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GitHub Admits 'Significant Mistakes Were Made' in Firing of Jewish Employee (theverge.com) 270

GitHub is admitting that a Jewish employee was fired in error and is offering him his job back. The news comes after the company hired an independent law firm to investigate the termination, and found that "significant mistakes were made." The company's head of HR, Carrie Olesen, is also resigning. From a report: "Yesterday evening, the investigation reached the conclusion that significant mistakes were made that are not consistent with our internal practices or the judgement we expect from our leaders," wrote GitHub CEO Nat Friedman in an internal message to employees on January 16th. He said the company would be issuing a public apology on its blog this weekend. In the post, GitHub COO Erica Brescia said: "To the employee we wish to say publicly: we sincerely apologize." The controversial firing came just two days after the employee warned colleagues in Washington DC to stay safe from Nazis -- news first reported by Business Insider. He posted the message on January 6th, the day of the insurrection in Washington DC, as rioters associated with neo-Nazi organizations stormed the Capitol. The warning sparked criticism from a colleague who took offense at the use of the word "Nazi" and prompted GitHub's HR team to reprimand the Jewish employee. Two days later, he was fired.
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GitHub Admits 'Significant Mistakes Were Made' in Firing of Jewish Employee

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  • ...it's probably not a duck.

    If a "protestor" (*cough*insurrectionist*cough*) is wearing N@zi imagery and shouting N@zi slogans, or if they're just happy to march with those who are, they're either a N@zi or close enough to being one as makes no actual difference.

    It makes ZERO difference whether someone is a historical N@zi or a Neo-N@zi, either way you've gotta watch out they don't lynch you. They share the same ideals, and have the same ideas about how to solve their "problems".

    • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:31AM (#60959526)

      Probably talking about this guy https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j... [s-nbcnews.com]

      The back of his shirt says "staff" by the way.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        Well, there are lots of examples.

        https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09... [cnn.com]

        That's just one guide. It doesn't focus solely on the N@zi stuff, though.

        https://www.rollingstone.com/c... [rollingstone.com]

        https://www.jta.org/2021/01/07... [jta.org]

        I had another link but the link contained "na" right before "zi" and the filter wouldn't let me post it, because Slashdot filters are apparently designed to protect N@zis from hostile discussion. They certainly haven't stopped the white supremacists from spamming this place.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by argStyopa ( 232550 )

        Is that our standard now?

        If I can find one person in a crowd of Antifa protesters or BLM that is espousing crazy-ass communist dogma or wearing a Che Guevara shirt, does that mean I can legitimately brand everyone there as committed communist revolutionaries?

        How about the BLM organizers who cheerfully admit that they are marxists?

        What are the standards for group broad-brushing now? Asking for a friend.

        • Is that our standard now?

          Storm congress in a maga based terrorist attack, and you don't get to choose what you are classed as.

          We had some nasty names for groups like the Japanese and Germans, the magas transformed themselves into whatever we want to call them by their attack on the USA. maga, fascist, nasty - hey if the foo shits, you wear it. Funny how Slashdot's lameness filter works. It won't let me use a word that is right in the subthread. I guess titles aren't filtered.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Is that our standard now?

            Storm congress in a maga based terrorist attack, and you don't get to choose what you are classed as.

            We had some nasty names for groups like the Japanese and Germans, the magas transformed themselves into whatever we want to call them by their attack on the USA. maga, fascist, nasty - hey if the foo shits, you wear it.

            Funny how Slashdot's lameness filter works. It won't let me use a word that is right in the subthread. I guess titles aren't filtered.

            The OP's question still stands: is this our standard now? If one person out of a crowd of thousands (or tens of thousands) espouses disgusting views then everyone in that crowd is identically tarred and feathered? If so, then one looter in a BLM protest makes them all looters? One Antifa guy throwing a Molotov cocktail makes all the protesters terrorists? Is this really where you want to go with this? Or are you counting on a double standard where only ideologies you disagree with are painted with

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              Yeah, BLM didn't try to take Congress hostage and force it to discount the votes of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia. We don't have to pretend there's some sort of equivalency between the White Nationalists and groups like BLM anymore. White Nationalists are seditionists and insurrectionists who mounted a violent assault on the Congress of the United States of America with the intent of overriding the will of the Electors, heeding the call of President Trump, and possibly with logistical support from som

            • by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @02:13PM (#60960886) Homepage

              The OP's question still stands: is this our standard now? If one person out of a crowd of thousands (or tens of thousands) espouses disgusting views then everyone in that crowd is identically tarred and feathered? If so, then one looter in a BLM protest makes them all looters? One Antifa guy throwing a Molotov cocktail makes all the protesters terrorists?

