News

Black women denied job for ‘ghetto’ name and company blames hackers for racist emails

Picture:
Picture:
Facebook

At least three black women applying for a job were told that their application was unsuccessful because of ‘ghetto’ names.

The racially discriminatory letters were sent in writing from a Missouri-based company to applicants who had applied for a number of positions.

One woman, who went for a customer service job, received the letter which read:

Thank you for your interest in careers at Mantality Health. Unfortunately we do not consider candidates that have suggestive ‘ghetto’ names.

We wish you the best in your career search.

The company has since responded: Mantality owner Kevin Meuret told the River Front Timesthey were hacked and that the account was breached by "potentially an ex-employee".

Hermeisha Robinson was one of at least three women – though Meuret says as many as 20 applicants could have received offensive emails - to whom this happened. She had applied for a customer service position at the company, advertised on Indeed.com.

Following the application, she received the offensive email, which she shared on her Facebook page. She wrote:

They [Mantality Health] discriminated against me because of my name which they considered it to be ‘ghetto’ for their company! My feelings are very hurt and they even got me second-guessing my name trying to figure out if my name is really that ‘ghetto’.

Another woman called Nikkie Jay uploaded a similar response from the company and a third woman, RoRo Nelson, claims to have received the very same email.

Her post was shared more than 10,000 times and she’s received over 2,000 messages of support.

The email was sent from an account with the name Jordan Kimler, a Mantality employee. The person in question has deleted their social media and LinkedIn accounts.

Since the company discovered the breach, they have filed reports with the Chesterfield Police and St Louis Coounty’s cybercrimes division.

More: Racism is widespread within the LGBT+ community, Stonewall research reveals

More: Trump accused of racism and sexism after calling Omarosa 'a dog' on Twitter

The Conversation (0)
x