Is Google Anti-Dalit? Company Disallowed Dalit Activist's Lecture After Pressure From Employees

In April this year, Google cancelled a scheduled talk by US-based Dalit activist and Executive Director of Equality Labs Thenmozhi Soundararajan after the company allegedly went under pressure from employees who claimed their "lives were at risk" if the activist went ahead. The presentation was set to be part of the Google's Diversity Equity Inclusivity (DEI) program for employee sensitisation.

A report by the Washington Post has revealed that groups of Google's employees sent out mass emails through the company intranet, calling Thenmozhi as "Hindu phobic" and "anti-Hindu." The event's subsequent cancellation is seen as a direct fallout of a campaign by pro-Hindu groups inside the company. The issue also soared after Tanuja Gupta, the senior manager at Google, who had invited the Dalit activist to deliver the talk, resigned in protest after being pulled up for inviting her.

According to the report, the employees at Google who opposed her speech claimed that "their lives were at risk by the discussion of caste equity." It added that the mail went out to a South Asian employees group with 8,000 persons. When Gupta posted the link to a petition to talk again, people on the group said that caste discrimination does not exist in US, people from oppressed castes are less educated, and so on. In addition, people called caste equity a form of 'reverse discrimination against upper castes' because of India's reservation system, The News Minute reported.

Thenmozhi, formerly the president of Ambedkarites Association of North America (AANA), which has chapters across the US, Mexico and Canada, is a globally recognised anti-caste campaigner and has been behind efforts to bring international attention to social segregation. Her non-profit Equality Labs has been behind several anti-caste campaigns in the South Asian diaspora, including the Cisco caste harassment case that a US court admitted.

"I cannot find the words to express just how discriminatory and traumatic Google's actions were towards its employees and myself, as it unlawfully cancelled a talk about caste equity. The company must address the casteism within its workforce that allows these attacks to occur and continue," Thenmozhi said.

Thenmozhi was scheduled to deliver her speech on April 18 to coincide with Dalit History Month but was informed it had been postponed. She then wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, saying that she was troubled by this development and that her talk would only help Google's employees understand the issue better.

"Caste discrimination is bad for business and creates unsafe and hostile workplaces. In India, one of the largest markets for Google, caste-oppressed people comprise at least 25 to 30 per cent of the market and are essential for capturing the next billion users," she wrote.

Writes To Google CEO

In the letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Thenmozhi said they are both Tamil, while he comes from a Brahmin background, she is from a Dalit family.

"Even a consultant like me faces casteist slurs in the company you lead. Imagine what a caste-oppressed worker would face if they dared to speak," she said.

She added that every caste-oppressed individual must get the same opportunity.

Another Employee Forced To Resign

However, her talk was cancelled after a group of employees resisted it. Moreover, Tanuja Gupta, the Google employee coordinating with Thenmozhi to organise her speech, was also targeted, with her colleagues being doxxed online.

In a release, Equality Labs has condemned the incident, terming Google's attitude as casteist and questioning the legitimacy of its inclusivity and diversity initiative. The organisation has said that Google has "allowed caste bigotry and harassment to run rampant in the company".

Equality Labs said that Tanuja Gupta's team members "were doxxed due to the planned talk, and their safety was jeopardised." It added that Google's management retaliated against Gupta with an HR investigation and harsh action that forced her to step down. Incidentally, Gupta was one of the organisers behind the walkout at Google in 2018 against the company's method of handling sexual harassment cases. She is also the founder of Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration, a campaign that forced the company to roll back its policy of making employees forego their right to approach courts in the event of a dispute with their employer.

In her farewell letter to Google, Gupta wrote that employees had escalated concerns about her for scheduling the talk. When Thenmozhi's talk was initially cancelled, Tanuja had petitioned for it to be held. Her plea was then reported to the company for violating norms. She said the company informed her that she had violated the People Manager Code of Conduct by inviting Thenmozhi and she would receive a warning letter due to which her performance rating would be lowered and would affect compensation. Tanuja resigned after this.

"Having been at the company for 11 years, I had many reasons for leaving, but this was the only one I needed. In doing my job and promoting caste equity at the company, I saw four women of colour harassed and silenced," Gupta wrote in her resignation email. "The reality is that these are not isolated events, this is a pattern."

After Google cancelled her talk, Gupta hosted a separate discussion personally with Thenmozhi where the two discussed caste discrimination and Equality Labs' work in the US.

In 2018, an Equality Labs survey of 1,500 people on caste in the US showed that 52 per cent of Dalits and 25 per cent of Shudras were worried about their caste being 'outed'. The survey's findings also revealed 60 per cent of Dalits experienced caste-based discrimination and two out of three reported being mistreated at the workplace.

Also Read: Buoyed By Success Of India's Female Athletes, Govt Announces 9 Khelo India Leagues For Women