A representative of Google told FPJ on June 02, 2022, that there is no racialism based on caste inside their office. He also said that the company already has a policy against retaliation and racialism in the office. The representative replied this to FPJ after he was asked about a report in The Washington Post that claimed the cancellation of a talk on social class racism that was to be addressed by a Dalit rights activist by the multinational company.
The Dalit Rights Activist who is the founder of Equality Lab, an NGO which works for the Dalits in the U.S. was supposed to address the Google News at the gathering for Dalit History Month (April). But her address was terminated after some workers protested against it.
As per the information these workers were misled by their colleagues who spread fake news saying that the Dalit activist is Hindu–phobic or Anti–Hindu.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the activist went to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of the tech giant requesting him to allow her talk to continue but her request wasn’t permitted. Some of the staff members assumed over this that the company willingly doesn’t want her to talk about caste discrimination.
The senior executive of the firm, Tanuja Gupta resigned her post after the termination of the Dalit Activist’s Talk show. As reports said, Soundararajan was called on the show by this executive. In her notice to quit, the senior executive asked Google if the company wants its diversification efforts to be successful or not. Furthermore, she said that the company has always used revenge to deal with its internal reproval and it is the female workers who get severely affected by it.
Both the senior manager and the Dalit activist have claimed that this decision was taken by Cathy Edward, a vice president of engineering and Gupta’s head woman.
Soundararajan criticized Pichai over the affair and she said that the Google CEO should remark on the ongoing controversy. Adding further the activist said that, The Google CEO himself being a Brahmin and being brought up in Tamil Nadu, India must have known about social classes.
The Activist said that if the CEO can comment about the Company’s commitments on account of George Floyd then he is definitely in a position to remark on this context.
A representative of the Company said to FPG with regards to the context that the talk of the Activist was terminated as it was dividing and generating bitterness among the staff instead of bringing them together and spreading awareness. Furthermore, the company can prove how this conduct was affecting other employees.
