Lawsuit says Google discriminates against Black workers

A former Google employee sued the tech giant saying it engages in a "pattern and practice" of racial discrimination against its Black workers, steering them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjecting them to a hostile work environment if they speak out. 

April Curley was hired in 2014 to recruit Black candidates for the company. 

Her lawsuit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, claims she was unlawfully fired in 2020 after she began speaking out and "called for reform of the barriers and double standards Google imposed on Black employees and applicants," according to the lawsuit.

"Google chose to ignore and ultimately attack Black employees brave enough to speak up about Google's embedded racism that actively harmed Black employees on a daily basis," Curley said. 

"Google believes great people are white people. Well with this lawsuit, we're proclaiming to Google that Black people and brown people are great people too," said civil rights attorney for the plaintiffs, Ben Crump. 

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The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages and compensation for former Black employees at Google. The Mountain View-based tech company has not commented on the lawsuit. 

KTVU contributed to this report.