Apple Fired Their New Cuban-American Executive After Employees Complained He Was ‘Misogynistic’
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After much employee backlash, Apple announced on Wednesday that they fired product-engineer Antonio García Martínez. Antonio García Martínez is the notorious Cuban-American Silicon Valley power-player and author of the scandalous memoir, “Chaos Monkeys.”
In a statement, Apple wrote: “At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.”
The firing came after Apple employees circulated a petition demanding an “investigation” into Antonio García Martínez’s hiring. The employees–women in particular–were “deeply concerned” about the “misogynistic statements” in his memoir.
Although he has a Spanish flag in his Twitter bio, Antonio García Martínez was born in Miami to Cuban refugees. He earned a PhD in physics from Berkeley before getting a job at Goldman Sachs after graduating. He then landed jobs at both Facebook and Twitter before publishing his book. “Chaos Monkeys” acts as both a memoir and a description of “the chaotic evolution of social media and online marketing.”
In the letter, the Apple employees wrote: “We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio García Martínez. His misogynistic statements in his autobiography…directly oppose Apple’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity. We are profoundly distraught by what this hire means for Apple’s commitment to its inclusion goals, as well as its real and immediate impact on those working near Mr. García Martínez.”
The letter then cited a myriad of misogynistic excerpts from “Chaos Monkeys.” Below are some of the most troubling excerpts.
“Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit,” Antonio García Martínez wrote. “They have their self-regarding entitlement feminism, and ceaselessly vaunt their independence, but the reality is, come the epidemic plague or foreign invasion, they’d become precisely the sort of useless baggage you’d trade for a box of shotgun shells or a jerry can of diesel.”
Another: “There were few women one would call conventionally attractive at Facebook. The few there were rarely if ever dressed for work with their femininity on display in the form of dresses and heels.”
A culturally insensitive passage: “Willow Road then traversed East Palo Alto, the local slum that once had the highest murder rate in the Bay Area (two of the local schools are named after César Chávez and Ron McNair, an African American astronaut).” Implying schools named after Mexican-Americans and African American heroes indicate low-rent neighborhoods. You can read the bulk of the insensitive passages here.
In retaliation to his firing, Antonio García Martínez released a series of fiery Tweets condemning his former employer.
“I have thus far maintained my silence on the Apple situation as I’ve sought to settle things amicably with the company that I admired, and at which I hoped to build the future of ads privacy. As they however are not maintaining their silence on the matter, neither will I.”
“I upended my life for Apple. I sold my WA residence which I built with my own hands, relocated myself, shut down any public media presence and future writing aspirations, and resolved to build my career at Apple for years to come.”
He added that “Apple was well aware of my writing before hiring me”. And that he “was fired by Apple in a snap decision”. García Martínez also says Apple’s statements about him are “defamatory and categorically false.”
