Google was 51.7% white in 2020, down from 54.4% in 2019 *. The US is 61.5% white, meaning whites are under-represented at Google, and increasingly so. How can one then argue they are favored? Why do reporters not apply even the smallest degree of scrutiny to such claims?
* The critics are talking about Software Engineering (~1/3rd of the company?), whereas the source you cited is about all of Google. I wouldn't be surprised if the White/Asian/Male splits are far worse when you only look at software engineers.
* Google has many international offices (e.g. there's > 1000 employees in Google Japan).
It's closer to 2/3.
*Ballpark white global population.
I'm also not saying that these numbers prove that Google does favor white workers. Only that they are not sufficient to disprove the idea.
It seems strange to put people in a position where showing a datapoint that would otherwise tend to refute a hypothesis (which IMO should not be assumed to be true in the first place) is not enough to be considered as evidence against the hypothesis being true.
The general trend I see in the community is that there's a strong belief that google, and by extension, the tech industry, is biased in favor of white workers.
At least Census is consistent.
“White Americans” average a little under 99% Eurooean ancestry, but far fewer than 99% have exclusively European ancestry.
Racism is stupid.