Google Calendar sparks fury after axing Pride Month, Black History Month and more
Google Drops Key Cultural Events from Default Calendar
Google Calendar has ignited outrage after quietly removing major cultural events like Pride Month, Black History Month, and Holocaust Remembrance Day from millions of users’ default calendar views worldwide. The purge also wiped Indigenous Peoples’ Month, Jewish Heritage commemorations, and Hispanic Heritage Month from the default settings, stirring a fierce backlash.
Google Blames ‘Scalability Issues’ for Cultural Cut
The tech giant began this major calendar shake-up in mid-2024 but only faced hefty criticism recently as users noticed the missing events. A Google spokesperson explained:
“For over a decade, we’ve worked with timeanddate.com to show public holidays and national observances in Google Calendar. Some years ago, the Calendar team manually added a broader set of cultural moments worldwide. But as the number grew, maintaining hundreds of events became unsustainable. So in mid-2024, we reverted to showing only public holidays and national observances, while allowing users to manually add other important moments.”
Now, only public holidays and national observances from Google’s partner timeanddate.com show by default.
Users Slam Google for Erasing Diversity
Google Calendar users have hit back hard on social media, slamming the removal as a “shameful” erasure of diversity. Some have accused Google of “capitulating to fascism” amid wider corporate rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Forums and support pages are buzzing with anger and disappointment at the abrupt cultural wipe.
Big Tech’s Diversity Rollbacks Intensify
- Meta, Intel, and PayPal have scaled back diversity hiring initiatives.
- Amazon dropped references to “inclusion and diversity” from its financial reports.
- Disney quietly phased out its “Reimagine Tomorrow” diversity programme.
The political climate adds fuel to the fire with US Attorney General Pam Bondi launching probes into private diversity schemes. Meanwhile, Donald Trump vows to dismantle DEI policies in government and corporations alike.
How to Add Your Own Cultural Events to Google Calendar
Good news: users can still add their own cultural and heritage events manually. To customise your calendar:
- Visit calendar.google.com.
- Click “Create” in the top-left corner.
- Enter the event name and set the date and time.
- Hit “Save”.
While not ideal, this lets you keep all important observances on your radar.
Is Corporate Diversity Doomed?
Google insists the move is just a practical choice. But critics warn it signals a worrying retreat by Big Tech from cultural recognition and inclusion. With multiple giants pulling back from DEI programmes, the future of diversity in tech looks uncertain.
