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- DINT #22 - Are Black Women Welcome at Google?
DINT #22 - Are Black Women Welcome at Google?
Plus, the Uptime Institute releases key findings on data center outages. Indeed.com axes 15% of staff, and Taiwan looks to the skies to guard against attacks from China.
Google’s History of Racial Equity Missteps: A Failure of Sundar Pichai to Lead?
While we don’t have reliable data on potential successors to Alphabet (Google)’s Sundar Pichai, we have unearthed a patchwork of racial equity missteps by our favorite search engine company. Let’s take a look at the timeline:
June 17, 2020Alphabet (Google) CEO Sundar Pichai issues statement titled “Our commitments to racial equity.”
September 11, 2020Google fires HBCU-focused Diversity Recruiter April Curley.
When I started at Google, I quickly became aware of all the racist shit put in place to keep black and brown students out of their pipeline. I routinely called out shady recruitment practices such as “screening out” resumes of students with “unfamiliar” school/university names.
— Real Abril🌈 (@RealAbril)
9:37 PM • Dec 21, 2020
December 3, 2020Google fires Artificial Intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru.
David Baker, a former director of engineering at Google’s trust and safety group who resigned in protest of Dr. Gebru’s dismissal, said Google should admit that it had made a mistake instead of trying to save face.
“Google’s lack of courage with its diversity problem is ultimately what evaporated my passion for the job,” said Mr. Baker, who worked at the company for 16 years. “The more secure Google has become financially, the more risk averse it has become.” (New York Times / Daisuke Wakabayashi)
December 21, 2020April Curley sends tweets about Google’s lack of willingness to hire students from HBCUs.
December 21, 2020HBCU 20x20 cancels partnership with Google.
#HBCU20x20 has cancelled its partnership with @Google
We refuse to partner with a company who continues to oust/disrespect Black people.
Black people deserve better, and it’s clear @Google has not find the need to do better.
We do not encourage working or interning at Google.
— Nicole A. Tinson (@Nikki_T)
12:44 AM • Dec 22, 2020
January 29, 2021Sundar Pichai meets with HBCU presidents to discuss hiring Google employees from their schools.
December 17, 2021California opens investigation of Google for its treatment of Black female employees.
May 19, 2022Google releases its 2022 Diversity Annual Report.
October 26, 2022Google’s Chief Diversity Officer gives an update on how the firm is engaging with HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI).
December 13, 2022April Curley files a lawsuit against Google claiming her termination was retaliatory.
Update on California’s investigation into Google’s treatment of Black women
We also reached out to California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing but have yet to receive an update on the investigation into Google’s treatment of Black women.
A salary for silence?
Based on the timeline we’ve shared it wouldn’t be stretch to say Google is far from its stated goals of workplace equity. Are Black women welcome at Google? It appears that only the ones who are not vocal about much-needed changes (Curley) or those who don’t voice critical research and warnings about emerging technology (Gebru) are welcome. The more poignant question may be: Can a salary buy silence?
Where are they now?
The two Black women who Google fired in 2020 spoke up about injustice at the company. At first, they spoke up internally, not in the media. But when Google fired Curley and Gebru, they did go public.
Curley filed a lawsuit in December.
Gebru has gone on to found and serve as executive director at Distributed AI Research (DAIR).
Google releases its diversity numbers in May (possibly).
News and Notes
The Uptime Institute released a blockbuster report on data center outages from 2016 to 2022. The data shows heavy, unexpected use of networks increases network outages. The numbers increased in 2019 and 2020. The numbers plummeted in the intervening years.
Today the Dell’Oro Group reports the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market experienced another year of 30+% growth. Something that stood out: Enterprises want a one-stop-shop for all things SASE. Cisco and Zscaler have this nailed as the top two vendors in the SASE sector.
Broadcom not only faces scrutiny from the EU for its deal to acquire VMware but now the UK is voicing concerns over a monopoly forming from the deal. Broadcom has five days to address Britain's Competition and Markets Authority’s concerns. If they miss the deadline, they’ll be in for an investigation, which could push out the completion of the $61 billion deal even farther. (Reuters / Paul Sandle and Muvija M)
Taiwan looks to satellites to save it from communications cut-offs caused by China. Last month two undersea cables connecting Taiwan to international communications networks were cut by their neighbor to the north, China. The island now looks to satellites similar to SpaceX to help it remain online in the event of an attack from China, which believes the autonomous country is not sovereign and should be called Chinese Taipei. Taiwan already makes satellite technology for companies such as SpaceX. (Semafor / Louise Matsakis)
Job-search platform Indeed today announced it’s laying off 15% of its staff (2,200 workers). Theo Wayt of The Information reports the firm is seeing fewer job listings on the Indeed.com site, which is odd with all of the open tech roles today. Research firm Bain and Company has a possible answer: The tech jobs are not at tech companies but they’re at non-tech companies. Note: The sad irony isn’t lost on us at DINT and wish all those affected by the layoffs find their unique role in short order. (The Information / Theo Wayt)
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