Google Hired Diversity Strategist Who Made Radical Anti-Semitic Remarks in 2007
Big Tech companies love to make a show of cracking down on “hate” to score some brownie points and appease the racial justice crowd. Of course, that’s really all it is — just a show.
Kamau Bobb lost his position as Google’s diversity chief on Thursday after coming under fire for a 2007 blog post expressing anti-Semitic sentiments, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself,” Bobb wrote on Nov. 30, 2007, in a post entitled “If I Were a Jew.”
“Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others. My greatest torment would be that I’ve misinterpreted the identity offered by my history and transposed spiritual and human compassion with self righteous impunity,” Bobb, then a research associate at Georgia Tech University, added.
“If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities would be tormented. I would find it increasingly difficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appetite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has now acquired,” he wrote.
Oh, the irony.
In Bobb’s progressive world of diversity strategists, white privilege and systemic racism, it’s completely kosher to rail against Jews.
Bobb had been active on the same personal blog as recently as April and identified himself as a Google employee in the blog’s biography section, according to The Beacon.
While he has been removed from Google’s diversity team, he will remain with the company.
“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. These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologized. He will no longer be part of our diversity team going forward and will focus on his STEM work,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Western Journal following the publication of this article.
“This has come at 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. It has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it.”
So does Bobb’s anti-Semitic language square with Google’s “commitment to racial equity and inclusion,” which CEO Sundar Pichai bloviates about in a lengthy blog post?
Despite Google’s statement, it probably does, actually. Pichai lectures on creating “sustainable equity for Google’s Black+ community” and is often curiously silent on other, less fashionable racial issues.
The Beacon added that a group of Google employees recently demanded that the company cancel its business contracts with Israel and publicly condemn Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Michael Dickson, executive director of StandWithUs, an organization that combats anti-Semitism, wondered whether Google had hired someone as apparently anti-Semitic as Bobb without first, well, Googling him.
I searched for “antisemitism” and “hypocrisy”.
Here’s what I found.Google Diversity Head @kamaubobb Said Jews Have ‘Insatiable Appetite for War’ https://t.co/dE7OS7Kw9Q
Did @Google Google him?
He’s not fit for this post.
And there’s more:— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) June 2, 2021
What does Google’s racial justice campaign mean if its own diversity czar seemingly has such contempt for Jewish people?
What are Big Tech’s calls for “equity” worth if they fall silent in the face of anti-Semitism?
UPDATE, June 4, 2021: This article has been updated with a statement from a Google spokesperson.
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