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I’ve reached a very important conclusion about white men, and I’ll get to that soon enough, but first, please repeat after me: Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.
Say it again. And again. And if you’re one of those aggrieved white guys out there harboring the odd misconception that your voice is being unfairly stifled by “political correctness,” say it 15 more times, because it just doesn’t seem like this concept has sunk in.
Consider this week’s firing of a white, male Google employee who published a 10-page memo about diversity on an internal company forum. The software engineer used 3,000-or-so wholly unnecessary words to claim that there are fewer women in the tech industry because of “biological causes” and that diversity programs “increase race and gender tensions.”
The memo is riddled with sexist stereotypes poorly supported by scientific references that are, at best, dodgy. And it contains repeated statements that the author is all for diversity, is not sexist and eschews stereotypes — statements proven false by the aforementioned poorly supported sexist stereotypes.
The engineer’s MANifesto also slams Google for not being a friendly place for conservatives, which is odd because conservatives spend a good bit of their time mocking the idea of safe spaces.
He writes: “Alienating conservatives is both non-inclusive and generally bad business because conservatives tend to be higher in conscientiousness, which is require (sic) for much of the drudgery and maintenance work characteristic of a mature company.”
So the dude who doesn’t believe in stereotypes claims conservatives are more conscientious than everyone else. Perfect.
If you care to read the full memo, you can find it online, though you’ll likely sprain an ocular muscle rolling your eyes.
My take — as a white, male who, for whatever reason, is not part of the aggrieved brommunity — is that the Google engineer’s word barf is insufferable, unquestionably insulting to women (and pretty much any non-white person) and the epitome of white, male privilege. And with all that said, he absolutely, without question, had every right in the world to write what he wrote.
Just like Google had every right to fire his white, male butt for, I assume, violating all manner of company standards and for just being an all-around turd. (I would’ve fired him just for thinking anyone would want to read a 10-page memo in the first place.)
There will surely be legal action, and maybe he’ll wind up prevailing. But Google was right to can him, and that canning isn’t an attempt to curtail his freedom of speech.
He can say or write whatever he wants. But the things he says and writes might come with consequences, particularly when he’s sharing his words on an internal company forum.
This isn’t a First Amendment issue. The government isn’t interfering with anybody’s right to free speech. Still, many white guys have rushed to the Google bro’s defense, crying about how put upon they are because they’re never allowed to speak their minds.
If you are a white guy in America, you are not put upon. And if you feel put upon, it’s because you can’t be bothered to put yourself in another person’s shoes for half a minute and try to understand what being put upon actually looks like.
If you’re griping about political correctness, you’re really saying you’re annoyed because you can’t be flip with your language and say things that might offend other people.
The pros and cons and the implementation of diversity programs can and should certainly be discussed openly, but a self-righteous screed that’s blind to anyone else’s point of view isn’t a discussion. It’s a white guy mansplaining to female and non-white coworkers how diversity should work, and the very existence of that kind of thinking is why companies need diversity training.
It’s not a liberal or a conservative concept. It’s a human concept, one that only requires the humility to acknowledge that you might not understand what it’s like to be another person.
Now let me get to the conclusion promised at the beginning of this column. This may prove controversial, but I’m sure my fellow white men will agree that I have every right in the world to share this conclusion, because white-dude thoughts are always worth sharing: White men are not biologically suited to writing memos about diversity.
They are too neurotic and tend to perform better in bubbles in which their sense of dominance is reinforced by other neurotic white men. They also tend to be overly emotional, particularly when fired for writing diversity memos, and can become hysterical when held accountable.
This is not to say I am opposed to diversity in diversity memo writing. White men are capable of working in supporting roles, possibly supplying a company’s more biologically qualified women or people of color with printer paper, or perhaps procuring coffee for them while they write sensible diversity memos.
But attempts to encourage white men to write diversity memos is clearly social engineering run amok. We must respect the differences in our DNA and the skill sets our biology have clearly predetermined.
Let’s stay in our lanes, shall we?