April Curley a former Google employee sues Google for racial discrimination. Google hired Curley in 2014 to recruit black candidates.
“Last week marked my 2-year anniversary at Google. It’s been a rough two years,” She writes. Additionally stating, she experienced an interesting professional development experience.
In 2017, Curley also mentioned a shocking observation. An Instagram post captured the details. She stated there were only three HBCU campus specialists working for the company.
At this time, Google had put out a press release on diversity. The release spoke about their Google in Residence program. The idea of supporting diversity in the tech industry was the initiative of the company’s new program. HBCU’s and HSI’s would partner with google for opportunities.
Afterwards, she began speaking out on reform of barriers and double standards her and other black employees experienced with the company.
As a result, the company terminated April Curly based on the lawsuit.
“Pursuant to its strong, racially biased corporate culture. Google is engaged in a pattern and practice of race discrimination against its African American and Black employees,” as stated by the complaint.
Likewise, it states, “Google’s centralized leadership, which is nearly devoid of Black representation, holds biased and stereotypical views about the abilities and potential of Black professionals.”
As a result, lower pay and less advances are provided to black employees, according to the lawsuit.
The company has several lawsuits filed by Black employees, similar to April Curley’s. AI Scholar Timnit Gebru was also forced out of the company in 2020. In addition, more than 1,200 Google employees signed on to an open letter calling the incident “unprecedented research censorship” and faulting the company for racism and defensiveness.
Curley’s suit claims black workers were given dead end jobs. Also, told by the company that they were not ‘Googly’ enough.
