Excerpts from NBC News -
California investigates Google’s treatment of Black women workers
A state agency has already interviewed several Black women who have worked at Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company.
By Reuters
California’s civil rights regulator is investigating Google’s treatment of Black female workers following alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails from the agency seen by Reuters.
Attorneys and analysts at the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) have repeatedly interviewed several Black women who have worked at Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, about their experiences there, according to the documents and the sources. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing the work.
Questions have centered on alleged harassment and discrimination in the workplace, according to the emails. Conversations have taken place as recently as last month, one of the sources said.
The DFEH declined to comment.
Google said it is focused on “building sustainable equity” for its Black workers and that 2020 was its largest year for hiring what it calls “Black+” workers, a designation inclusive of people belonging to multiple races.
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For years Black men in the tech industry have said they have faced disparaging comments and discouraging experiences, such as being shut out of offices because security guards and colleagues questioned whether they actually worked there.
As more Black women have joined the workforce, such complaints have increased. Seven current and former Google employees told Reuters this year about being marginalized on projects as Black women and not taken as seriously as colleagues with different backgrounds.
Also earlier this year, an investigation by NBC News revealed that several Black, Latino, and other Google employees of color who had reported incidents of bias and discrimination were instructed to take medical leave. Some said they were eventually pushed out of their roles at the company.
Artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru has said Google fired her a year ago for criticizing its lack of workforce diversity and for fighting managers who objected to publishing a critical paper she co-wrote. Erika Munro Kennerly, who oversaw diversity and strategy teams at Google before resigning last year, told magazine Corporate Counsel in January that “there’s an overall tone of being undervalued” as a Black woman at Google.
