Black Google Employee Gets Security Called On Him, Others Share Their Similar Stories Of Discrimination
Angel Onuoha, a graduate of Harvard University and an associate product manager at Google, has just had an awful experience.
While Onuoha was riding a bike on the company’s campus, security showed up and stopped him — a currently unidentified Google staff member had called them. They didn’t believe he was an employee.
The security then took Angel’s ID badge, forcing the man to miss his bus ride home.
After he shared what happened on Twitter, people immediately stood beside him and pressured Google to look into the whole ordeal.
In a now-viral tweet, a black Associate Product Manager at Google said he was stopped by company security
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A spokesperson for Google told the Daily Dot in a statement that the company is “in touch” with Onuoha and is “conducting a thorough investigation.”
“We take this employee’s concerns very seriously,” the statement noted. “More broadly, one step we’ve taken recently to decrease badging incidents is to make clear that employees should leave investigating access concerns to our security team, which is trained on unconscious bias and ways to ensure our values of respect and inclusion are central to their interactions with Googlers.”
His experience got other people to share similar stories of discrimination
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In the replies to Onuoha’s tweet, a former security guard for the company, Albert Richardson, said he also faced discrimination on the job. According to Richardson, a fellow employee once claimed he was a “suspicious individual.”
“I was on lunch in one of the micro kitchens. My radio goes off like ‘Hey Al, when you get off of lunch, can you head over to the second floor micro kitchen. A Googler just reported a suspicious individual in that area.’ I spent an hour looking for myself,” he tweeted.
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In July, Google reported that 2020 had been its best year ever in terms of hiring black employees, with 8.8% of Google’s U.S. hires identifying as black+. This figure is compared to 5.5% in 2019, which represented the largest gain among racial groups.
However, only 4.4% of Google’s total U.S. workforce is black+, said the company’s latest Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report. When it comes to leadership representation, this number is even lower: only 3% of U.S. leadership positions are being held by black+ employees. Additionally, only 1.3% of leadership positions at the company are held by black+ women.
Many also demanded accountability from Google
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While I am well aware that this kind of discrimination goes on, and it makes me furious, I don't have to experience it, or even the idea of it, every day. I cannot imagine what it's like for a person of colour that everywhere you go, everything you do, someone is profiling you, judging you, harassing you. Let me tell you, I would be the angriest black woman anyone has ever met.
The sad thing is that being angry could have potentially life threatening consequences. When POC experience discrimination in this way, they have to rise above it. Otherwise it could cost them their life.
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The bigger problem is not that a few people at google are racist, but far more importantly that black people are so rare they stand out on the campus. Perhaps a slightly less 'white men only' hiring policy would fix the problem.
It's actually more white and Asian men, but your point stands.
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I never understood why in USA someone calls security or cops for nothing (like seeing a black person) and they don't get fined. I freaked in California when a neighbor called the cops on us because we had a black friend who stopped by, they where looking for a gang of blacks when in fact it was 1 guy, told the cops they should fine who ever called them for nothing, they told me to shut up. I guess the person who called and wasted police time will continue doing this.
People who aren’t afraid of the cops call the cops a lot.
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While I am well aware that this kind of discrimination goes on, and it makes me furious, I don't have to experience it, or even the idea of it, every day. I cannot imagine what it's like for a person of colour that everywhere you go, everything you do, someone is profiling you, judging you, harassing you. Let me tell you, I would be the angriest black woman anyone has ever met.
The sad thing is that being angry could have potentially life threatening consequences. When POC experience discrimination in this way, they have to rise above it. Otherwise it could cost them their life.
Load More Replies... The bigger problem is not that a few people at google are racist, but far more importantly that black people are so rare they stand out on the campus. Perhaps a slightly less 'white men only' hiring policy would fix the problem.
It's actually more white and Asian men, but your point stands.
Load More Replies... I never understood why in USA someone calls security or cops for nothing (like seeing a black person) and they don't get fined. I freaked in California when a neighbor called the cops on us because we had a black friend who stopped by, they where looking for a gang of blacks when in fact it was 1 guy, told the cops they should fine who ever called them for nothing, they told me to shut up. I guess the person who called and wasted police time will continue doing this.
People who aren’t afraid of the cops call the cops a lot.
Load More Replies...
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