Two black women who left their public policy roles at Pinterest last month have alleged they experienced racial discrimination at the company.<\/p>\n
Ifeoma Ozoma, the former public policy and social impact manager, and Aerica Shimizu Banks, who worked in federal government relations, made their accusations in Twitter threads Monday.<\/p>\n
Ozoma, a Yale graduate who previously worked at Google and Facebook, said she lobbied unsuccessfully for a year to get a pay raise and accused her manager of \u201cracism, gaslighting, & disrespect,\u201d citing a time she said she was given a bad performance review for not \u201cboth-sidesing the promo of slave plantations\u201d as wedding destinations.<\/p>\n
She also alleged that a white male colleague gave her phone number, photo and name to \u201cviolently racist\/misogynistic parts of the internet.\u201d Ozoma called Pinterest\u2019s response to the alleged doxxing \u201cdangerously inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI busted my ass at Yale, Google, then Facebook before Pinterest recruited me as the *second hire* on the global Public Policy team. I led work that raised our public policy profile globally,\u201d she tweeted. \u201cIt didn’t matter because I\u2019m a Black woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ozoma said she and a black female colleague were replaced by a white man, Business Insider reported. On Twitter, Banks confirmed she was the other colleague who left the company.<\/p>\n
Banks alleged that human resources at Pinterest misrepresented her pay to her and \u201cpitted her\u201d against Ozoma. She also said she was stripped of her responsibilities after she promoted a policy about the treatment of contractors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat should have been a moment of pride and the beginning of a long journey achieving federal and social impact wins for the company, Pinners, and the communities it serves instead marked a period of glaringly unfair pay, intense discrimination, and terrifying retaliation,\u201d Banks posted Monday.<\/p>\n
A Pinterest spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill that the company \u201ctook these issues seriously and conducted a thorough investigation when they were raised, and we’re confident both employees were treated fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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