Yahoo News Former Facebook employee says that the company has a ‘black people problem’
A black ex-Facebook employee has published a note accusing Facebook of having a ‘black people problem’ after he left the company last month.
Mark Luckie circulated the note inside Facebook before leaving, and said that he had witnessed a range of problems relating to racial discrimination.
Luckie wrote in the note, ‘Facebook has a black people problem. One of the platform’s most engaged demographics and an unmatched cultural trendsetter is having their community divided by the actions and inaction of the company. This loss is a direct reflection of the staffing and treatment of many of its black employees,’ he said.
‘In my time at the company, I’ve heard far too many stories from black employees of a colleague or manager calling them ‘hostile’ or ‘aggressive’ for simply sharing their thoughts in a manner not dissimilar from their non-black team members.’
Luckie also says that Facebook has a problem relating to hiring black staff.
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He said, ‘In some buildings, there are more Black Lives Matter posters than there are actual black people. Facebook can’t claim that it is connecting communities if those communities aren’t represented proportionately in its staffing.’
In its most recent diversity report, published in July, Facebook said the proportion of black employees at the company had risen from 2% to 4%, but the number of black employees in technical roles remained at 1% and the figure in leadership roles was 2%.
This week, politicians for nine countries criticised Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for not attending a hearing in the UK regarding the company’s scandals including ‘fake news’ – with an empty chair left for the CEO.
A Facebook spokesman told Yahoo News, ‘Over the last few years, we’ve been working diligently to increase the range of perspectives among those who build our products and serve the people who use them throughout the world.
‘The growth in representation of people from more diverse groups, working in many different functions across the company, is a key driver of our ability to succeed.
‘We want to fully support all employees when there are issues reported and when there may be micro-behaviours that add up. We are going to keep doing all we can to be a truly inclusive company.’
