What Inspired Fired Google Engineer James Damore To Write A Memo?

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Fired Google engineer James Damore, who recently came into the limelight for writing a controversial memo, is still standing by what he wrote in it. Now he has even revealed the trigger point that inspired him to pen the anti-diversity memo, which cost him his job.

Google’s diversity program to blame: James Damore

In an interview with alt-right YouTube personality Stefan Molyneux, Damore said that he had attended a “secretive” diversity program at Google and had some discussions which turned out to be nothing but a lot of “shaming,” reports Business Insider. Further, the former Google engineer said that the company’s diversity program was full of hypocrisy, and it was then that he decided to write about it.

“There’s just so much hypocrisy in the things they are saying. I decided to create the document to clarify my thoughts,” Damore told Molyneux.

In the interview, Damore said that he wrote the memo on a 12-hour work flight to China. Further, he said that he received more messages of support than of criticism. The former Google engineer went on to say that there might be a lot of negative responses in the public, but he received few of them personally.

“They just want to virtue signal to all their followers, ‘I’m a great person, I share your morals. This person is bad.’ But they don’t really want to have a debate,” Damore said.

What did the controversial memo say?

The memo, dubbed “Google’s ideological Echo Chamber,” accused the search giant of left wing, progressive bias and questioned the relevance of Google’s diversity programs. James Damore stated that biological differences between men and women are the reason women are underrepresented in the tech industry. He noted that women are more inclined towards low-stress jobs, and therefore, they are less likely to make it to leadership roles in the tech industry.

Damore went on to say that Google’s effort of balancing the representation of both genders in the tech world is “unfair, divisive, and bad for business.” Protecting women is a natural thing, but sometimes it makes the environment very hostile for men, he said.

“As mentioned before, this likely evolved because males are biologically disposable and because women are generally more cooperative and agreeable than men,” he said.

He explained that there are government programs, legal and social norms, and fields of study which tend to protect women, but when a man comes forward to complain about how the gender issue affects men, he is referred to as a “misogynist and whiner.”

James Damore files complaint against Google

Damore, who got his job at Google after performing well in a coding competition, is surprised by the amount of social media backlash he faced after the memo went viral. After being fired, he stated that this reaction was not expected when he shared his memo last week, notes NYTimes.

The former Google engineer said he has the legal right to raise issues about terms and conditions of the working environment “and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does.”

Damore filed a complaint with federal labor officials against Google on August 7. The website for the National Labor Relations Board stated that law firm Paul Hastings LLP will represent Google. Although Damore’s name was not mentioned, Business Insider was apparently able to confirm it.

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