Last July, James Damore was a senior software engineer at Google. That was until he wrote a 10-page memo titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," which was critical of the company for "restricting programs and classes to certain genders or races" and for "alienating conservatives."
Shortly after the memo became public, the author of the lightening rod document was fired, primarily because he violated Google's code of conduct, which says that workers "are expected to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias, and unlawful discrimination."
It's odd that he was fired for violating a code of conduct that prohibits discrimination by writing a memo that outlines his thoughts on non-discriminatory ways to reduce the gender gap — he may have lost people when he wrote things like women "prefer jobs in social and artistic areas," have a "lower stress tolerance," as well as a "harder time" leading. He lost me with the example of castrated biological males raised as females that still identify and act like males.
Damore has now filed a lawsuit against his former employee, alleging that Google discriminates against conservative white men. According to a report from Business Insider, the suit says that his firing was retribution against him for his political views.
It is a class action lawsuit and another Google engineer, David Gudeman, has already joined as a plaintiff. According to Damore, he received "many personal messages from fellow Googlers" who thanked him for raising the issue. Who knows? Maybe he'll have more join the fight as his lawyers look for others who feels Google discriminated against them for being white, male and/or conservative.
According to the AP, the lawsuit says the company's "open hostility for conservative thought is paired with invidious discrimination on the basis of race and gender" — specifically, white and male.
Damore's lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon, is the former chairwoman of the Republican Party of San Francisco, a seemingly futile effort in its own right. According to her company bio, she has "a zeal for attacking legal challenges." I have a feeling this case just might be able to quench that thirst.
This is IEN Now with David Mantey.
