Is racial bias circulating inside the largest social media company, #Facebook? An anonymous memo from a former employee shows complaints of racism and discrimination inside of the workplace.
The memo exposed many incidents about how the company lacks representation and agency of African-Americans inside Facebook and how it directly affects how black people are treated on Facebook and other platforms. They might be onto something!
“We may be smiling. We may post on #Instagram with industry influencers and celebrities. We may embrace each other and share how happy we are to have the opportunity to work with a company that impacts nearly three billion people. But on the inside, we are sad. Angry. Oppressed. Depressed. And treated everyday through the micro and macro aggression as if we do not belong here” says the anonymous memo.
This timing was quite ironic as Facebook just held a summit with hundreds of black employees where CEO Mark Zuckerburg and his committed talked about the importance “of inclusion and empowerment”. Vice President of Corportate Communications, Bertie Thompson later apologized and stated “No one at Facebook, or anywhere, should have to put up with this behavior. We are sorry. It goes against everything that we stand for as a company. We’re listening and working hard to do better”.
Two white employees asked a black Program Manager to clean up after they were finished eating breakfast. Other black employees describe the environment as hostile, aggressive “angry and abnormal”. They stated that managers focus on negative feedback and criticize how black employees speak in meetings or inform employees they should be more reserved and respectful. This is just a small list of the adversity some employees face while working there.
We hope matters change and all employees are treated fairly. The last thing Facebook would want is our black community not using Facebook/Instagram or anything associated with them.
