Earlier today, Jonathan Friedland — who has served as the communications director for Netflix since 2011 — sent out two tweets, cryptically explaining that he’d left the company after seven years.
I feel awful about the distress this lapse caused to people at a company I love and where I want everyone to feel included and appreciated. I feel honored to have built a brilliant and diverse global team and to have been part of our collective adventure.
— jonathan friedland (@jsf33) June 22, 2018
It has since been reported that Friedland — who previously worked for 20 years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal — was fired by Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings because Friedland had twice used the N-word. In an email to company employees, Hastings explained that Friedland was terminated for “unacceptably low racial awareness and sensitivity.” Hastings explained that Friedland had used the N-word during a PR meeting about sensitive words. Though Friedland apologized, he used the word again only a few days later in a conversation with two black employees in the Netflix HR department who were trying to help Friedland deal with the original offense.
Hastings himself took responsibility for not taking action more quickly, explaining to employees:
As I reflect on this, at this first incident, I should have done more to use it as a learning moment for everyone at Netflix about how painful and ugly that word is, and that it should not be used. I realize that my privilege has made me intellectualize or otherwise minimize race issues like this. I need to set a better example by learning and listening more so I can be the leader we need.
Hastings further explained to employees that, while the word is often used in the media and pop culture, “for non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive.” Hastings even cited one of the streaming service’s own shows, Dear White People, explaining that the series covered when the N-word is and is not acceptable to use.
Hastings ultimately offered his own apology. “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.”
Friedland’s termination comes only a week after the only two black executives at the company exited. Netflix Director of Original Programming Tara Duncan — who helped to develop Dear White People — left last week, only days after Netflix TV development executive Layne Eskridge departed for Apple.
(Via Deadline)
