Plausible Deniability: Celebrities’ Secret Weapon Against Accountability and Consequences
By: Gfc, Grown Folk Conversations
Tags: Toxic Work Culture, Plausible Deniability, Corporate Partnerships, Diversity And Inclusion, Celebrity

Black, brown and disabled people have been treated badly at work with no accountability. Laws that are supposed to protect us are basically useless and act more like a deterrent due to HR and diversity and inclusion office’s conflict of interests, and the biased and complicated EEOC reporting and court process… It’s almost impossible to prove discrimination even if the person calls you a racial or sexist slur in front of witnesses. People will lie or remain silent to protect the powers that be and the perpetrator will get a slap on the wrist or the victim will be punished or told to get over it…(AOC knows)

As an African American woman who (still) lost my job following an “independent investigation” where they found bias, racism, discrimination — this latest incident is too familiar. “Independent investigations” are a public relations and legal strategy to strengthen the “plausible deniability” defense and mitigate damage in case of a discrimination lawsuit.

The PR playbook is predictable:

Someone has to be sacrificed to show that they “take these allegations seriously”. In this case, one of the producers will probably take the blame and resign or be “fake fired”. I say fake — because they will have already negotiated his golden parachute with a generous severance package (so they don’t suffer)…

Unfortunately, it’s been my experience (and way too many others) that if they do have any POC and/or disabled people left that witnessed any of the incidents, their contracts won’t be renewed. The release will come without warning, prior notice or severance. “The show” will hire all new Black, POC and disabled people (who aren’t problematic) to kick-off a “fresh start” to a “more inclusive environment”. “The show” will probably add 1 or 2 people to the small tokenized group of 2–3 Black or POC in the 1000’s, plus 1 more “diversity hire” to replace the person they “fired” on the leadership team.

Following the investigation, the old and new staff will have to suffer through a presentation of findings, new hire and policy announcements which will probably involve a “reorganization” with new diversity and inclusion positions. They’ll shuffle around the same people to make it look like they’re shaking things up — when they’re just moving the same problems to new physical spaces (creating more anxiety and agitation)…

As part of the presentation, there will be a diversity training and “difficult conversation” workshop series (normally scheduled at inconvenient times like lunch, after work hours or weekends). The workshops will be “mandatory” and facilitated by a diversity consulting firm (normally owned by white woman who’s a friend of an executive and she’ll “bring in” a Black colleague) where the remaining executives will take notes and start the pattern of targeting anyone who mentions pre-investigation incidents (again).

The celebrity will make a statement and be visible for some trainings and scheduled “check ins”, pose with an ethnic food lunch from a local minority owned food vendor and the few diverse employees and vow to be more “hands on” (but they will never be seen again — until the next incident goes public).

This hands off approach to accountability needs to stop. You can’t own your brand and not the problematic culture you allowed in your namesake…We all have some level of responsibility directly or indirectly. Own it!

Black and brown and other marginalized groups don’t want your hashtags and diversity talking points. We NEED your real commitment in parting the the sea of power and privilege and bringing everyone to the promise land — not for photo ops, guilt quotas or to save face — but because you genuinely value and see diversity of culture, race, ethnicity, abilities, gender and sexuality and socio-economic class as an asset because that reflects the REAL world.

Celebrities need to wake up and realize it’s not all about YOU and your reputation — it’s about the lives of thousands of people who represent and work for you… Are they treated fairly, with respect and dignity? Are they fairly compensated from the top to the bottom — everybody has value. You need to know — it won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do — if you really care about equity, inclusion and justice.