Ex-Google engineer files class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against white conservative men

Former Google engineer James Damore, known for circulating a controversial diversity memo that led to his firing at Google in August of last year, is now suing Google for discrimination in a lawsuit that aims to represent anyone working for Google who believes they have faced discrimination at the company on account of their “perceived conservative political views,” “their male gender,” or “their Caucasian race.”

Lawsuit: Google discriminates against white, conservative men

A class-action suit filed Monday in Santa Clara Superior Court in California alleges that Google’s management “goes to extreme — and illegal — lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees and potential employees.” The suit alleges that Google’s diversity efforts are unlawful, citing “illegal hiring quotas to fill its desired percentages of women and favored minority candidates” as an example.

Ex-Google engineer, David Gudeman, is also listed as a plaintiff in the suit. The lawsuit follows a complaint that Damore filed with the National Labor Relations Board in August on the basis that Google was “misrepresenting and shaming me in order to silence my complaints.”

The lawsuit’s claims

Among the lawsuit’s most noteworthy claims:

The suit claims white men were booed at company-wide meetings: “Not only was the numerical presence of women celebrated at Google solely due to their gender, but the presence of Caucasians and males was mocked with ‘boos’ during company-wide weekly meetings. This unacceptable behavior occurred at the hands of high-level managers at Google who were responsible for hundreds, if not thousands, of hiring and firing decisions.”
The suit claims Google protected employees who silenced conservatives: “Google created an environment of protecting employees who harassed individuals who spoke out against Google’s view or the ‘Googley way,’ as it is sometimes known internally.”
The suit claims employees were awarded peer bonuses for arguing against Damore: “In one example of this, an employee gave a Peer Bonus to another employee, and stated that the bonus was for ‘speaking up for googley values and promoting [diversity and inclusion] in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is [Damore’s Memo].’ The Google Recognition Team reviewed this justification, considered it appropriate, and allowed the bonus to proceed.”
The suit claims Google maintains a blacklist of conservatives media personalities not allowed on company grounds: It allegedly includes radio host Alex Jones and conservative blogger Curtis Yarvin.

Google has yet to comment

Google has not yet commented on Damore’s lawsuit. Back in August, Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the controversy, which questioned the biological ability of women workers in technology, directly in a memo to employees. Pichai said that “portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”