Fired Google engineer's suit alleges reverse discrimination

A Google engineer fired for writing a memo questioning Google's commitment to diversity has filed a lawsuit alleging his ouster was driven by a corporate culture that discriminates against white men and people with conservative views, including supporters of President Donald Trump.

The 161-page complaint filed yesterday on behalf of James Damore and another former Google engineer depicts Google as an elitist company that shuns employees who dare to deviate from a liberal agenda embraced by its management and most of its workforce.

The lawsuit was filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court and comes five months after Google fired Damore for writing a 10-page memo entitled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber." In that missive, Damore criticized Google for pushing mentoring and diversity programs and for "alienating conservatives." He also blamed biological differences for the paucity of women in tech.

Damore, 28, says he submitted early versions of his memo to Google's human resources department without being reprimanded. Just a few days after Damore posted the memo on an internal message board, it was leaked to a technology blog.

Google fired him Aug 7 amid an uproar among workers offended by its themes.