Dig, Bridge, Collectively Act

When Margaret Mitchell, a white woman, asked Timnit Gebru, a Black woman, to join the ethical AI team at Google, Gebru didn’t know what to say. Though she was flattered and intrigued, she was aware of Google’s lack of racial and gender diversity. Friends had warned her that the environment might prove hostile to a woman of color. In 2018, the year she was hired, Black employees represented only 2.6% of Google’s U.S. workforce. But Mitchell convinced Gebru that if they stuck together, they could bring about real change in the organization. Soon after, however, the women say, they both witnessed racist and sexist patterns at the company. In response they reached out individually to people within the firm to push them to think more ethically and equitably. They tried to dig into why these problems existed at Google and to build bridges with colleagues to enact positive change. They claim that their efforts were met with strong opposition by Google executives.