Audio By Carbonatix
The author of the controversial memo that upended Google in August is suing the company, alleging that white, male conservatives are systematically discriminated against by Google.
James Damore was fired as an engineer after the manifesto, which questioned the benefits of diversity programs and suggested women may be biologically inferior engineers, was widely passed around the company. In a new lawsuit, he and another fired engineer claim that “employees who expressed views deviating from the majority view at Google on political subjects raised in the workplace and relevant to Google’s employment policies and its business, such as ‘diversity’ hiring policies, ‘bias sensitivity,’ or ‘social justice,’ were/are singled out, mistreated, and systematically punished and terminated from Google, in violation of their legal rights.”
Attorneys for Damore and the other engineer, David Gudeman, filed the lawsuit today in California’s Santa Clara Superior Court, and are seeking to represent others whose rights they claim were also violated — specifically, the company’s conservative white men. The lawsuit contains dozens of pages of internal Google communications that, according to the suit, demonstrate anti-conservative sentiment at the company, although that characterization seems debatable in several of the cited examples.
![]()
Damore became a minor celebrity in some parts of the online right after the memo leaked out.
“To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to staff after Damore was fired.
Gudeman was fired in 2016 after making comments about a Muslim colleague. According to the suit, Google human resources said the comments suggested Gudeman was linking the colleague to terrorism. The lawsuit does not contain the full exchange but says Gudeman claimed, after a colleague said he had been targeted by the FBI, that “the FBI could have possibly found something interesting” related to the colleague’s trip to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Google is fighting back claims that women at the company have been systematically underpaid. After a judge dismissed an initial complaint, a group tried again by amending their complaint this month.
“We look forward to defending against Mr. Damore’s lawsuit in court,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
Latest Stories
-
Latif Iddrisu vs. IGP trial delayed again as state says police witness is unavailable
3 minutes -
Sekou Nkrumah urges tolerance in Ghana’s homosexuality debate
4 minutes -
Frerol Rural Bank donates phototherapy units to Margret Marquart Hospital, food items to special school
5 minutes -
Assault on journalist: Court sets February 18 to begin trial of NPP sympathiser over attack on Latif Iddrisu
11 minutes -
Prices of cement won’t go up – Trade Minister assures Ghanaians
13 minutes -
Ghana’s mango trade hits new high with 26-tonne road export to Morocco
15 minutes -
Bryan Acheampong accuses NDC government of neglecting cocoa farmers
18 minutes -
Circle fire prompts planned decongestion as Ayawaso East Assembly moves to redevelop enclave
20 minutes -
EXIM Bank boosts financial base with GH¢107m recovery – Trade Minister
22 minutes -
Shock and confusion as Spain struggles for answers after deadly train crash
26 minutes -
Good Samaritan taxi driver struggles for survival after damaging vehicle to apprehend criminals
28 minutes -
The Indian couple who won a $200,000 settlement over ‘food racism’ at US university
28 minutes -
Accra Mayor rallies Police, other security agencies ahead of February 1 decongestion exercise
40 minutes -
Former MASLOC CEO faces U.S. judge today in Las Vegas as Ghana seeks extradition
46 minutes -
Ato Forson, Chief Justice meet over plans to improve judicial operations
47 minutes
