Ambedkar Association of North America has strongly condemned Google’s “reprehensible action” last week, of canceling a pre-approved, scheduled talk on caste based discrimination by Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs to Google’s employees to mark the Dalit History Month.
“We are alarmed by Google’s behavior and question whether Google’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion at workplace excludes Dalits. We question whether Google’s leadership wants to turn a blind eye to the caste discrimination that is rampant in not only Google but in its own backyard, Silicon Valley,” read the statement by AANA.
“Google has championed human rights since its inception and inspired millions of people globally with its code of conduct that states, ‘And remember.. don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!’ It is disappointing to note that when its own senior employee, Tanuja Gupta, decided to speak up and start a dialogue within Google about caste discrimination, Google did exactly opposite of its code and silenced the debate. It let a fringe section of its employees spread a false narrative that all caste based debate is Hindu phobic and that led to cancelation of Ms. Soundarajan’s planned talk at the last minute,” it added.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s talk was supposed to be a part of the tech company’s Diversity Equity Inclusivity (DEI) programme, aimed at sensitising employees on issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality, and now, caste. It was called off after several employees of the tech giant, in emails addressed to company heads, called Soundararajan “anti-Hindu” and “Hindu-phobic.”
Furthermore, Tanuja Gupta who invited Soundarajan to speak resigned in protest. Gupta was a senior manager at Google.
“We are pained by the treatment meted out to both Ms. Soundarajan and Ms. Gupta and stand in solidarity with them,” read the statement by Ambedkaraite group.
The statement went on to say: “Caste is a global reality and unfortunately, caste-based discrimination is still rampant globally. In fact, right in Google’s backyard in Silicon Valley, State of California sued another large corporation, Cisco Systems, in 2020 of allowing caste-based discrimination to happen within its workforce. Education on caste and caste-based discrimination is only going to bring inclusion and diversity within the workplace. Suppressing debate is not the answer.”
The AANA has appealed to Google’s leadership to step in immediately, apologize to Soundararajan and Gupta, educate its employees on caste-based discrimination and affirm its commitment to diversity and inclusion by including caste as protected category in its anti-discrimination policy, like several other large Fortune 500 corporations have already done.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan who is a Dalit rights activist based in the United States of America, is also a transmedia storyteller, songwriter, hip hop musician and technologist. She has been actively campaigning for the rights of the marginalized in midst of structural casteism.
Currently, Soundararajan is the Executive Director of Equality Labs, an Ambedkarite South Asian progressive power-building organization that uses community research, cultural and political organizing, popular education and digital security to fight the oppressions of caste apartheid, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and religious intolerance.
