New York Times columnist David Brooks is
calling on Google CEO Sundar Pichai to resign after firing James Damore for writing a memo expressing his views about gender diversity that was circulated around Google and then leaked to the
public.
Google has a long history of telling its employees to stand up for what they believe in, but then management seems to take action -- sometimes negative -- when they do.
Damore backed his views with research papers and science. Brooks, in his opinion piece running in The New York Times, defends Damore’s use of research papers and science, but doesn't
explicitly suggest he agrees with his ideas.
Pichai stated in a memo that "to suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is
offensive and not O.K," which Brooks calls "a blatantly dishonest characterization of the memo."
The 10-page memo details several concepts -- one of which one focuses on how women are
underrepresented in tech because of inherent psychological differences between men and women and not because they face bias and discrimination in the workplace.
“Damore was tapping into
the long and contentious debate about genes and behavior,” Brooks wrote. “On one side are those who believe that humans come out as blank slates and are formed by social structures. On the
other are the evolutionary psychologists who argue that genes interact with environment and play a large role in shaping who we are. In general the evolutionary psychologists have been winning this
debate.”
Brooks wrote that Pichai was either unprepared
to understand the research, not capability of handling complex data flows, or was too afraid to stand up to a mob.