Google removed the head of its diversity team after a blog post about Jewish people resurfaced.
Kamau Bobb, whose LinkedIn page says he has been in the position since September 2018, “will no longer be part of [Google’s] diversity team going forward,” a Google spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
ANTISEMITIC CRIMES SPIKE IN US IN WAKE OF ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT
His removal, though he will remain with the company and focus on STEM work, came days after the blog post titled “If I were a Jew” resurfaced, though it has since been deleted.
In the post, he apparently wrote that Jewish people have an “insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself,” an “insensitivity to the suffering [of] others,” and that if he were Jewish, his “sensibilities would be tormented” because Israel has a desire for “vengeful violence.”
The post questioned how Jewish people support Israel’s actions in Lebanon and Gaza and invoked Kristallnacht, the violent antisemitic riots that broke out in Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and he said, “It cannot be that the sum total of a history of suffering and slaughter places such a premium on my identity that I would be willing to damn others in defense of it.”
Google also “unequivocally condemned” his writing.
“We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offense and pain to members of our Jewish community and our LGBTQ+ community,” the Google spokesperson continued. “These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologized.”
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There has been a spike of antisemitic crimes in the United States and globally, which coincided with the increased tension and fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza-based U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
“This has come at a time where we’ve seen an alarming increase in antisemitic attacks. Antisemitism is a vile prejudice that has given rise to unfathomable acts,” the company spokesperson added. “It has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it.”
