#IWD  #BLM

Black Lives Matter in Brazil: A mother fights for justice for her dead son

A Brazilian mother on a mission: After the death of her 5-year-old son, Mirtes Renata de Souza became an activist committed to fighting racism.



She lights a candle on the second day of each month. Mirtes Renata de Souza, 34, is mourning her son Miguel. Eight months ago, on June 2, 2020, the 5-year-old fell to his death from the ninth floor of a high-rise in the city of Recife, Brazil.

Mirtes Renata, a maid working for a wealthy family, took her son to work that day — she had no one to care for him because of a coronavirus infection. When she went out to walk the dog, she left the child alone with her employer.

The owner didn't bother with the child. Nor did she retrieve him when he left the apartment and got in an elevator to go find his mother. The 5-year-old exited on the ninth floor and ended up in an unsecured part of the building, eventually falling to his death 20 meters (66 feet) below.

The child's story shook Brazil, already reeling from the coronavirus. It also made his mother Mirtes Renata de Souza the face of Black Lives Matter (BLM) in Brazil.

The Black Lives Matter movement that grew relentlessly around the world last year after the death last May of George Floyd in the US. It brought attention to racial discrimination against Blacks in Brazil, too, with media outlets featuring more stories on police violence against Afro-Brazilians as well as their systemic neglect.
Suddenly an activist

"I don't want my son's death to be forgotten. I want justice. No one but I can know the pain that tortures me. It is difficult," Mirtes Renata told DW. She completely ignored her own 34th birthday on February 25, for instance, saying it was meaningless.


An online petition demanding justice for Miguel now has millions of signatures

Still, Mirtes Renata fights on. She fights discrimination against domestic workers, who still have to go to work despite the dangers posed by the coronavirus. She is fighting for the rights of children, regardless of social background. And she is fighting a legal battle in court over the tragic death of her son.

The housekeeper from Recife now has more than 30,000 Instagram followers. And an online petition demanding justice for Miguel (#justicapormiguel) has collected some three million signatures.

"Miguel's case exposes the deep racism of Brazilian society," says Deborah Pinho, who coordinates the campaign. "That's why we really want to help organize support for Mirtes and turn up the heat on politicians."
'Lack of supervision with tragic results'

Still, the wheels of justice turn slowly in Brazil. The trial that Brazilian prosecutors had promised to begin in Recife Juvenile Court on June 12, 2020, got no further than an initial hearing on December 3.

The defendant, Mirtes' former employer Sari Mariana Costa Gaspar Corte Real, is currently free on bail. She is accused of failing to supervise "a helpless person resulting in death," a crime that can carry a sentence of up to 12 years in jail according to Brazil's penal code.

Mirtes Renata's lawyer says the freedom to be out on bail is a privilege that highlights the different ways that wealthy and poor are treated in Brazil. "If every defendant who did not pose a public threat had the right to get out on bail, I could understand," says Eliel Silva. "Unfortunately, the only ones who usually profit from the rule are the ones with economic power."
Expert there to prove innocence

The lawyer is also annoyed with the expert opinion brought in by the defense team, which the defense is using to sow doubt about the crime of failing to supervise the helpless child. The report's author argues that in order for the defendant to be guilty, she would have to have been aware of all the possible dangerous consequences of her actions, and that, the expert claims, was not the case.

YOUNG BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS: 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'

Nathan (16), Sammy (17), Matthew (15), Noel (18)

These schoolboys are taking part in a "big movement," as Noel puts it, for the first time. Noel adds: "The last time we were just a bit too young. But now that we're old enough to understand what's happening, we're out here just doing what we can for the community." Sammy says: "We want to make America a better place for black people."      PHOTOS 1234567

Mirtes Renata doesn't want revenge but justice. She is certain that her son's death could have been prevented. Her employer had promised to keep an eye on Miguel. "But when my son went looking for me and ran to the elevator she didn't go get him. She could have taken his hand and brought him back to the apartment. Or she could have called me. If she had just done one of those two things my son would be here right now."

She fights back her tears. Life as an activist is new to her. "Women's rights and racism are new topics for me, I never really dealt with them before," she says.

That has changed. Meanwhile, she works for the non-governmental organization Curumim, which fights for women's rights and against racism. Moreover, she is studying law. Her mission: "No one should experience the injustice that I have."

This article has been translated from German by Jon Shelton

#IWD

Australians condemn violence against women as they celebrate International Women's Day

People participate in a rally for International Women's Day in Sydney

Mon, March 8, 2021

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hundreds of mostly female workers gathered outside government buildings in Sydney to condemn violence against women and call for greater gender equality in workplaces, amid growing scrutiny over the treatment of women in Australian politics.

Celebrating International Women's Day, a young woman stood outside the New South Wales state parliament, with the message "My body, my business" written across her body, while another held a placard reading "Equal work deserves equal pay!".

A variety of workers - from nurses and teachers to hairdressers and transport workers - took part in the gathering. It comes as the government launched a A$19 million ($14.57 million) campaign urging people to speak up when they witness disrespect against women.

"Let us all work together ... so that we finally move to a world where sexual violence and sexual assault and sexual harassment is a thing of the past," Jenny Leong, a parliamentary representative from the Greens party told the crowd.

Australia's parliament is under increased scrutiny over sexual assault allegations.

Three female employees of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal party last month said they had been raped by the same man in 2019 and 2020. One of the alleged victims has lodged a complaint with police.

Last week, Attorney-General Christian Porter, the country's chief law officer, identified himself as the subject of a separate historical rape allegation, declared his innocence and strongly denied the claim.


(Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)

#IWD

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: How she took on an authoritarian leader despite her fears

In just a few months the opposition figure went from unknown stay-at-home mom to the leader of democratic Belarus. She told DW she's proud of both roles, and says that for millions of women, "the inner strength awoke."

VIDEO Women of Power: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was a political unknown just one year ago. Today, she has become the leader of the biggest protest movement in Belarus since the country gained independence. The wave of action she led has been awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament, and she has now been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as well.

"I can do everything. I can do it. I already proved it to the whole world. I'm not afraid. You think I can't take a leadership position? " she said in a DW interview ahead of International Womens' Day, which is observed annually on March 8.

Tsikhanouskaya holds a picture of activist Nina Baginskaya during the EU Parliament's 2020 Sakharov Prize ceremony

'I was a housewife ... What should I be ashamed of?'

Tsikhanouskaya emerged in 2020 as the face of the opposition to longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and subsequently as the self-styled "leader of democratic Belarus." In May, when her husband Sergei Tsikhanousky, a well-known blogger and democracy activist, was barred from challenging Lukashenko for the presidency and arrested, she ran instead.

The strongman president, who had been in office since 1994, did not take her seriously as an opponent and claimed publicly that "a woman can't be a president." He attempted to demean her experience as a stay-at-home parent: "She just cooked a tasty cutlet, maybe fed the children, and the cutlet smelled nice."

But Tsikhanouskaya's determination to hit back at institutionalized misogyny struck a chord with millions of women in Belarus and abroad. Asked about Lukashenko's insults, she spoke of how he mocked "that I'm a housewife, I belong in the kitchen. He was trying to make fun of me," she said in a DW interview. But Tsikhanouskaya refused to even acknowledge the premise of his derision. "I was never offended by that because it is what it is. I was in fact a housewife for a number of reasons. That's true. Yes. If he wanted to insult me, he didn't succeed. It's the truth. What should I be ashamed of?"

WOMEN FIGHT FOR BELARUS' FUTURE

With flowers and earrings

For months now, women in Belarus have been protesting for democracy and the resignation of the autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko. Nadia, the young woman who is looking into the eyes of the policeman, spent 10 days in jail, according to a description of the image at the exhibition "The Future of Belarus, Fueled by Women," in Vilnius, Lithuania.

PHOROS 123456789

It may be beyond Lukashenko's imagination that a woman could rule the country. But the opposition leader has no doubt that her country disagrees with his sexist rhetoric about a woman taking over the office of president. "Yes, I'm more than convinced that it's possible. Because my allies and I, and all Belarusian women who took to the streets have proven their resilience, their strong character. So Belarusians won't have any doubts that a woman can become the future president of Belarus."

2020 marked a turning point in many ways for the former Soviet republic — and especially for Belarusian women. Lukashenko's security forces initially spared women, but that changed once they became the driving force during democratic protests. Images and reports emerged of women — from teenagers to grandmothers — being arrested, beaten and even tortured. Several prominent women activists were detained and driven into exile.

Tsikhanouskaya said it was "an impulse of the heart" that propelled millions of Belarusian women to protest the electoral fraud. "Going out against violence — it was like an instinct. When we saw how many we were, we started being proud of ourselves. 'Here I am, I did it.' The inner strength awoke." 

Police across Belarus have made mass arrests at pro-democracy marches; reports of violence and torture have emerged

'The fear was always there'

Tsikhanouskaya described her remarkable ascent to leadership as that of having no choice. "The fear was always there: that you end up in prison, what would happen to your children then? Every morning you live with a feeling of fear. It doesn't mean that I have overcome my fear. It means that you do something in spite of your fear, because there is no other way."

Tsikhanouskaya and her children were put under immense pressure and were forced to flee the country. She has been living in exile in Lithuania since the election, from where she keeps on fighting for democracy.

The European Union and the United States have not recognized Lukashenko's claim that he won the election. Meanwhile, Tsikhanouskaya has become her country's representative on the international stage. Several world leaders have met with her — among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Tsikhanouskaya met with Merkel in Berlin in October and described the longtime leader as "extremely friendly" during the conversation. "It was obvious that she has a sense of empathy, that she understands our pain, that she would really like to help us."

Tsikhanouskaya and Merkel discussed the democratic movement in Belarus at their October meeting in Berlin

The opposition leader said that the 30-minute meeting focused on how Germany could help broker a possible dialogue between demonstrators and Belarusian authorities. "She's so straightforward," Tsikhanouskaya said of the longtime chancellor. Merkel shows "absolutely no arrogance and there's a sense of warmth coming from her. That doesn't contradict the notion of the strong woman she is known to be ... And it doesn't take tough talk to understand that she is a strong leader."

Yet like the German leader, who has famously said she does not view herself as a feminist, Tsikhanouskaya said the term does not particularly apply to her, either. She emphasized her recent actions as instead being out of circumstance and necessity after her husband's arrest: "I wouldn't consider myself a feminist," she told DW.

Watch video 04:57 Belarus: Protesters dance against Lukashenko

What does the future hold for Belarus?

Will Tsikhanouskaya continue her own quest for the presidency? At the beginning of March, Belarusian authorities put her on a wanted list for allegedly "preparing for unrest." She told DW that "she is ready to be with the Belarusians for as long as they need me" but that she will not necessarily pursue the job herself. "If circumstances change and we'll have new elections — that's our goal — I don't plan to run again. But we don't know what the situation will be. It could be that ... the people will decide that, yes, we trust her again. I always say: 'If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.'"

#IWD
Ofelia Fernandez: Inspiring young women all over Latin America

A determined feminist, Ofelia Fernandez is the youngest lawmaker in Latin America. The 20-year-old is an icon for many, but she has a few detractors.


The young says she's always sought the reasons for social inequalities,

 even as a child


Ofelia Fernandez is certainly not shy. The 20-year-old is keen to share her opinions about the deeply-rooted macho culture in Argentina and Latin America as a whole,women's rights, and how the younger generation needs to be able to shape the world of politics more. Right now, she believes, it is rusty and out of touch.

"I don't expect anyone to pretend to be generous by telling us about our future," she said in a campaign video in June 2019 that was posted on Instagram. "They have to accept that we are the damned present and it's our turn now."

She was running to become the youngest ever member of the Buenos Aires city legislature and she succeeded and at the same time became the youngest lawmaker in Latin America.
A Next Generation Leader

Last year, Time Magazine selected her a Next Generation Leader and she has been compared to the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

When she was 17, she put a considerably older expert in his place after he interrupted her and dismissed her as "chiquita" (little girl) during a television debate. "Don't you call me chiquita," she told him. The scene went viral. That was three-and-a-half years ago, when students protested en masse against neoliberal education reforms.

But she really made a name for herself as a prominent figure in Argentina's "Revolution of the Daughters" movement, in which women donned green scarves and waved green flags to campaign for abortion rights.

Abortion is a very controversial subject on the majority Catholic continent, where it is illegal in a number of countries, even if a woman was raped or is in mortal danger.

Fernández with a banner carrying the feminist slogan 'Now is the Time'


"We're the ones who have abortions, and now it's up to you to give us the right to decide," Fernandez told lawmakers as Congress debated a bill to legalize abortion, a year before her official political career began. "If you don't, just know that you're sending us to die in your war, without our permission."

"You have to get used to the fact that we ourselves decide what life we want to lead," she said.

The bill was defeated in the senate, a slap in the face for Fernandez and the women's movement. Illegal abortions continued, however, in poor hygienic conditions and often with fatal consequences.

Fernandez' success eventually came when the bill was passed at the end of 2020. Abortions were made legal until the 14th week with the state footing the bill. Thousands of women poured out onto the streets to celebrate this victory against the patriarchy, hugging each other and crying for joy.
Early questions about equality

From a middle-class background with a musician father and office-worker mother, Fernandez has said that she became a feminist by chance. In a television interview, she said that she had always sought the reasons for social inequalities and as a child she had asked why she had food to eat while others didn't.

She was 15 when she became the first female president of the student council at her school, one of the best state schools in Argentina. This was the time when the feminist "Ni una menos" ("Not one woman less") movement kicked off in Argentina. Fernandez protested against feminicides, sexual abuse and the gender pay gap. She says that this is when she began thinking about feminism and her worldview changed: "Feminism is one perspective and I had to rethink my logic and priorities."

Today, Fernandez has become an icon for many, offering hope to a whole generation which does not feel sufficiently represented. She is honest and approachable, and also very direct. She has said in interviews that it was not easy to run for the leftist "Frente de Todos" (Everybody's Front) coalition, but that she was not able to resist the opportunity: "I didn't want to be responsible for changes not happening. For them to keep delaying the actions young people are calling for on the environment, on feminism."

Some see the young lawmaker as a nuisance, with her demands that officials be taught about gender issues or her campaigns for free and healthy school meals. She has also received a lot of online abuse. Her Instagram account has almost half a million followers but not all are fans. She told Time Magazine that the abuse upsets her but that she had to "resist."

"I have to remind myself that they're doing this not only so that I resign, but also to put off any girls who see me and feel inspired to step up and get involved in student activism or unions or politics."

Fernandez turns 21 in April, so she has plenty of time to continue inspiring others and campaigning for a more equal world.

VIDEO
Protesters practice shield formation before clashes

Sat, March 6, 2021,

Protesters practice shield formation before clashes

Video obtained by Reuters showed anti-coup protesters practicing retreating and advancing with the makeshift shields, one of an increasing number of ways protesters have used to protect themselves from security forces.

Protesters have also used longstanding superstitions like the idea that it is bad luck to walk under women's clothing to stop police from charging at them.

Security forces have opened fire with stun grenades, rubber bullets and live rounds since the start of the coup in February, causing the deaths of more than 50 protesters, according to the United Nations.
Video Transcript

[NO SPEECH]

Mexican Americans are the largest Latino group in the U.S. but lack political power



Russell Contreras
Sat, March 6, 2021, 5:30 AM·4 min read

Data: Pew Research Center, U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Michelle McGhee/Axios

Mexican Americans make up the nation's largest Latino group, yet they remain politically outshined by more recently arrived Cuban Americans.

Why it matters: The disparities in political power between Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans reflect the racial, historical, geographical and economic differences within Latino cultures in the U.S.

For the first time in U.S. history, the Senate includes three Mexican Americans — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.). — as the Mexican American population overall nears 37 million people.

Cuban Americans, who number just 2 million, are also represented by three Cuban American senators: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

Between the lines: Today, the majority of Mexican Americans reside either in deep-blue California or in reliably red Texas. Neither state attracts many presidential candidates campaigning for the general election.

The political core of Cuban Americans live in swing-state Florida, making them more attractive to presidential candidates who often visit and play to the anti-communist passions of Cubans and Venezuelans.

The two groups helped deliver Florida and its 29 electoral votes for President Trump in the 2020 election.

How it works: Mexican Americans' concentration in non-swing states and weak political fundraising put them at a disadvantage to gain the political power that reflects their numbers, said Las Vegas-based Mexican American political consultant Eli Magaña.

The Democratic Party also hasn't invested in training Mexican American candidates or developing a pipeline for elected office, New Mexico political consultant Sisto Abeyta said.

The Koch-funded Libre Initiative trains Latinos to be activists on tax and immigration issues but doesn't train candidates to run for office.

Once-promising Mexican American political stars, like former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former California lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, flamed out amid scandal, clearing the bench of potential national figures, wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano.

People of Mexican ancestry have been here since before the U.S.' founding and today represent 60 percent of the 61 million Latinos. But their political power is limited.

Nearly one-third of Mexican Americans are under 18 and can't vote, according to Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

One in four adults of Mexican descent in the U.S. is not a citizen, Vargas said.

Most Mexican-American elected officials come from poor, majority Mexican-American districts because of racial segregation and gerrymandering.

Flashback: President John F. Kennedy galvanized Mexican-American voters during his 1960 presidential run through "Viva Kennedy!" clubs, in the first massive effort by a presidential candidate to reach out to Latino voters.


The Congressional Hispanic Caucus credits that 1960 outreach as the impetus that got Mexican Americans involved in politics. Since then, more Hispanics, mostly Mexican-American Democrats, have been elected to Congress than in the previous 140 years, according to the Caucus.

A generation later, Texas Republican Gov. George W. Bush courted Mexican Americans during his gubernatorial and presidential races, and drew record numbers of Republican votes from Latinos.

By contrast, large numbers of Cubans, many from elite, mostly white wealthy families, started arriving in the 1960s after Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Unlike Mexican Americans, Cold War Cuban refugees were given clear and quick paths to U.S. citizenship, including voting privileges, said University of Houston political science professor Jeronimo Cortina.

Anti-communist Cuban Americans joined the Republican Party following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, and formed coalitions with some Republicans and conservative Democrats against civil rights and anti-poverty initiatives.

Some Mexican Americans embraced the struggles of African Americans while some Cuban Americans would later snub South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela for his relationship with Castro.

Those actions of Cuban Americans angered moderate-Democratic-leaning Mexican Americans and led to political tensions between the two groups that linger today.

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Google uses medical leave to oust workers alleging discrimination, employees say

April Glaser and Char Adams
Sun, March 7, 2021

Benjamin Cruz, a former instructional designer in Google’s Cloud division, was caught off guard when a colleague told them that their skin was much darker than she expected.

Cruz, who is Mexican American and prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them, reported the incident to human resources in 2019 where personnel told them they should “assume good intent,” Cruz recalled in an interview. Unsatisfied, Cruz asked human resources to look deeper into the incident, and an HR official said an investigation into the matter had been closed, Cruz said.

So, Cruz sought help from human resources again. The solution? Urge Cruz to take medical leave and tend to their mental health before moving to a new role in the company. Cruz went on medical leave, and hoped to take the company up on its offer for a new position, they said. But Cruz was turned down from every role they applied for, so they were forced to quit.

“After I made that complaint, my work started getting pushed out from under me, but my team acted like everything was fine. I wanted to find help,” Cruz said. “When the medical leave was recommended to me, it was like an automatic process.”

Benjamin Cruz in Los Angeles. (Allison Zaucha / for NBC News)

Google declined to comment on Cruz’s allegations.

Cruz’s experience with Google’s internal human resources personnel echoes that of several former and current Google employees, including two prominent Black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, who were pushed out of Google at the end of last year. Both women were known for their advocacy for increased diversity in the tech industry, and when their complaints about how the company handled racial and gender discrimination reached human resources, they were both given the same advice: undergo mental health counseling or take medical leave.

In the weeks since both women’s departures, nine other current and former Google employees have come forward to say they were treated the same way. They consulted human resources after colleagues made comments about their skin color or Black hairstyles, or asked if they were sexually interested in their teammates. They also contacted human resources to report retaliation after protesting sexual harassment issues and to advocate for raises for Black people to match white employees’ pay. Each time, human resource personnel recommended the employees seek therapy or take medical leave to address their mental health — despite their mental well-being having nothing to do with their complaints. An additional 12 current and former Google employees confirmed that this is a common practice at Google’s human resources department.

“Going on leave is so normalized. I can think of 10 people that I know of in the last year that have gone on mental health leave because of the way they were treated,” said a former Google employee, who is a person of color and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasnot authorized to speak about his work at Google. He went on medical leave last year after he said he had numerous unproductive conversations with human resources about how his colleagues discussed race.

In early 2020, a Black woman attended a Google meeting about supporting women at the company where data was presented that showed the rate that underrepresented minority employees were leaving the company. When she said that Black, Latina and Native American women have vastly different experiences than their white female colleagues and advised that Google address the issue internally, her manager brusquely responded, telling her that her suggestion was not relevant, the woman said.

The woman then complained to human resources, who advised her to coach the manager about her problematic response or take medical leave to tend to her own mental health, she said. The woman also spoke on the condition of anonymity because she’s still an employee and not permitted to speak to reporters.

“It felt belittling. I wasn’t in shock because I had heard it before. I had watched other leaders in the organization take these mental health leaves and then disappear,” she said. “It was clear that they weren’t going to take me seriously.”

Google said in a statement that the company is committed to supporting employees who raise concerns about workplace treatment.

“We have a well-defined process for how employees can raise concerns and we work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints,” said Jennifer Rodstrom, a Google spokeswoman. “All concerns reported to us are investigated rigorously, and we take firm action against employees who violate our policies.”
Pushed out

Gebru and Curley worked in vastly different parts of Google. Gebru was a lead researcher on Google’s Ethical AI team and is one of the highest-profile Black women in her field, known for her work uncovering racial bias in facial recognition systems. Curley was a tech recruiter who brought in new talent from historically Black colleges and universities. Workers said they felt motivated to speak after Gebru and Curley’s departures, in which both women said they were fired after speaking out about racism and sexism at the company.

Curley is one of several Google employees that reported problems with race discrimination within the company. (Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News)

Google would not comment on Gebru’s ousting. But the company’s head of research said Gebru resigned. The company declined to comment on Curley’s termination, but said in a statement it disagrees with Curley’s characterization of her departure.

In her six years at Google, Curley said she never received a raise or promotion, which depends on managers’ input. She was assigned nine different managers during her tenure, two of whom she reported to human resources for allegedly mistreating her and her team, a majority of whom were Black women. Each time, Curley says she was told that Google had investigated the complaints and found nothing wrong. She said she was then offered mental health support or the opportunity to take medical leave.

Curley said that, in 2019, a manager asked her which of her teammates she would sleep with. “I gave him a lot of attitude after that, and it went downhill from there,” Curley said. She said she experienced retaliation in the months that followed, including being regularly talked down to in front of her colleagues.

She filed a formal complaint about her experience with this manager. Then, in December 2019, Google cut her pay by $20,000, Curley said. Also following her complaint, Curley was put on a performance improvement plan, a formal agreement about how her work would improve, which only added more stress. After telling human resources officials she continued to feel anxious about her work situation, they advised her to take medical leave to manage her mental health. Google declined to comment on Curley’s allegations.

“It felt like they didn’t care about my mental health,” she said.

The first time, she took the recommended medical leave. But Curley did not take the second leave. She, along with several other employees, said when they went on medical leave, they returned to find they had new managers or were moved into new parts of the organization. Because these new managers did not know them well enough to provide adequate reviews, they did not receive raises or promotions.

“I was supporting my family, my nieces and nephews and my mom, and to not be able to do that is traumatic in a different way,” Curley said.

Image: April Curley. (Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News)

Diversity reports

For years, Google has highlighted its commitment to a diverse workforce. In 2014, Google became one of the first tech companies to publicize its workforce’s racial and gender makeup in an annual diversity report. The 2020 report revealed that Google saw a less than 1 percent increase in Black hires from 2019 to 2020 across the company. The percentage of Latino employees working at Google rose by 0.2 percent that year.

But none of Google’s competitors have done much better. Apple hasn’t shared diversity data since 2018, but reported a 2 percent drop in the number of Black employees in technical roles from 2016 to 2018. Facebook reports its percentage of Black employees in technical roles rose 0.2 percent from 2019 to 2020 and increased 0.1 percent companywide.

While Google reportedly spent $265 million on diversity efforts in 2014 and 2015, it still didn’t result in much change. From 2014 to 2019, Google increased its Black hires across its workforce by 2 percent, according to its 2020 report. It increased its Latino hires by 0.7 percent from 2014 to 2019, the report shows. While the company would not reveal how many employees work at Google specifically, The San Jose Mercury News reported last year that it had about 23,000 employees at its main campus in Mountain View, California, and 50,000 employees statewide, according to its economic impact report. Google had more than 10,000 employees in New York state, according to its own economic impact report.

“The fact that they’re spending a lot of money on DEI efforts and yet the actual composition of the company isn’t changing means that they’re not truly committed to changing the environment,” said Meredith Broussard, a New York University professor who has written extensively on Silicon Valley culture. “If tech companies truly cared about having more diversity in their ranks, they would fix it.”

Suggesting therapy

Before Gebru’s departure, she said she regularly raised issues on internal team mailing lists and with her managers about how women were treated at Google. But when her messages were forwarded to human resource specialists, Gebru said they advised her to seek out mental health resources.

“They’re like, ‘Well, if there’s something wrong with you, here are all these therapy resources.’” said Gebru. “And I would respond that no amount of support system is going to get rid of Google’s hostile work environment. I have friends. I go dancing. I have hobbies and therapy already.”

Following Gebru’s departure, Google held a forum for employees to discuss racism at the company, according to three current employees who attended. The first half, they said, was dedicated to sharing Google’s side of the story.

“A good 20 minutes of the call was just them discrediting her. This was a clear way of showing you that this is what could happen to you if you speak up,” one Google employee said. That call was followed by another session for Black employees to discuss their concerns with Gebru’s case with a counselor present.

“People were sharing really brilliant reflections on how painful Dr. Gebru’s firing was for them. And the therapist was just repeating it back saying, ‘Yes, yes, I hear you,’” said another Google worker who was on the call. “It was this pattern. Their real concerns were dismissed as feelings.”

The three employees spoke anonymously because they are not permitted to speak to the news media. Google declined to comment on the meeting.

Google confirmed to NBC that it concluded its investigation into Gebru’s ousting, but did not make its findings public. The company said it will implement new procedures to handle employee exits and increase its staff handling employee retention, according to Axios.

Workplace diversity and inclusion experts say it is common for human resource officials to use mental health and well-being as a tactic to ignore discrimination — and even participate in it.

“The broader pattern of HR not being supportive, continuing to make the person who was discriminated against the problem in some way rather than the discrimination and the perpetrator of the discrimination as the problem — those are patterns that we have seen in our research,” said Laura Morgan Roberts, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and co-editor of the book, "Race, Work, and Leadership."
Not sick

Current and former Google employees who are white say they faced similar treatment from human resources when they spoke up about the company’s racial and gender discrimination issues.

In late 2018, Claire Stapleton, who worked at Google for 12 years, helped organize a walkout to protest how the company’s handled accusations of sexual harassment and assault. The demonstration came after a New York Times investigation detailed how the creator of Android received a $90 million exit package even though the company found that a sexual assault claim against him was credible.

Claire Stapleton, an organizer of the 2018 Google walkout over sexual harassment and misconduct, in New York, November 2019. (Dina Litovsky / Redux)

After organizing the protest, Stapleton said she complained to human resources that her manager had demoted her. She hoped HR would provide a mediator to help find a solution. Instead a human resources counselor told Stapleton to try mindfulness techniques to improve her relationship with her manager, according to Stapleton. Another human resources director recommended she speak with a third director who specializes in employee benefits. That official suggested Stapleton take a medical leave, she said.

“I was raising a retaliation claim and then she said, ‘Oh, but did anyone tell you about medical leave?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I know what medical leave is, but that’s not what I need. I’m not sick.’ And she was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, it’s not like that. We put people on it all the time,'” Stapleton said.

She did not take the medical leave, but resigned instead.

Google says it provides multiple ways for employees to raise concerns and investigates all retaliation reports. “If an employee wants to explore a leave of absence or have a workplace accommodation, Google’s Benefits team will work with the individual on next steps,” Google’s Rodstrom said.

In 2019, another current Google employee, who is white and spoke anonymously because he’s not permitted to speak to the news media, raised concerns about pay disparities between white and Black employees with similar experience levels. He hoped one of his Black colleagues would get a raise. Instead, he was ignored and then told to stop asking about it, he said.

“After months, I was like I can’t even show up to work another day the way they’re dragging me along,” the employee said. “And then basically at the end I said, ‘I need some options,’ and HR said, ‘You can accept severance or you can take a medical leave.'”

On Feb. 5, Margaret Mitchell, the co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team with Gebru, wrote in a blog post that Gebru “has been treated completely inappropriately, with intense disrespect, and she deserves an apology.” On Feb. 19, Mitchell announced “I’m fired.” Google confirmed Mitchell’s firing to NBC, and said she had violated the company’s code of conduct by removing documents and employee data from Google’s internal system.

Mitchell said in a statement after she was fired, “I tried to use my position to raise concerns to Google about race and gender inequity, and to speak up about Google’s deeply problematic firing of Dr. Gebru. To now be fired has been devastating.”

CORRECTION (March 7, 6 p.m. ET) A previous version of the article misstated what Google human resources advised Timnit Gebru to do after she reported issues with how women were treated at the company. She was advised to seek mental health care, not take medical leave. The article also misstated Margaret Mitchell's job status at Google. Mitchell was a co-leader of the Ethical AI Team at Google with Gebru; she did not work under Gebru.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Investigating 'Systemic' Hiring Discrimination At Facebook


Bibhu Pattnaik
Sun, March 7, 2021, 


The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has begun a probe against Facebook after applicants who were denied jobs filed complaints that Facebook discriminated against them.

What Happened: The commission is investigating Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) for racial bias in hiring and has designated the probe as "systemic," Reuters reported, citing attorneys representing the applicants. The agency is looking into company policies that may be contributing to widespread discrimination.

The "systemic" designation raises the level of the investigation and could broaden its scope to include more workers, according to Reuters.


According to the report, Oscar Veneszee Jr., who was hired by the company as operations program manager, and two other applicants, who were denied jobs, have alleged that the company discriminates against Black candidates by "relying on subjective evaluations and promoting problematic racial stereotypes." Another job applicant later joined their case.

The EEOC brought in systemic investigators in August and received detailed briefing papers from both sides over the last four months, the attorney representing the complainants said.

Facebook and the law firm representing it did not comment on the probe.

Why It Matters: Over the last couple of years Facebook has faced multiple lawsuits over discrimination.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department accused Facebook of discriminating against workers, saying the company has given hiring preferences to temporary workers, including those who hold H-1B visas.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it was suing Facebook for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act. HUD claimed that the company unlawfully discriminated against people based on race, religion, familial status, disability and other characteristics.

Photo courtesy: Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

2021 sees a record number of bills targeting trans youth



Orion Rummler
Sun, March 7, 2021

Republicans in at least 25 states have introduced over 60 bills targeting transgender children — a legislative boom since January that has beaten 2020's total number of anti-trans bills.

Why it matters: LGBTQ advocates say the unprecedented push was catalyzed by backlash to Biden's election and the Supreme Court ruling that workers cannot be fired for being gay or transgender.

Data: ACLU; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

By the numbers: 2020 saw 41 bills focused on trans youth specifically, per the ACLU — a number already surpassed in the first two months of 2021.

While the COVID pandemic suspended or closed many state legislatures last year, 2020 still outmatched anti-trans bills from 2019 and 2018 — which had 22 bills and 18 bills respectively.

This culture war seems to be a winning issue for Republicans, at least in the places where they’re fighting it most aggressively, says Dan Cox, the director of the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life.


"On the Democratic side, this is not an issue that really excites the base," he told Axios. "But on the right, I think these issues are really, really salient, so it tends to fire up folks disproportionately on the right than the left."


"A lot of this stuff is being framed as dangerous for children. That harkens back to the gay rights movement," he said. "And that's a pretty effective way to get people who are sort of more moderate and middle of the road off and active on this issue. It's not random that these are the issues that are being brought up."

Zoom in: A big focus has been on school sports. Twenty-six state legislatures introduced 41 bills in just the first two months of 2021 to exclude trans youth from teams that align with their gender identity, per an ACLU tracker.


Mississippi's bill on trans athletes passed through both houses on Wednesday and is the first to be sent to a governor who is likely to sign it. Similar bills have passed the Utah, Montana, and North Dakota statehouses.


21 bills have also been introduced this year to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans kids. Many would make puberty blockers and surgery a misdemeanor offense for doctors, while some states, like Alabama, would make it a felony offense.


Many states have tried and failed to pass bills on trans youth multiple times, including Illinois and South Dakota.

A proposal in Georgia, which is similar to other bills on trans athletes across the country, would require students to provide details of their "reproductive organs, genetic makeup, and other medically relevant factors" in order to play on sports teams.


In a federal lawsuit against boards of education in Connecticut, three high school runners argued that they were deprived of scholarship opportunities due to trans competitors. “Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts," one student said.


The runners are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group that also fought to bar trans students from using bathrooms aligning with their identity. National backlash derailed most of the bills.

What they're saying: "This is a critical inflection point in the movement for trans justice," Chase Strangio, ACLU deputy director for transgender justice said recently.

The big picture: Biden's presidency marks a high point of national political attention on trans rights and an about-face from the Justice Department under former President Trump.


Biden revoked Trump's transgender military ban within days of his inauguration. Last week, the administration withdrew federal support of the Connecticut lawsuit.

After Trump sabotage, 3 things Biden must do to restore gay, lesbian and trans rights

Kevin Jennings, Opinion contributor

Sun, March 7, 2021

The House just passed the Equality Act for the second time in two years. But this time, it’s different. With a Democratic majority in the Senate, we have a real chance to make history and, for the first time ever, write explicit discrimination protections for LGBTQ people into our federal civil rights laws.

This would be welcome progress after Donald Trump’s four-year attack on LGBTQ people and about time, as the first version of the Equality Act was introduced in 1974.

In its first month in office, the Biden administration has taken several critical actions to reverse Trump’s damage to LGBTQ rights and restore the LGBTQ community’s trust. President Joe Biden repealed the discriminatory trans military ban. He achieved greater representation in government by appointing an out LGBTQ Cabinet member — the first to be confirmed by the Senate in our nation’s history. He directed federal agencies to apply the historic Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in everything from housing to health care.

Yet just days ago, the Mississippi Legislature sent Gov. Tate Reeves a bill banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at schools and colleges, and he is expected to sign it. The nightmare is far from over, and we cannot get complacent. To advance LGBTQ equality, we have a lot more to do — and undo.
Undoing what Trump did

As we near the halfway point of Biden’s first 100 days, there are three concrete actions that the new administration must take. It must repair the damage to our courts by quickly adding a slate of pro-equality judges, stop granting “licenses to discriminate” and shut down policies that harm our most vulnerable.

The Trump administration installed judges intent on undermining LGBTQ rights and protections. Trump appointed nearly a third of currently serving federal appellate judges (including three of nine Supreme Court justices), and an alarming 40% of those judges have demonstrated anti-LGBTQ+ bias. The Biden administration must restore fairness and impartiality by naming judges who actually mean "equal justice under the law" when they say it.



Supporters of LGBTQ rights on Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington, D.C.

We also need to reverse the Trump administration policies that legitimate using religion as a pretext for discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Through the rule-making process, Trump empowered federal agencies to allow health care providers, social service agencies and businesses to deny critical services to LGBTQ people based on the religious beliefs of their health care providers (who have a duty to safeguard the health of their patients).

The Trump Department of Health and Human Services gave adoption agencies the green light to deny same-sex couples the opportunity to adopt and foster children, meaning thousands will languish in institutional homes and foster care rather than be placed with families who want to give them a permanent and loving home. The Trump Department of Labor allowed federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers using “religious exemptions” as a smokescreen for discrimination.

Pass the Equality Act: Discriminatory rhetoric, laws are devastating to LGBTQ youth

The Biden administration must ensure that all organizations receiving federal tax dollars and businesses opened to the public treat all people with dignity and respect. To build a more inclusive society, our government must not subsidize private bigotry.
Restore our nation's values

Finally, we must protect the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community, including refugees, children and people living with HIV. The rights of too many of these individuals have been deliberately targeted by hateful policies or just simply ignored. America has long stood as a beacon to the oppressed and marginalized — a nation where all are welcome — but Trump tarnished our reputation. He made it harder for LGBTQ people, many running from danger, to seek refuge on our shores. He put trans kids, who are more likely than their cisgender peers to experience bullying, in harm’s way by rolling back lifesaving guidance from the Department of Education. He fired patriotic service members living with HIV from our armed forces.

This cruelty goes against our most cherished values as a nation.

A defining legacy: My dad listened to Rush Limbaugh attack gay people like me, and echoed his contempt

The Biden administration must open our doors to LGBTQ refugees (some of whom are fleeing countries where the government puts LGBTQ people to death as a matter of law), reestablishing asylum rules to provide safe harbor for those escaping oppression because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. To safeguard educational opportunities for transgender children and further restore equality to our military, President Biden must take immediate action to reinstate protections for transgender students and end HIV discrimination in the military so that all who want to serve can do so.

Progress comes in many forms. Sometimes it means breaking new ground. Other times it means getting back to where we were before. And now is that time for Joe Biden to restore decency to American policy. The Biden administration is off to a good start in restoring many of the hard-fought victories achieved before Trump sabotaged them. But there is much more to do to advance the goal of equality for LGBTQ individuals and all Americans.

Kevin Jennings is the CEO of Lambda Legal. Follow him on Twitter: @KJennings

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden must restore and advance gay, trans rights after Trump sabotage