The writer of an infamous memo that circulated around Google and sparked a debate over the company’s gender and diversity efforts has sued his former employer with allegations that Google discriminates against white men.
James Damore, who was fired in August after circulating a memo within Google arguing the company’s gender gap was the result of biological inferiority, said in a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court on Monday that the company “singled out, mistreated, and systemically punished and terminated” employees that didn’t agree with Google’s stance on diversity, according to BuzzFeed News.
Damone is joined by another plaintiff, former Google engineer David Gudeman. The men are represented by Harmeet Dhillon, the Republican National Committee’s Committeewoman for California..
“Google’s management goes to extreme — and illegal — lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees and potential employees at Google,” the suit reads, according to BuzzFeed.
The suit doesn’t come as a surprise given Damore’s hiring of Dhillon in August, when her law firm published a blog post encouraging other Google employees to reach out if they “experienced illegal employment practices.”
“We are exploring all potential legal avenues for these clients, and gathering facts about working conditions at Google, particularly for those whose views are inconsistent with Google’s political orthodoxy,” Dhillon said in a statement at the time, CNN reported.
A Google spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.