              What do you mean now? That standard for BLM protests has remained the same all last year, ask anyone with a MAGA hat. MAGA can't have its own standard applied to their own protests?

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          No, N azis are like cockroaches, if you see one there are a hundred in hiding...

          I have honestly never seen a BLM activist proudly claim they are Marxists.

          Are you using Big Lie techniques... Just like Hitler would?

          FYI, you sure sound like one, and now that trump completely destroyed the Godwin Rule, I am free to call your ass out

          • by jbssm ( 961115 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @11:44AM (#60960172)
            Even The Guardian (a clearly left wing journal), acknowledges that one of the BLM co-founders describes herself proudly as a "trained Marxist". Of course that being The Guardian, they go ahead and try to find some excuse on why that shouldn't be a problem for anyone. But the fact remains in any case: https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]
          • by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @11:49AM (#60960202)

            I have honestly never seen a BLM activist proudly claim they are Marxists.

            https://nypost.com/2020/06/25/... [nypost.com]

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @11:56AM (#60960250) Homepage Journal

            Most people don't know what a Marxist is anyway. The main reason it's become popular is the anti-Semitic "cultural Marxist" meme. At this point though it's mostly just "someone I disagree with, and by the way I'm a fuckwit."

    • by JBMcB ( 73720 )

      The use of the "Na" word probably caused some people at his place of work to feel unsafe. This is a severe breach of protocol these days. Causing people to feel unsafe, or even uncomfortable, even through general non-targeted speech, is considered violence in some circles.

      • Re:Safety (Score:5, Funny)

        by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @10:16AM (#60959750)

        The use of the "Na" word probably caused some people at his place of work to feel unsafe.

        Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'na' at will to coworkers. There is a pestilence upon this land. Nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic anxiety at this period in history.

    • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      ...it's probably not a duck.

      Except when it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Some of them try to hide it. They seem to have realized that they over-estimated how acceptable it was with the backlash to the Unite the Right rally, so went back to mostly hiding it.

      What tends to give them away is that in the heat of the moment they start shouting and chanting. Fortunately some of them were stupid enough to livesteam their federal crimes on YouTube. Neo-N@zi Tim Gionet, aka Baked Alaska, was recently arrested thanks to him broadcasting his own crimes.

    • How far removed must you be from someone to be considered not associated with them? Just saying if there's some dude wearing that kind of stuff and there's another group 10 feet away, 20 feet away, at what point are they no longer associated with him? There's always going to be opportunists that show up at protests. Both sides of the political spectrum have claimed there were unassociated troublemakers showing up.
      • How far removed must you be from someone to be considered not associated with them?

        If you're marching in the same rally, and you're not confronting them, then you're marching with them. This really isn't complicated.

        There's always going to be opportunists that show up at protests.

        Sure, not all of these guys were opportunists. Some of them received reconnaissance briefings and tours ahead of time, and shouted about how this was what all their training was for.

        • If you're marching in the same rally, and you're not confronting them, then you're marching with them. This really isn't complicated.

          There's an area where the occasional rally is held between where I live and some shops, I have occasionally had to make my way through a rally on my way there, or back. The perils of living in a decent-sized city.

        • by jbssm ( 961115 )

          If you're marching in the same rally, and you're not confronting them, then you're marching with them. This really isn't complicated.

          I'm not sure if that's a good principle or not. But I am ok with it as long as it is applied to rallies with people espousing Communist symbols as well

          • by tragedy ( 27079 )

            I think that should really be amended to marching in the same rally through the police guarding the capitol and then over the walls/through the windows/smashing through the doors. When you get to that point, there does not seem to be much reason not to tar people with the same brush. Although, maybe not one as specific as N.azi. After all, there were clearly different groups involved. Fox news, for example, has been touting the one black, "far-left" person they've been able to find so far. He claims he was

  • Huh?! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Evtim ( 1022085 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:28AM (#60959520)

    Why is the lame filter not applied to the summary? I saw the dreaded word! It cannot be unseen!

    • The lame filter doesn't apply to titles/headlines. So you can say the N..i word there, but not in the body copy.

      You also can't post links with the word in them, because Slashdot gives zero fucks about unintended consequences (or is willfully trying to protect N@zis.)

      • In links, Escaping with urlencode() should work.

