Felix Graham
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Have to agree with several of the commenters: if this memo had been about race, would you be so willing to glibly pat the guy on the back and chalk it all up to “conversation”?

Generally, I agree that dialogue is better than reactionary response, but there’s also the fact that this fellow represents a part of the population who DOES think exactly what the guy said…only without all the nice padding that makes it seem like he’s really just a misguided, nice, thoughtful guy with some bad opinions.

Bullshit.

Yes, there’s room for dialogue. Yes, there’s a time and a place to talk things through. But free speech doesn’t mean speech without consequences, either. For years, guys like this have gotten a free pass to say whatever they liked, and people (particularly lady people) who’ve tried to stand up against it have gotten mocked, attacked, fired, etc. Are you really going to stand and say, hey, that sucks, but no, really, we’ve got to hear this guy out?

Have the discussion, yes. Talk about this, definitely yes. But I have to say, if I were a female engineer at Google, I’d feel pretty uncomfortable being assigned to his team.

    Felix Graham

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