is disallowed because the discussion is all about race and gender.
“Political orientation is actually a result of deep moral preferences and thus biases. Considering that the overwhelming majority of the social sciences, media, and Google lean left, we should critically examine these prejudices.”