Google announced that it will remove its global lead for diversity strategy and research, Kamau Bobb, after a 2007 blog post in which he’d made antisemitic comments surfaced, Fox News reported. Bobb will be reassigned to a STEM research role.
The reassignment comes after revelations that Bobb had previously authored a blog post that contained antisemitic statements.
In a 2007 blog post by Bobb titled “If I Were a Jew,” he wrote that Jewish people had an “insensitivity” to suffering and stated “If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself.” The post has since been removed, but is recorded here.
A spokesperson for Google announced that Bobb would “no longer be part of our diversity team going forward.” Bobb has apologized for his remarks.
“We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offence and pain to members of our Jewish community,” the spokesperson continued. These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologized.”
According to Fox, Bobb reportedly sent a private apology to the “Jewgler” Employee Resource Group at Google.
“Let me first apologize. what I wrote crudely characterized the entire Jewish community. what was intended as a critique of particular military action fed into antisemitic tropes and prejudice. I think we can all agree, there is no easy solution to this situation. But that’s beside the point. the way I expressed my views on that conflict were hurtful,” Bobb wrote in the email, obtained by the New York Post.
Several Jewish groups, including human rights group Simon Wiesenthal Center and Stop Antisemitism called for Bobb to be fired.
“Google must fire this antisemite,” Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted.