Former Google diversity recruiter claims manager told her that her Baltimore accent was a "disability"

A former diversity recruiter at Google opened up about her firing from the tech giant in a lengthy Twitter thread Monday evening, claiming that one of her White managers called her heavy Baltimore accent a "disability" that she should disclose when meeting with staff internally.

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April Christina Curley, a Black queer woman who joined Google in 2014, said she was hired by the company to "fundamentally shift the relationship (or lack thereof) that Google had with Historically Black Colleges and Universities," claiming that the tech giant has previously "NEVER hired an HBCU student into a tech role."

"The reason Google never hired an HBCU student straight out of undergrad into one of their key engineering roles is because they didn’t believe talent existed at these institutions- until I showed up," she wrote.

Curley said that after starting at Google, she quickly became aware of "all the racist s**t put in place to keep black and brown students out of their pipeline," arguing that she "routinely called out shady recruitment practices such as “screening out” resumes of students with “unfamiliar” school/university names."

"In many instances, Google engineers who were interviewing HBCU candidates would leave demeaning and absolutely insulting feedback about students which would ultimately result in a rejection at the hiring committee stage," she alleges. "In several cases, students were questioned IN INTERVIEWS about the quality of the computer science curriculum that they were receiving at their HBCU and criticized for “not meeting the bar” compared to “elite” White institutions."

According to Curley, her "adamant advocacy of black and brown students to be fairly and justly considered for roles at Google" led to "active abuse and retaliation from several managers who harassed me- and many other black women."

"My skip-level manager, a White woman, told me VERBATIM that the way I speak (oftentimes with a heavy Baltimore accent) was a disability that I should disclose when meeting with folks internally," she wrote. "This white woman also told me that she never felt comfortably supporting my work because she was “intimidated” by me and therefore never considered me for leadership opportunities."

In addition, she alleges that another manager "had his ego bruised FROM JUMP when I refused to discuss my sexuality with him," noting he once asked which one of her teammates if she would sleep with.

"Despite STELLAR performance metrics which can be supported by multiple data points, I was repeatedly denied promotions, had my compensation cut, placed on performance improvement plans, denied leadership opportunities, yelled at, intentionally excluded from meetings, etc.," she said. "Ultimately my last manager, his manager and HR decided that the best way to shut me up was to fire me."

Curley was terminated by Google on Sept. 11, 2020. At the time of her departure, she claims that she "single handedly increased Google’s black engineering hiring from HBCUs by over 300%," bringing in more than 300 Black and Brown students from HBCUs who were hired into engineering roles.

"I could write FOR DAYS about alllllll the awfully racist recruitment and hiring practices I saw at Google, WITH RECEIPTS, she concluded. "But I’ll stop here for today and summarize my sentiment by saying F**K GOOGLE AND F**K THE WAY GOOGLE TREATS BLACK WOMEN and BLACK PEOPLE. THEY DO NOT WANT BLACK TALENT."

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Curley's comments come following the dismissal of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru earlier this month, which reportedly led to an apology from Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

"I’ve heard the reaction to Dr. Gebru’s departure loud and clear: it seeded doubts and led some in our community to question their place at Google," Pichai wrote in the email, according to Axios. "I want to say how sorry I am for that, and I accept the responsibility of working to restore your trust."

Gebru, a Black scientist, was working on a paper that cited potential bias and environmental problems linked to computer systems that analyze human language.

Leadership at Google had concerns about the quality and timing of the paper, but Gebru responded by saying that she would resign if a list of demands were not met. She also sent an email with the subject line, “Silencing Marginalized Voices in Every Way Possible,” to an internal diversity group about the controversy.

Gebru tweeted that she was later fired.

"Thanks for making your conditions clear. We cannot agree to #1 and #2 as you are requesting. We respect your decision to leave Google as a result, and we are accepting your resignation," the email from Google managers said, according to Gebru. "However, we believe the end of your employment should happen faster than your email reflects because certain aspects of the email you sent last night to non-management employees in the brain group reflect behavior that is inconsistent with the expectations of a Google manager."

Over 2,000 Google employees have signed a letter in support of Gebru.

"Instead of being embraced by Google as an exceptionally talented and prolific contributor, Dr. Gebru has faced defensiveness, racism, gaslighting, research censorship, and now a retaliatory firing," the letter says.

Axios reported that Pichai added in his email that Google needs to "assess the circumstances that led up to Dr. Gebru’s departure, examining where we could have improved and led a more respectful process," and "accept responsibility for the fact that a prominent Black, female leader with immense talent left Google unhappily."

"Take responsibility for your toxic leaders, HR, Legal and other entities who harass and discriminate against people like me and protect toxicity," she tweeted Wednesday in response to the email.

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Gebru commented on Curley's thread Monday evening, writing: "This person gives a heartbreaking account of what I'm assuming is not even 10% of what she experienced at Google and what people are interested in adding up her numbers? When we say people do NOT want to believe us this is what we mean."

In addition, founder and CEO of HBCU 20x20, Nicole Tinson, said that organization, which "effectively prepares and connects Black college students and alumni to jobs and internships", would cancel its partnership with Google effective immediately in response to Curley's tweets.

"We refuse to partner with a company who continues to oust/disrespect Black people. Black people deserve better, and it’s clear @Google has not find the need to do better, she wrote. "We do not encourage working or interning at Google."

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A Google spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement that the company has "a large team of recruiters who work incredibly hard to increase the hiring of Black+ and other underrepresented talent at Google, including a dedicated team that partners and strengthens our relationships with HBCUs."

"At the same time, we are absolutely committed to maintaining an inclusive and supportive workplace," the spokesperson added. "We don’t agree with the way April describes her termination, but it’s not appropriate for us to provide a commentary about her claims.”

The company noted that in 2019, it welcomed graduates from 19 HBCUs and expanded recruiting efforts to more than 800 schools over the past decade. Google also cited its annual diversity report, noting that the company saw its largest increase ever in hiring for Black+ tech employees in the U.S. in 2019. Representation of women in leadership roles at Google grew to 26.7% globally.

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In addition, the company announced a series of commitments earlier this year to improve racial equity boh inside and outside of its workplace and launched the Grow with Google Career Readiness Program, in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, to help train 20,000 HBCU students in digital skills over the next school year.

Fox Business' Paul Best and the Associated Press contributed to this report.