Google removes diversity chief from position after anti-Semitic rant revealed

Kamau Bobb was not fired, but shifted internally, after a Washington newspaper revealed Google’s head of diversity wrote that Jews have an ‘insatiable appetite for war and killing.’

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Google on Wednesday announced that it had removed its global director of diversity from his position after a newspaper report revealed a vile anti-Semitic posting on his personal website.

Google hired Kamau Bobb in 2017 as their Global Lead for Diversity Strategy and Research, but the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday published excerpts from a 2007 blog entitled “If I were a Jew” in which he said Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war and killing.”

“We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offense and pain to members of our Jewish community and our LGBTQ+ community,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

“These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologized. He will no longer be part of our diversity team going forward and will focus on his STEM work,” the company said, indicating that Bobb wasn’t being fired, but would be reassigned to continue working within the company.

Google acknowledged that the revelations about Bobb’s blog, which was removed from his website on Wednesday, came at a time of heightened anxiety for Jews.

“This has come at at a time where we’ve seen an alarming increase in anti-Semitic attacks,” Google said. “Anti-Semitism is a vile prejudice that has given rise to unfathomable acts. It has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it.”

Free Beacon investigative reporter Alana Goodman exposed the anti-Semitic blog and reported that Bobb posted an apology on an internal Google mailing group for the company’s Jewish employees, admitting that his comments back in 2007 were a “ham-handed attempt” to criticize the IDF.

“[T]he world is leaving us all feeling unsafe and unsettled right now. I certainly don’t want to contribute to that,” Bobb wrote in his apology. “[N]one of this changes or excuses the words I wrote – but I am deeply sorry for them.”

When the blog was exposed this week, the the Simon Wiesenthal Center human rights organization that combats racism and anti-Semitism tweeted: “Google must fire this anti-Semite Kamau Bobb.”

“Any Google search on #antisemitism can show that’s exactly what Bobb expresses in this blog,” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti Defamation League.

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