A group of Apple employees is circulating a written petition demanding an investigation into the hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez, who was brought on to join the company’s product-engineering team for ad platforms, over views deemed “misogynistic” and “overtly racist.”
In the petition, the employees said Garcia Martinez’s hiring called into question Apple’s “hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don’t share our inclusive values.”
“We demand an investigation into how his published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again. Inclusion isn’t just about who we hire; it’s also about how we support everyone who already works at Apple,” the petition said, according to the Verge. “Given Mr. García Martínez’s history of publishing overtly racist and sexist remarks about his former colleagues, we are concerned that his presence at Apple will contribute to an unsafe working environment for our colleagues who are at risk of public harassment and private bullying. We are entitled to insight into how the People team intends to mitigate this risk.”
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The letter, addressed to “Eddy and I&D champions,” referred to Garcia Martinez’s published comments about women, some of whom he called “soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of s—” in his book, Chaos Monkeys.
“The fastest way to cheapen anything — be it a woman, a favor, or a work of art — is to put a price tag on it,” he wrote in another excerpt deemed misogynistic.
Garcia Martinez was also accused of being racist for his views of Chander Sarna, the chief technology officer of Friendster.
“He reminded me of the bored auto-rickshaw drivers in front of Connaught Place, Delhi, who’d overcharge you a hundred rupees to go down the street to Paharganj,” Garcia Martinez wrote in another passage the letter signers found problematic. “‘So is there anything we can do compensation-wise, Antonio?’ asked Chander in his thick Indian accent.”
The Apple employees said they look forward to a response “regarding Apple’s plans to continue moving toward a more inclusive workspace.”
Other companies have taken steps toward promoting inclusivity in their workplaces. Disney, which affixes disclaimers to and limits streaming of movies deemed to be racially insensitive on its Disney+ platform, recently asked its employees to complete a “white privilege checklist” in leaked documents that claimed the United States was founded on “systemic racism.” Several Hollywood award ceremonies have made moves toward adopting racial quotas, and NBC pulled the plug on hosting the Golden Globes over concerns that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the awards program, is not committed enough to diversity.
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Government entities have also made similar moves, with the FBI hiring its first chief diversity officer and the Central Intelligence Agency creating a series of recruitment ads designed to appeal to a diverse workforce.
“I am intersectional, but my existence is not a box-checking exercise,” an unidentified 36-year-old Latina CIA agent says in one video, later adding that she “refuse[s] to internalize misguided, patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be.”
Representatives for Apple did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
