UPDATED 00:01 EDT / JANUARY 09 2018

NEWS

Fired Google engineer James Damore sues for discrimination – against white men

James Damore, a former senior software engineer at Google LLC, was fired in August after writing an internal memo that discussed the issue of diversity in the workplace and more controversially argued that women were less biologically suited to become engineers. Now he has turned the tables, filing a class action lawsuit charging Google with discriminating against conservative white men.

Damore, a Harvard graduate, caused quite the stir last year after saying that there were “inherent biological differences in men and women,” arguing that if companies attempt to level the playing field, they are doing so sometimes by sacrificing talent.

In the 161-page suit, Damore and another former Google engineer, David Gudeman, argue that Google discriminated “against employees for their perceived conservative political views.” The lawsuit further says Google is openly hostile toward conservative opinions and discriminates based on race and gender.

It’s reported that Gudeman was fired from the company in 2016 after comments he made that allegedly connected a Muslim colleague to terrorism. The lawsuit claims that Gudeman merely told his colleague that the FBI could have “found something interesting” after he went on a trip to Pakistan. His LinkedIn profile now states he is self-employed.

“Google’s management goes to extreme — and illegal — lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees and potential employees at Google,” said the suit.

The suit apparently contains evidence in the form of communications at Google that support these claims. It also claims that Google went as far as illegally hiring women and minorities to fill quotas and is highly critical of managers who cannot fill these so-called quotas. It goes on to say that at times white men and just men were “mocked with ‘boos’ during companywide weekly meetings.”

“We look forward to defending against Mr. Damore’s lawsuit in court,” a Google spokesperson said.

At the same time, Google has been under the gun for its lack of diversity in the workplace. In September, three former female Google employees filed a lawsuit accusing Google of pay discrimination based on gender.

Photo: Kristina Alexanderson via Flickr

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