Google Diversity executive Kamau Bobb lectures Jews on the lessons of the Holocaust

 Cross-posted at Bluetruth.  Written by Dr. Mike

The Google Diversity Annual Report says: “Building a culture of belonging empowers people to do their best work. Google is a company where people of different views, backgrounds and experiences can come together and show up for one another.” 

Dr. Kamau Bobb is the Global Lead for Diversity Strategy and Research for Google, so you’d think that he would have a great deal of sensitivity to how people of different views, backgrounds and experiences should relate to each other. Which makes it quite surprising to read the audaciously offensive post that he wrote on his blog in 2007.

In this era of “cancel culture”, we’ve seen people held to account for what they posted online before they were adults. But Dr. Bobb had already received his PhD from Georgia Tech by the time he wrote the piece under discussion. Given that it was 14 years ago, it is possible that his views have changed since then, and if so, I’d genuinely welcome hearing from him about it. Because it certainly strikes me as grossly inappropriate for a non-Jew to be lecturing Jews on what we should have learned from the Holocaust (and prior centuries of persecution).

“Wait, what?”, you say. Yes, indeed. You can read his post  “If I Were a Jew” here.  His utter erasure of the genocidal calls to eradicate the Jews from the Jewish homeland, from the Mufti’s incitement in the 1920’s, though Azzam Pasha’s promise in 1947 that “this will be a momentous massacre”, all the way up to Fathi Hammad’s “cut off the heads of the Jews”, screams louder than his multiple misstatements of fact and his characterizations of Israel as having “an insatiable appetite for vengeful violence.”

Perhaps Dr. Bobb might consider this: some of the lessons that many Jews learned from the Holocaust (reinforced by subsequent events such as the Rwandan genocide and the oppression of the Uighurs) are 1) that the Jewish state has to be able to defend itself because we know that the world won’t act on “never again”, and 2) that we take antisemites quite seriously when they say that they intend to kill us.

Discussions along these lines do occur within the Jewish community-- and even within Israel itself. But those discussions occur among those with a shared sense of reference-- and in Israel, with a shared set of experiences and responsibilities. Just as I'd expect that there are certain conversations which take place within the Black community, in which outsiders are not welcome to lecture them.  

We’ve seen far more than our share of “Jews didn’t learn the lessons of the Holocaust.”  But those don’t usually come from those who are professionally employed to promote inclusion at worldwide companies. I’m sure that after reading that, many Jewish employees at Google won’t feel that he’s ready to show up for them against antisemitic abuse.

(h/t Alana Goodman)

UPDATE 6/2
Kamau Bobb “will no longer be a part of our diversity team going forward"

Google and Facebook shadow banning pro-Israel voices

I first noticed it last year, and it was discouraging, to say the least.

Google was not picking up my posts.

Searching for keywords I use, searching for exact titles and phrases I used, still nothing.

My blogger settings were fine.  That wasn't it.

Google picked up the Campus Watch reprint of my story on Hatem Bazian's failed feta boycott, but not my original, here.

Searching for the exact key words of the post Hatem Bazian's BDS feta fail at Trader Joes yields  no results for this blog.

Shadow banning is real. 

There was no warning.  There was no appeal. There was no statement on how to fix this. 

Other search engines still pick up my postings.  People are finding their way here. I can see my user statistics and the comments left behind. 

From Duck Duck Go:

Today, the shadow ban extends to Facebook.  Multiple people attempting to share my post on the  Gaza strawberry exports have been told its  "abusive".

 I have no way of knowing if this is the work of a rogue Google employee, an algorithm gone wrong, or a direct and cynical attempt to silence pro-Israel voices.   Whatever the explanation,  it is dangerous to assume that Google or any other Web giant is a neutral arbitrator. 

Has anyone else experienced this? What recourse do we have?  Is exporting the content to a new blog the way to go?   Is it time to abandon Blogger as a platform altogether?

Feedback and advice welcome.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt "We love Israel" Pssst. BDS fail

Are you keeping score? In the world of BDS success stories, apparently a cafe that never sold Israel products has decided never to carry Israeli products. This baffling development is from the Flaming Eggplant, a tiny establishment located near good old Evergreen College, Alma mater of the ISM's sacrificial lamb, Rachel Corrie. And in the BDS fail column, Google chairman Eric Schmidt speaking in Tel Aviv praised Israel's engineers and development centers, effusively declaring " We love Israel".

Google vs The Flaming Eggplant. This is roughly the state of the BDS movement today.

From Haaretz:

"Google chairman Eric Schmidt said on Monday that the company's development centers in Israel are among the company's most efficient and that Google is constantly expanding them.

Speaking at a Tel Aviv conference called "Big Tent," Schmidt said that the quality of Israel's engineers is very high, not least due to the country's universities and the training acquired in the army. He also praised local salespeople as among the best in the world, saying they continue to contribute to the company's profits.

"We love Israel," Schmidt said, drawing applause from the crowd."

Israel at 64

And thank you, Google for the wonderful tribute. Notice the beautiful diversity of the children on the logo- its reflective of the diversity of Israel's population. Google should know, after all. Google has research and development centers in both Haifa and Tel Aviv.

Is it even necessarity to add "BDS fail" any more?

