>According to Gupta’s letter and Soundararajan, the decision to cancel the talk came from Gupta’s boss, Cathy Edwards, a vice president of engineering, who had no experience or expertise in caste.
Nothing abot this is puzzling. beneath the surface of Google's attempts to "look happy", there is a huge amount of resentment between individuals, and between individuals and leadership. Even when I joined in 2007 it was noticeable, but by the time I left (the second time) in 2019, it was painfully obvious.
Sundar's goal has been to smooth over this resentment and prevent events that would exacerbate it. That often occurs by cancelling a venue for discussion/healing. GOogle sort of evolved itself into a state of weaponized progressivism, and is now realizing just how unrealistic its naive view of using technology to transform the world for good was, and how it needs to turn into everything that it said it wasn't to continue to succeed in the face of more determined competitors.
Truly puzzling decision.