        Let me try:

        git+ssh://%6E%61%7A%69s-in-bikinis/dancing-samba-the-gay-Himmler-way-OS/

        • That reminds me of the guy who designed captchas which could not be understood by any software.
          And unfortunately not by any human either.
          to be clear , it's a joke. My software assists me fine when I cannot understand the captcha.

    • Re:Huh?! (Score:4, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:48AM (#60959632) Homepage Journal

      It's there to filter the spam that was hitting every story, so it's not needed on summaries that are edited by a human first.

    • by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @10:24AM (#60959792)
      It's time to repeal Godwin's Law (and the Slashdot "lameness" filter). N@zis are no longer an overused historical analogy. They are real and current and all around us, and we need to be able to refer to them as such.
    • Re:Huh?! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Koen Lefever ( 2543028 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @11:56AM (#60960246)
      The filter actually has the opposite effect: it leads to spellings like "N@zi" or "F#*k", which effectively highlight the words that they try to ban.

      Also: filters do not take context or intent into consideration. There is a huge difference between "the N@zi party was founded in 1920" and "you are a fooking N@zi". The modding and reporting system here however can deal with that.

      It becomes ridiculous when a forum for flight simulators bans the word "cockpit", since it has no sexual connotation, but of course when everybody has to write "c0ckpit" it highlights the word "c0ck" every time (the forum I'm talking about had to whitelist "cockpit" because it caused too many discussions to go completely off-topic).

      The same goes for racial slurs. It are not the words which are offensive, but the way in which they are used. As an aside to illustrate the previous sentence: my first name is pronounced as "koon", and it often happens that Americans or Australians refuse to call me by my name because they consider it as being rude ("Koen" is the short form of "Koenraad", the Dutch & Flemish version of "Conrad").

      So if anybody of the /. staff is reading this: please get rid of that filter, it does not work (as the ASCII art above illustrates) and it leads to absurd situations. Improving the filter is just considered as a challenge by the trolls, it is an arms race which you can never win - especially not on /. because the trolls here are technically very skilled.
  • Hubbers? (Score:3, Funny)

    by ktakki ( 64573 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:34AM (#60959536) Homepage Journal

    Github employees are known as Hubbers? Da fuq?

    k.

  • ...if the HR drones are going to get disciplined, or the people (if not HR--article doesn't say) who actually fired him are.

    • ...if the HR drones are going to get disciplined, or the people (if not HR--article doesn't say) who actually fired him are.

      Microsoft-owned GitHub said on Sunday that the company’s head of human resources resigned after an investigation into the company’s dismissal of a Jewish employee.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/1... [cnbc.com]

    • The company knows they fucked up badly. They even admitted to wrongdoing and apologized. That almost never happens. They’re hoping they employee doesn’t sue. I’d collect on that fat settlement and move on.

      • Let's allow people to change whem they noticed something was wrong with them. And companies too.

        They admitted to being wrong, try to make it right, and try to leaen from it. What more can one accept? That is fine with me. Nobody's perfect. We've all had our bad times. Amd when in recent times was there ever a more plausible moment to have some bad times?

  • by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:45AM (#60959610) Journal

    The prominent political scientist defines Robert_Paxton [wikipedia.org] defines fascism as:

    ... a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

  • I don't get it. Aren't they supposed to look out for each others?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tannhaus ( 152710 )

      Good ole slashdot...cover a post about antiSemitism and have someone post something borderline antiSemitic in the comments.

      First, the more acceptable term is "Jewish". Calling someone a Jew doesn't sound quite right.

      and saying "Jews" are "supposed to look out for each other" implies that they have more loyalty to each other than everyone else. It leads to all the familiar antiSemitic tropes about how they're scheming against the gentiles, can't be trusted, etc.

      It's the same as with any other ethnic group:

      • and saying "Jews" are "supposed to look out for each other" implies that they have more loyalty to each other than everyone else. It leads to all the familiar antiSemitic tropes about how they're scheming against the gentiles, can't be trusted, etc.

        Until a Jewish murderer fled to Israel [baltimoresun.com] and was protected by his father, any Jew who committed a crime abroad could not be extradited back to the country to be tried. Certainly sounds likes Jews looking out for each other.

        Then there is Bernie Madoff [newvoices.org]. What was in

        • A father looking out for his kid is totally normal. Israel doesn't extradite people on principle. However, they did try him for the crime he committed in the US (even paid to fly the family over to watch), and threw him in an Israeli jail. Where he sat for a few years until he decided he wanted to return to the US and its gentler penal system.

