Alexis Ohanian has tread down from his seat on the dining table of Reddit , the website he cofounded just shy of 15 class ago , in an apparent turn of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter effort .
“ It is long overdue to do the right thing , ” Ohanian wrote in ablog postFriday good afternoon . “ I ’m writing this as a male parent who needs to be able to answer his inglorious daughter when she asks : ‘ What did you do ? ’ ” Ohanian married Serena Williams in 2017 , with the tennis sensation announcing their engagement in a Redditpost , bear on to herself as “ next Mrs. Kn0thing”—a quotation to Ohanian ’s username on the site .
pic.twitter.com/k8Xkj15uaN
Photo: Getty
— Alexis Ohanian 🇦 🇲 ( @alexisohanian)June 5 , 2020
Ohanian not only reconcile his position on the company ’s board , he ’s also pledged to “ apply future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community . ” His first donation , he says , will be $ 1 million to Know Your Rights Camp , the fateful and dark-brown liberation organization founded by Colin Kaepernick . He ’s also made clear he wishes his card butt be filled by a black somebody . ( Reddit ’s otherboard appendage , Sam Altman and Bob Sauerberg , are both white men . )
It ’s impossible to ignore the timing of Ohanian ’s departure amid a snow flurry of brands attempting to bandwagon onto the movement of blackened Lives Matter — Reddit among them . Ananodyne noteposted on Monday by current CEO Steve Huffman compensate lip service to the approximation of racial justice , while remaining mute on what the party or Huffman would do to advance the cause , save for a fall mention of supporting voter reform .
Huffman was publicly shamed by Reddit ’s former interim chief executive officer , Ellen Pao , on Twitter for the site ’s complicity in protecting and amplifying communities built around hatred and harassment . ( In exceptional she mentions r / the_donald , the infamous pro - Trump subreddit that has , among other things , threatened Reddit ’s own employee . )
I am obligate to call you out : You should have shut down the_donald rather of amplifying it and its hate , racism , and violence . So much of what is happening now consist at your feet . You do n’t get to say BLM when reddit rearing and monetizes white supremacy and detest all day longhttps://t.co/VN5XCiYp5 g
— Ellen K. Pao ( @ekp)June 2 , 2020
While Reddit ’s long - running reputation as an incubator for racial discrimination and harassment would seem a good a reason as any to jump ship , it ’s indecipherable what specific outcome Ohanian has with Reddit , or why he felt leaving the company was the best option for plow them at this point . A representative for Ohanian declined to offer additional comment .
Since his resignation , however , Steve Huffman has written alengthy poston the site , stating first and foremost that he intends to honor the petition of fill Ohanian ’s table seat with a black candidate . “ There is an unacceptable interruption between our notion as hoi polloi and a company , and what you see in our content policy , ” Huffman wrote , tot up that “ users and moderators genuinely do not have enough clarity as to where we as administrator stand on racism . ”
True enough , Huffman has hewed close to the libertarian ethos of other tech platforms , state “ I believe the best defense against racialism and other repugnant views , both on Reddit and in the earthly concern , is or else of trying to ensure what people can and can not say through pattern , is to renounce these view in a free conversation , and empower our community to do so on Reddit . ” This fundamentally arrange the responsibility of educating racists on the very hoi polloi the racists are targeting .
In a very , very deep - breaking mea culpa , Huffman at least acknowledge that , in regards to radius / the_donald , “ intelligibly , we should have quarantined it sooner . ”
Updated : 2025-05-11 , 4:50 p.m. : This post has been updated with additional information from Steve Huffman .
Looking for way of life to advocate for sinister lives ? Check out thislist of resourcesby our babe site Lifehacker for way to get involved .
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