SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A former Facebook employee on
Tuesday went public with a memo saying the company is failing to include
black people in its workforce and on the social network.
Mark Luckie said that he shared the message with all Facebook employees
around the world early this month, shortly before his final day as a
strategic partner manager focused on underrepresented voices.
“Facebook has a black people problem,” Luckie, who is black, said in the
memo.
“Facebook’s disenfranchisement of black people on the platform mirrors the
marginalization of its black employees.”
The California-based social network did not respond to a request for
comment.
Luckie described black people as among the most engaged demographics on the
social network, but maintained that their efforts to create safe havens for
conversation on Facebook are being derailed by the platform.
Content has been removed and accounts suspended after non-black people
report content that doesn’t violate Facebook policies as hate speech,
according to Luckie.
Black employees typically hear colleagues comment, “I didn’t know black
people worked at Facebook,” he contended.
He noted that black employees now represent four percent of Facebook’s
workforce as compared to two percent in 2016.
– Authenticity –
“In some buildings, there are more ‘Black Lives Matter’ posters than there
are actual black people,” Luckie said.
A Facebook diversity report released in July confirmed the four percent
figure and pointed out that the percentage of black employees in business or
sales roles grew to eight percent.
“But we continue to have challenges recruiting Black and Hispanic employees
in technical roles and senior leadership,” chief diversity officer Maxine
Williams said in the report.
Luckie questioned whether the input of Facebook workers hired with an eye
toward diversity was being incorporated into projects.
He maintained that he had heard stories from other black employees who told
of being called hostile or aggressive by colleagues or managers for sharing
thoughts the way others do.
“Too many black employees can recount stories of being aggressively
accosted by campus security beyond what was necessary,” Luckie said.
“To feel like an oddity at your own place of employment because of the
color of your skin while passing posters reminding you to be your authentic
self feels in itself inauthentic.”
A man named Carl Smith replied to Luckie’s post on Facebook, saying that
his experience as a black man at the company was not universal.
“Mr Luckie doesn’t speak for all of us here. Ironically, Mark and I started
at Facebook on the same day. I’m still here,” Smith wrote.
“In the office, I often wear pro black t-shirts, Colin Kaepernick Jerseys,
or Black Lives Matter shirts to work and I feel completely comfortable doing
so because I truly believe I can be my authentic self everyday that I come to
work,” he said.