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Filmed "Tailgating" Standoff Prompts Calls For Removal Of YouTube Executive (Updated)

This article is more than 4 years old.

This post has been updated: Cukor has apologized for the incident in a Medium post. In it he explains his actions, stating that asking people at the condominium where they are going "is something I do regularly, regardless of who the other person is" because he and his family have been robbed several times. He acknowledges the disconcerting trend of white people calling police on black people due to the color of their skin and asserts that "the last thing I ever intended was to echo that history — and I’m sorry my actions caused Welsy to feel unfairly targeted due to his race."

Another video of a white person seemingly unjustifiably calling the police on a black person has gone viral, and it poses a particular challenge for YouTube as 2019 continues to test the company's commitment to its values both internally and on its platform.

On July 4th, outside of a San Fransisco condominium, YouTube executive Christopher Cukor accused Wesly Michael, a Dictionary.com software engineer, of tailgating and trespassing. Cukor had been exiting the building with his son when Michael decided to enter, "tailgating" Cukor. Michael explained that he was there to visit his friend, but when he refused Cukor's demands to name the friend and call the lobby's callbox to prove he was a guest of a resident, Cukor called the police.



What follows is a rather heartbreaking video posted by Michael to Facebook of Cukor reporting him to the police. Michael promises to stop and delete the recording if Cukor puts down the phone, and Cukor's son also desperately pleads with his father for them to "just go." After a minute of Cukor speaking with the police, his son crying, and Michael urging the two to leave, Michael's friend "Cathy" finally arrives and the video ends.

But the controversy didn't conclude with Cathy's arrival. As Michael said in the video, Cukor was "gonna be the next person on TV," referring to the numerous documented accounts of black people having the police called on them for doing normal things. After posting it to Facebook, video of the confrontation has been viewed over a million times and has sparked fierce defenses of both Cukor and Michael, who both approached the situation with their own emotional baggage, which perhaps explains the palatable tension in the posted video.

Michael's attempt to meet Cathy is not the first time that he has been racially profiled. As he states in the video, Michael has had the police called on him while trying to get into his own apartment. Meanwhile, Cukor also has a history with trespassing. As reported by the San Fransisco Chronicle, his father was killed in the driveway of his home by a mentally-ill man in 2013. Cukor's father had called the police to report the matter, but they did not classify his request as an emergency and arrived too late on the scene.



Nevertheless, the incident has spawned a pressure campaign for YouTube to hold Cukor accountable. Although Cukor quickly moved to delete his social media and work history as the video gained traction, screenshots reveal that he is an executive working in YouTube's Device Partnerships division.



The campaign to remove Cukor comes as YouTube faces increased scrutiny over how it handles violations of its community guidelines on its platforms and provides an inclusive space for its employees. YouTube and its parent company, Google, faced an internal revolt from its LGBT+ employees in June over how it dealt with Vox journalist Carlos Maza's hate speech allegations against conservative commentator Steven Crowder. Google warned its employees that protesting the decision at Pride as a representative of the company would violate its code of conduct.

Google also has trouble with its racial diversity, particularly in attracting and keeping female, Black, and Latinx talent. Wired found that outspoken proponents of diversity within the company are punished by some of their coworkers who leak their information and communications to outside alt-right groups who harass these employees.

Minority employees have also had their value to the company questioned by internal communications that ask whether increasing diversity lowers the bar or employee blog posts that blatantly state: "Blacks are not equal to whites. Therefore the ‘inequality’ between these races is expected and makes perfect sense” or "women are less biologically predisposed to become engineers and leaders."

While Michael's video has generated debate on whether Cukor's call was racially motivated, it at best draws attention to and at worst compounds Google and YouTube's existing problems with diversity in its company and platform.

YouTube has not commented on the video.

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