Google announced late Wednesday that its global lead for diversity and strategy research, Kamau Bobb, has been reassigned after anti-semitic comments he made in a 2007 blog post resurfaced.
Bobb will remain employed with Google and focus on his STEM work, according to the company.
"If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself," Bobb wrote in a now-deleted blog post titled "If I Were a Jew" just under 14 years ago. "Self defense is undoubtedly an instinct, but I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others."
The Washington Beacon uncovered the content earlier this week and included multiple additional excerpts from the post.
"We unequivocally condemn the past writings by a member of our diversity team that are causing deep offense and pain to members of our Jewish community and our LGBTQ+ community," Google said in a statement. "These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologized."
"This comes at a time where we’ve seen an alarming increase in anti-Semitic attacks. Antisemitism is a vile prejudice that has given rise to unfathomable acts. It has no place in society and we stand with our Jewish community in condemning it," the company added.
Multiple Jewish advocacy groups denounced the comments and called for his termination, including Simon Wiesenthal Center and Stop Antisemitism.
Bobb "is an engineer and science and technology policy scholar whose work focuses on the relationship between equity in the STEM enterprise, large educational systems, and the structural conditions that influence contemporary American life," according to his website.
He has been with the company since 2018.
He has not publicly commented on the situation, however he reportedly apologized privately to the company’s Jewish employees.
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