UPDATE
From Zionsquare

"How does the BDS Movement stand Israel’s Independence Day being celebrated on Google? Obviously they need to boycott Google immediately – stop searching using Google, delete their gmail accounts, stop using YouTube, stop blogging on Blogger, stop using Google Reader, stop using Google Translate, stop using the Chrome browser, and stop using Android phones.

For search they can switch to Bing. Wait, no, Microsoft built their first overseas research center in Israel more than two decades ago. Scratch Bing. BDSers should also stop using Windows, Windows Phone, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, Skype (bought by Microsoft last year), Hotmail and all other Microsoft products.

Maybe for search they can use Yahoo? Not if they mind that Yahoo has an R&D office in Haifa. That means also dropping Yahoo Mail, Flickr (Yahoo bought Flickr in 2005), Yahoo Messenger and all other Yahoo products.

Are there other major search engines? We’re not sure. However, there are a few other IT products BDSer should also boycott. PHP, probably the most popular web scripting language used worldwide, is developed in Israel. There are many BDSers who write blogs. We already determined they can’t use Google’s Blogger service (all blogs on blogger.com and blogspot.com), but WordPress is written using PHP, so BDSers will need to drop WordPress as well. The Moveable Type blogging platform uses a combination of Perl and PHP, so that’s out too.

Of course, they can’t write those blogs using Windows computers anyways, so what computer can they use? They can’t use Apple computers, due to Apple’s recent major purchase of a company in Israel, and the subsequent setting up of their first overseas R&D facility. Interesting that both Microsoft and Apple both opened their first overseas R&D facilities in Israel. That also means no more iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macbook Pros (a BDSer favorite), etc.

Perhaps they can use Linux, the open-source operating system (sure many contributors to Linux live in Israel, but we’ll leave that out). Possibly, but they can’t run Linux on any computer that utilizes an Intel processor, since Intel also opened their first overseas R&D facility in Israel in 1974. They also manufacturer processors at a multi-billion dollar foundry in Kiryat Gat. A huge number of Internet servers also use Intel processors, so BDSers should make sure to check with their hosting companies and make sure their web sites are not running on Intel-based machines.

If not Intel, maybe AMD. That was an option until AMD bought a company in Israel in 2010 and opened an R&D center in Israel last year. AMD processors also run almost all the other servers that host web sites around the world, so BDSers will need to search hard to find places to run their web sites. Getting back to what computer BDSers can use themselves, if they can’t use Intel processors and they can’t use AMD processors, what’s left? There are some computers that run on ARM-based processors. ARM is a processor core developed by ARM Holdings in the UK. Most cell phones, tablets and some low-end computers use ARM-based processors. Wait, no, ARM Holdings has an R&D facility in Kfar Saba. Scratch all ARM-based products.

There is the graphics-processor company NVIDIA. They also have a line of processors that can power devices like cell phones and tabets which they call Tegra. Tegra processors power a number of cell phones and tablets, although we’re not sure if any of them are running operating systems other than Android or Windows Phone. NVIDIA did invest in an Israeli company a couple of years back, but they don’t own any companies or have facilities in Israel as far as we know. Perhaps then, if BDSers can overlook the minor connection to Israel, they can buy NVIDIA-based tablets and work hard to make a version of Linux with no contributions from Israelis to run on it. Palblets? Hopefully NVIDIA won’t start an R&D center in Israel before the work is done.

Sure, BDSers won’t be able to run Angry Birds on their device, but at least they’ll be able to access the Internet. We won’t tell them that Cisco, which builds many of the switches and routers that make up the Internet infrastructure has a major presence in Israel, including the recent purchase for $5 Billion of NDS which secures cable and satellite set-top boxes (including those operated by DIRECTV, Comcast, Cox, Charter and Cablevision in the US). Of course they also own Scientific Atlanta which manufactures the set-top boxes for many other companies. Maybe they can get more done if they stop using the Internet and stop watching TV?"

Happy Birthday, Israel. May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Time to Boycott Google

Ok, haters. Its long past time to add "Google" to the Boycott list. How long do the arrogant heads of the worlds best Internet search engine dare to ignore the whine of "Palestinian civil society"?

From The Jerusalem Post

Google Inc., the US multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing and advertising technologies, will pay Israeli researchers to conduct some 20 research projects relating to opportunities in the Internet economy, with a particular focus on the fundamentals of online auctions.

The deal’s signing by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Yissum Research Development Company Ltd., Tel Aviv University’s Ramot Ltd. technologytransfer company and the Technion Research and Development Foundation (TRDF Ltd.) was announced Wednesday.

Internet search giant Google opened a research-and-development center in Haifa, in 2006 -- its first R&D center in the Middle East. Another was opened in Tel Aviv, the following year.

"As a country renowned for its thriving economy and passion for new technologies, Israel is home to many outstanding computer scientists and engineers and Google is looking to establish long partnerships with institutes and universities," the 2006 Google press release announced. Apparent, this is still true.

So, haters. Just last week John Greyson made this unforgettable announcement at Laurentian University regarding BDS, " I think the momentum is unstoppable." Yet in the 10 years that BDS has become a triumphant unstoppable force in the world of social justice activism, you haven't been able to create even a blip on Google's radar. And you haven't been able to create a blip in Israel's economic growth, either.

Keep it up. And kiss my BDS