A black Google employee said he was stopped while riding through its campus last week. Photo / Getty Images
A black Google employee said he was stopped while riding through its campus last week. Photo / Getty Images
A black Google employee says he was stopped by security while at work after being reported by someone who thought he was trespassing on company grounds.
Angel Onuoha claimed he was riding his bike around campus, in Mountain View, California, when he was stopped by security and asked to presentproof of his employee status.
"Riding my bike around Google's campus and somebody called security on me because they didn't believe I was an employee," his viral tweet, shared last week, read.
"Had to get escorted by two security guards to verify my ID badge."
Onuoha, who works as an associate product manager for the tech giant, said he ended up having his identification badge taken, and was told to pursue the matter with security.
Almost 1500 people responded to his original tweet expressing outrage at how such an incident, largely presumed to be racially motivated, had played out in 2021.
One response was from a black man who claimed he formerly worked in security at Google.
"Dawg I worked as security at Google and got security called on me," he wrote.
Angel Onuoha, a recent graduate of Harvard University, said security was called on him by someone who didn't believe he worked at Google. Photo / Twitter
Others shared similar instances of being discriminated against in corporate workplaces.
A spokesperson for Google told Forbes the company was taking Onuoha's "concerns very seriously".
"We take this employee's concerns very seriously, are in touch with him and are looking into this. We learned that the employee was having issues with his badge due to an administrative error and contacted the reception team for help," the spokesperson said.
"After they were unable to resolve the issue, the security team was called to look into and help resolve the issue."
The company claimed that recently it was encouraging employees to "leave investigating these kinds of access concerns to our security team".
"Our goal is to ensure that every employee experiences Google as an inclusive workplace and that we create a stronger sense of belonging for all employees," the spokesperson said.
Google was contacted by news.com.au for comment on the matter but it did not respond before publishing.
The company announced last year its intention to double its black workforce by 2025 following global Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Since its pledge however, black employees have increased by just 1 per cent, while white employees had declined 1.3 per cent.
Additionally, an Alphabet (Google's parent company) diversity report found while black people made up 8 per cent of company hires compared with 5.5 per cent last year, they also had the highest attrition rates.