    • It may also work against the Jewish person - with the person doing the hiring being harder on the Jewish candidate in an attempt to correct subconscious bias..which leads to them actually favoring the gentile over the Jewish person in practice because they're over-correcting.

  • by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:47AM (#60959624)
    Even if we leave aside the fact that that person had all the good reasons to use that word, the sole fact that he was fired in two days for having used a single word tells us about the sorry state of the American cultural landscape.
    What we see here is that the combination of outrage culture with cancel culture resulted in a grave injustice for a member of a vulnerable minority. Isn't it about time that we think again about these toxic institutions? Maybe scale them down a bit?
    • by merky1 ( 83978 )

      as much as I don’t want to play blame the victim, it feels like we are missing part of this conversation. Hopefully there is a trial (sorry that this person needs to shoulder this) and we can see whether github used common sense and had cause or just went sjw knee jerk.

      It just seems odd that the company used this as the final point. It sounds like they had “vaporizing” documented behavior, and it would be fascinating to see what constitutes cause for them.

  • by poptopdrop ( 6713596 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:47AM (#60959626)

    "Naz1" means something in discussions.
    Trying to deny that and - worse - banning it does no favours to the decent people of the world and does no harm to the idiots who glorify the original Naz1s.
    There is nothing wrong with using it, or derivatives that have special meanings, such as "fem1naz1s" for extremist feminists. Which also has to be misspelt because it is banned here FFS.

    • Using "- n a z i" for other things is not acceptable in central Europe though. Because it makes N a z i s look more harmless than they are, or the thing more harmful than it is. Sure, it's a hyperbole, and hyperboles have a point. But not everyone is gonna understand it that way. Causing the thing and the term to approach each other anyway.

      Just like you Americans cannot say you truly hate or truly love anything anymore because you already overused those words in hyperboles for mundane things. You of course

  • the worker needs an significant payout to cover this maybe 500K - 1M

  • by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:54AM (#60959656)
    I mean, we're not even allowed to post that word -- apparently now The Other N Word -- on this site. Hey Editors, some clarification, please: are Slashdot users allowed to say "N@zi" or are they not?
    • Well, you just said the word.

      Apparently some people (not you) are too stupid, to get, that it's not the combination of letters or even word said. It's the intention transported.

      p.c.ness is just the dark art of saying the most horrible things with the nicest words. So one can be more evil while appearing less evil.

      • The ironic thing is that when sites like Slashdot and Github flip out over words like n@zi, they fail to realize that it is THEIR reactions that give the word power. This story is a perfect example -- without actually using the word, the story wouldn't make any sense (and indeed, the headline is so poorly written that it makes the reader think the employee was fired because they were Jewish, a detail which in fact has very little to do with what actually occurred). Without that knee-jerk reaction to ban o
    • It seems like it's more of a half-baked way of culling some of the spam that was rampant here over the last year... because they seem to be completely incompetent at writing filters for the more obvious components of the spam posts.
  • by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:58AM (#60959672) Journal
    Some questions:
    1) Why fire someone over use of the word "N.zi"? Even if the company has a policy to keep such words out of internal communication (much like Slashdot, I might add), then a reprimand would perhaps be in order, but surely not termination.
    2) Why does it matter that the guy is Jewish? Are they exempt from certain rules?
    3 What "mistakes" were made exactly? Bad policies, not following policies, or just a knee-jerk reaction followed by a knee-jerk retraction from HR?
    • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday January 18, 2021 @10:06AM (#60959716) Homepage Journal

      1) Why fire someone over use of the word "N.zi"?

      100% because some Conservacuck felt like they were being called N@zi, and complained that use of the word created a hostile work environment.

      2) Why does it matter that the guy is Jewish?

      Because it's extra-dystopian when you fire a Jew for warning about N@zis while they are marching in the streets, and also while they are mounting insurrections.

      3 What "mistakes" were made exactly? Bad policies, not following policies, or just a knee-jerk reaction followed by a knee-jerk retraction from HR?

      Hiring at least one neocon fuckwit to staff HR.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        Would they have re-hired him if he didn't have the Jew card to play, or would it have been "Well, you shouldn't talk about politics at work"?

        Good to see the HR lady leave though, obviously she was a retard (no offense to anyone with Down syndrome).

        • "Well, you shouldn't talk about politics at work"?

          Are you trying to dismiss someone saying "watch out for people who literally want to to murder you" as "discussing politics at work"?

      • Hiring at least one neocon fuckwit to staff HR.

        Or certain rules were followed in regard to using certain words in internal communication.. But now it was reversed because it got public attention because of a jew calling others naz1 and well, with the PC crap we're living in today, this media attention is immediately a big problem.

