So before I make this comment, I want to make my political views clear. I am a leftist who believes in equality and disersity of all kinds. I think it makes us stronger to see other perspectives and helps us to challenge our own biases. Over the past few weeks I've been struggling to develop a firm opinion on this story.
Part of your post says the Damore presented his misconceptions poorly, that he should have provided strong scientific evidence to support his points. I am unsure of the accuracy of Damores sources or the concensus of the scientific community on this issue, but I've heard experts defending both sides and I do not have the time to look deeper into the reputability of the sources. However, my point is, I don't think Damore should be fired for presenting his perceptions (however misguided they may be). He presented what he thought were facts and Google disagreed with him on the truthfulness of those facts. He started the memo stating that he feels Google is an echo chamber where he is afraid to express his views and when he expressed them Google proved him correct.
In an interview, Damore started that he wrote the memo in the hopes that coworkers could tell him why he is wrong in thinking this way, he hoped the memo would spark a conversation about diversity in which he could learn about why Google's policies are the way they are, or if they could be better then it would reveal ways to improve them.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I am a leftist and I believe strongly in diversity of all kinds, and that includes diversity of ideas.
Damore had ideas, and he was fired before he even knew why those ideas were bad. I really believe he wrote the memo because he was looking for an explanation on his own for the company's policies but couldn't find one. I think this could have been an opportunity to have an internal conversation at Google about why gender and ethnic diversity is a thing to strive for and instead it was taken as a chance to fire someone who asked questions. Damore said that a large amount of Google employees privately expressed support for him and now the opportunity to educate those misguided employees is gone because they are now even more afraid to state their beliefs and we will never be able to have an open conversation with them about why their views are incorrect. These people who agree with Damore will instead maintain their misconceptions and quietly reaffirm them and potentially erode the diversity culture Google tried to protect in firing him.
PS - Like Damore, I am merely stating what I know from what I've seen. I am presenting my ideas in the hopes of having them proven wrong or if they are strong enough, challenge the misconceptions of others.
Thanks for the post! It helped me gain a bit more perspective on the issue and come closer to figuring out where I stand on it. :)
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So before I make this comment, I want to make my political views clear. I am a leftist who believes in equality and disersity of all kinds. I think it makes us stronger to see other perspectives and helps us to challenge our own biases. Over the past few weeks I've been struggling to develop a firm opinion on this story.
Part of your post says the Damore presented his misconceptions poorly, that he should have provided strong scientific evidence to support his points. I am unsure of the accuracy of Damores sources or the concensus of the scientific community on this issue, but I've heard experts defending both sides and I do not have the time to look deeper into the reputability of the sources. However, my point is, I don't think Damore should be fired for presenting his perceptions (however misguided they may be). He presented what he thought were facts and Google disagreed with him on the truthfulness of those facts. He started the memo stating that he feels Google is an echo chamber where he is afraid to express his views and when he expressed them Google proved him correct.
In an interview, Damore started that he wrote the memo in the hopes that coworkers could tell him why he is wrong in thinking this way, he hoped the memo would spark a conversation about diversity in which he could learn about why Google's policies are the way they are, or if they could be better then it would reveal ways to improve them.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I am a leftist and I believe strongly in diversity of all kinds, and that includes diversity of ideas.
Damore had ideas, and he was fired before he even knew why those ideas were bad. I really believe he wrote the memo because he was looking for an explanation on his own for the company's policies but couldn't find one. I think this could have been an opportunity to have an internal conversation at Google about why gender and ethnic diversity is a thing to strive for and instead it was taken as a chance to fire someone who asked questions. Damore said that a large amount of Google employees privately expressed support for him and now the opportunity to educate those misguided employees is gone because they are now even more afraid to state their beliefs and we will never be able to have an open conversation with them about why their views are incorrect. These people who agree with Damore will instead maintain their misconceptions and quietly reaffirm them and potentially erode the diversity culture Google tried to protect in firing him.
PS - Like Damore, I am merely stating what I know from what I've seen. I am presenting my ideas in the hopes of having them proven wrong or if they are strong enough, challenge the misconceptions of others.
Thanks for the post! It helped me gain a bit more perspective on the issue and come closer to figuring out where I stand on it. :)