Google hired April Kerley to hire more black workers but fired her for countering the firm’s “racially biased corporate culture,” she alleges in a lawsuit filed Friday.
Kerli, a black woman who worked at Google from 2014 to 2020, alleges in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose that she and other black workers at the digital advertising giant in Mountain View were paid lower wages, denied opportunities promotions and were subjected to a hostile work environment based on race. She is seeking class action status for a lawsuit to bring in all black current and former Google employees.
“Google’s central leadership, which has little to no black representation, holds preconceived and stereotypical views of the abilities and potential of black professionals,” the lawsuit says. “As a result, and in line with company-wide discriminatory policies and practices, Google is hiring a small number of black employees and relegating these few black employees to lower-level positions, paying them less, and denying them promotions and leadership positions due to for their race. Black Google employees face a hostile work environment and face retaliation if they dare to challenge or speak out against the company’s discriminatory practices.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company, the first major tech firm to report on workforce diversity, said last year in its latest report that 4.4% of its U.S. workers were black, 3% were in tech positions and half were white. In leadership positions, 3% were black and two-thirds were white. Black workers made up 9% of new hires last year, up from 6% in 2020, the report says.
The suit cites data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that black workers make up 9.1% of the workforce in the Internet and web search industry.
Curley’s lawsuit comes amid growing criticism of Google for the way its workers of color are being treated. The departure in 2020 of star AI researcher Timnit Gebru, a black woman who has internally criticized the company’s diversity efforts, highlighted racial issues at the firm, with CEO Sundar Pichai telling employees in a memo obtained by Axios that “we need to take responsibility for an outstanding black female leader with great talent to leave Google in an accident.” The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing is investigating Google’s treatment of black female workers for alleged discrimination and harassment, Reuters reported in December.
According to the suit, Google hired Curley, who worked for the nonprofit Teach for America, to develop an outreach program aimed at historically black colleges and universities and to recruit black university students to the company.
“As[Curley’s]success in recruiting talented, highly qualified black candidates grew, she discovered that Google was not genuinely interested in actual diversity and equal employment opportunity, but only wanted to polish its public image for marketing purposes,” it says. in a lawsuit. Kerley “didn’t want to be used as a mere marketing ploy,” the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged that Kerli, like other black Google employees, was “undervalued” due to being placed in a job category that did not match her education and experience. The firm pays black employees less than their counterparts in similar positions, and keeping black employees in lower positions also means they get lower bonuses and cut stock options, the lawsuit says. Kerley, like many of the tech giant’s other black workers, was never promoted as the lawsuit alleged.
When Curly’s only black boss offered her a raise, Google “falsely stated that it didn’t have enough budget to adjust her salary,” the lawsuit alleged. “Later, Kerli found out that a high-ranking white manager blocked her salary and promotion. Although this manager worked on the same floor as Curley and had a cordial relationship, she admitted to Curley that she found her “intimidating”, “surly” and – a stereotype that black women in America are all too familiar with – “evil”. “. .’”
Hiring managers at Google “deemed black candidates not Googled enough, which is a mere whistle for racial discrimination,” and interviewers undermined black candidates by asking them questions inappropriate for the job they were looking for, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged that in the year before she was fired, Google repeatedly reprimanded Curly and cut her compensation because she spoke at team meetings and challenged internal rules. After she met several times with about a dozen black and Hispanic workers to address the issues faced by workers of color, and they developed a list of “desirable reforms,” Google offered her an unofficial productivity plan in “clear retaliation for Kerley’s leadership role.” to this human rights group,” the lawsuit alleged. As part of the plan, Kerli told the company that she was “preparing a detailed report on racial bias in hiring,” and in response, Google illegally fired her, the lawsuit alleged.
Kerli is seeking compensation and benefits she and other black employees allegedly lost, as well as related positions, promotions and seniority, and unspecified damages.