        And because some people have different idea's from you, doesn't make then a neocon fuckwit... The fact you call it like that makes you exactly the same fuckwit as you still haven't got a clue on what rules he was fired, media

      • 2) Why does it matter that the guy is Jewish?

        Because it's extra-dystopian when you fire a Jew for warning about N@zis while they are marching in the streets, and also while they are mounting insurrections.

        Also, N@zis tend to want to kill Jews. I actually met one face to face way back in high school (almost 30 years ago). He knew I was Jewish and started telling me, to my face, "the only thing Hitler did wrong was not finishing the job." He was outright telling me that I and my family should be killed for be

    • My guess (Score:3, Interesting)

      by raymorris ( 2726007 )

      I suspect it went down something like this.

      Somebody at Facebook is aware that left-wing extremists commonly refer to conservatives as N@zis. Also some that aren't THAT extreme do so, like when Nancy Pelosi called US law enforcement officers protecting federal buildings N@zis, complaining about the "Stormtroopers" (N@zi SA unit) trying to protect the buildings from rioters. Yeah this would be the same people whom she eventually allowed to come protect HER inside the federal capital from rioters trying to ge

      • by MSG ( 12810 )

        she called her protectors "Stormtroopers", before she realized she needed them there.

        Horseshit.

        Pelosi used that word to refer to men in Portland who wore no identifying markings on their uniforms or their vehicles.

        That practice is extremely dangerous, making a clear path to either federal officers being shot for attempting to kidnap citizens, or to citizens being taken by private militias.

        And those men were not Capitol Police, nor DC Police, nor National Guard. They absolutely, positively, were not the officers in DC defending the Capitol building.

    • Most importanty: What harm was done, exactly?

      Apart from the firing, I mean.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Github's internal handling of complaints seems to be completely broken. I had first hand experience when I complained about a member of their staff recently regarding a Code of Conduct issue. Their investigations are slow and opaque, and they get easily confused or make easily disprovable conclusions.

      It sounds like they have a systemic problem. The fact that the head of HR resigned over this is further evidence that their internal processes don't work. Hopefully they take this opportunity to fix them.

  • Thanks (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LatencyKills ( 1213908 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @10:00AM (#60959684)
    But I'll take the settlement. Seriously, who goes back to a job they've been fired from, for any reason? I've never been fired, but I was part of a layoff several years back, and when things improved the company contacted me with an offer to have my job back. Why would I take that? You've shown your willingness to lay me off when times get tough, so obviously you'd make that same choice again if the situation arises. I'm either someone you see as important to your core business, or I'm not.
    • Your schooling was supposed to indoctrinate you to make choices against your self interests.

      They were banking on that.

    • If he had a ton of stock then he might be willing to go back. Also it might be worth getting a paycheck for a few months while you find another job. Finally it's always better to say you quit than that you were fired.

  • Apologies are great, but will he get anything else due to his life being disrupted ?

    Also how would a person feel going back to a place that fired him for no reason? Especially since I think he said nothing wrong and other people were kept on by saying things that should have gotten them disciplined.

  • Note that they're saving this person because his speech is the kind that GitHub *expects* its employees to engage:

    Friedman stressed that “Hubbers are free to express concerns about neo-N_zis, antisemitism, white supremacy or any other form of discrimination or harassment,” he wrote. “And of course, we expect Hubbers to be respectful, professional, and to follow GitHub policies on discrimination and harassment at all times

    If the employee had likened a Democrat to a N_zi, that would not have been permissible.

    You'll know you're seeing a CEO stand up for a principle when he/she decides to protect an employee's speech outside of work because he/she believes that: 1) free expression is a valuable way for a society, and 2) not every hour of an employee's life must be beholden to the reputational risk management conce

  • I'm baffled that you can't write the word "N.a.z.i." here.

    In the words of Eugeniusz Krol, a Polish historian that edited a version of Mein Kampf that is out this week: "According to the critics, the publication of this book is an offence to the victims of [Na.zism]. In my view, it is the opposite". His editor adds that the book is "a warning that it is easy to dismantle democracy and build a totalitarian regime in an almost invisible way. What happened in Germany after 1933 can happen today, tomorrow, the d

  • by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Monday January 18, 2021 @12:07PM (#60960344)

    Communists have killed an order of magnitude more people than N@zis. We need to group "Communist" in the same category as "N@zi."

//GO.SYSIN DD *, DOODAH, DOODAH

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