Google recently held an event for black employees called the K&I Black Summit; where participants received gifts from the company with racist undertones. In this respect reports TechCrunch publication.
The gift turned out to be a notebook with the words “At that moment I was just cotton, but I’m here to take your notes” (“I was once just cotton, but now I’m here to keep your notes”). English). The inscription was supposed to be a reference to the use of environmentally friendly materials, but it became offensive due to the skin color of the participants.
Some Google employees thought that the word “cotton” in this case might be a reference to the profession of “cotton picker”. Cotton pickers in the 20th century were blacks who worked in cotton fields.
Google did not refuse to distribute these notebooks at the K&I Black Summit. However, they noted that a third-party company was responsible for their production. Google did not respond when asked if the company considered the gift offensive to black people.
previous attempt fine For information, Google was banned in the Russian Federation for 800 thousand rubles.