Uber is making a move toward a more inclusive workforce, just not exactly the way people expected.
In a surprising announcement, Bo Young Lee has been named the company’s first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer, according to Recode. Previously, Lee was the global diversity and inclusion officer at the financial services firm, Marsh. She will be reporting to Uber’s chief human resources officer, Liane Hornsey, for the time being.
The move is, in part, a nod to one of the 47 recommendations provided by former U.S. Attorney general Eric Holder and his partner, Tammy Albarran, after their firm conducted an investigation into the company’s embattled culture. The triggering event was the now-famous blog post by engineer Susan Fowler alleging sexual harassment and discrimination, but the reckoning had been a long time coming.
While the recommendations were adopted by the Uber board, at least in spirit, the Holder memo had a specific recommendation about Bernard Coleman, then the company’s highest-ranking diversity executive. First, that he be elevated to a c-suite role, and second, that he report directly to the CEO or COO. Instead, Coleman will be reporting to Lee. From the memo:
Uber should elevate the visibility of the current Head of Diversity, Bernard Coleman, and emphasize the outreach component of Mr. Coleman’s position. Uber should increase the activities and communications of Mr. Coleman’s team. As part of these communications, the Head of Diversity could send updates to employees regarding the company’s diversity efforts, engage in outreach efforts to Uber employees and affinity groups at Uber, and serve as a resource for senior management and rank-and-file employees alike with respect to diversity and inclusion. In addition, the position should be renamed the “Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer,” and the position should report directly to the CEO or the COO.
Coleman joined in January 2017, after leaving his post as head of diversity for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He’d barely been a week on the job when #DeleteUber began to trend worldwide, after the company appeared to undermine taxi drivers during a strike at JFK Airport in support of protests against President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban” executive order. He told Time that the drama couldn’t break his stride. “The only difference between Uber and a campaign is campaigns end,” he said.
Coleman has been a popular figure in diversity circles, managing to walk the fine line between being candid about the challenges of inclusion, while remaining hopeful that the work can be accomplished. But his most recent Forbes column also sounds like a memo to his new boss:
“When you examine the ranks of most tech companies, it is statistically improbable that senior ranks would be devoid of women and people of color, considering the makeup of our country — which has over 326 million people and the ability to attract talent from anywhere in the world,” he begins. “It requires the tech industry to take an honest assessment of how we arrived at this non-diverse, non-inclusive environment that somehow does not mirror the society that we all inhabit. This moment is about having a tough conversation, not silencing dissent but actually hearing what others have to say no matter how much we may disagree. Ideas and ideologies cannot be fired or quieted. We are at an inflection point that requires deep organizational introspection on what got us here and what we can collectively do to move forward.”
A quick look at Lee’s LinkedIn shows her to be a committed diversity professional. And in a second surprise twist, it shows that she was a diversity and inclusion advisor to the Hillary for America campaign and a former member of Coleman’s team. The inclusion world is small, indeed.
I hope this reunion bodes well for the ride-sharing company and its many stakeholders, not to mention, the broader tech ecosystem. Lee, who starts in March and will be based in New York, is sending the right signals. “We will be real partners in a lot of this work,” Lee told Recode. “Bernard and I have had some conversations about what his role will be.”
On Point
| A charity fundraiser, a “mainstay” of London’s social calendar, seems to be an all-male gropefest |
| This annual black-tie evening is attended by elite power brokers from British and European business, political and entertainment circles, and functions as a charity auction to raise money for worthy causes like children’s hospitals. But according to this report from the Financial Times, it’s really an excuse for unbridled sexual harassment. Specially selected hostesses “were told to wear skimpy black outfits with matching underwear and high heels. At an after-party many hostesses — some of them students earning extra cash — were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned.” Two FT reporters went undercover as hostesses, insert "combat pay" joke here. |
| Financial Times |
| Russian designer Ulyana Sergeenko uses a racial slur during Couture Week in Paris, fails to apologize correctly |
| The slur came in the form of a hand-written note sent to fashion blogger Miroslava Duma which said, “to my niggas in Paris,” and finished off with an old-fashioned smiley emoticon. Duma shared the note on Instagram, which prompted an immediate uproar and a menacing response from model Naomi Campbell. “This better not be real,” she said, tagging Sergeenko. The next day, Sergeenko returned to the platform to make things worse with a spirited defense involving her half-Armenian daughter and Kanye West. "Kanye West is one of my favorite musicians, and NP is one of my favorite songs, and yes, we call each other the N word sometimes when we want to believe that we are just as cool as these guys who sing it.” Oh, I don’t think so, said Twitter. |
| Elle |
| Writer, television host, and inclusion champion Carmen Rita Wong has a new joint on Sirius XM |
| The Money Magazine and CNBC alum and current novelist (!) Has been giving life and money advice for years now, bringing together experts and sanity seekers for the kinds of deep conversations that don’t tend to happen in other formats. I’ll be stopping by her show tomorrow around 7am Eastern to catch up, but also talk about next steps for “angry women” now that Time’s Up. Wong, who identifies as Afro-Latina and LGBTQ, is a fully intersectional conversation partner for a modern world. |
| SiriusXM’s Stars Channel 109 |
The Woke Leader
| A Harvard professor curates the New Yorker’s photo department’s Instagram feed |
| I’ll let Sarah Lewis (@sarahelizabethlewis1 and @visionandjustice) introduce herself: “I’m a professor at Harvard where I teach about art, race, and justice. I’ve been posting a few images that bring you inside my classes since the term has just begun! To engage with you all, I’ve forced myself to answer this question: What are 15 images that chronicle America’s journey towards a more inclusive level of citizenship? My hope is that these images give you the virtual class you never knew you wanted to take.” Nice, right? |
| New Yorker Photo feed |
| A wreck believed to be the last American slave ship has been found |
| If it all checks out, it would be an astonishing find. Using historical records and first-person accounts, AL.com reporter and national treasure Ben Raines may have located the Clotilda, the last ship to bring enslaved people to the U.S., illegally by the way, in 1860. The wreck currently lies partially buried in mud in the lower Mobile-Tensaw Delta, just a few miles north of Mobile. The wreck, which is normally submerged was revealed by abnormally low tides brought on by the “bomb cyclone” weather event that battered the East Coast early in January. Click through for an eye-opening four-minute video and a remarkable detective tale. |
| Al.com |
| Reporting live, from Wakanda |
| A version of Wakanda, the mythical African country that is the home to Marvel’s Black Panther, lived for a time on a soundstage in Atlanta, and The Undefeated’s Kelley L. Carter has seen it. And it is resplendent. Thanks to a major tax credit scheme for filming in Georgia (this is a business, story, after all) major studios have been increasingly opting to film in the diverse city, breathing life and revenue into the lives of people of color who work in film. But this film, shot in the early days of the Trump presidency – just minutes from where Martin Luther King lays to rest - is different. “Black Panther’s most important contribution is its optics — a cast of primarily dark-skinned black actors dominate the film and tell a story about a fictional African nation that harbors the world’s most sophisticated technological advances,” explains Carter. Enjoy. |
| The Undefeated |
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