Monica Hill had been with Sony for about three months when she and other black employees were invited to appear in the company’s Black History Month video earlier this year and speak out about the power of black voices as “Sony shining stars”. Actor Michael B. Jordan was also featured in the video, which Hill said made him feel the company took racial issues seriously.
Still, Hill quickly discovered that Sony’s portrayals of diversity did not match her reality, she said. She claimed that after raising concerns about her supervisor’s comments and treatment that she deemed racist, Sony management retaliated against her, excluding her from meetings at which she said she should have. participate, stripping her of some clients and ultimately firing her while on sick leave after catching COVID-19. In a lawsuit filed this week in California state court, the “Sony Shining Star” claimed she was hired “as a token to fill in Sony’s diversity numbers.” “It was a lie,” Hill said in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
Asked about Hill’s allegations in the lawsuit, a Sony spokesperson said “the company does not comment on confidential personnel matters,” but that “diversity, fairness and inclusion are at the heart of Sony “. The spokesperson said the company takes complaints “seriously”, conducts proper and thorough investigations and focuses “on the success of all of its employees.”
Across the country, people of color are questioning whether the calculation of racial inequalities over the past year will have a significant impact, including in American businesses. BuzzFeed News recently spoke to people from nearly a dozen companies who said they were concerned about facing racism in the workplace again when offices reopen. While Sony said on its diversity page that “diversity and inclusion are encoded in our DNA and shape a vibrant corporate culture” and expressed last year solidarity Along with Black Lives Matter and the black community at large, Hill said that in his experience the company does not live up to such claims.
His experience at Sony has been riddled with “micro-attacks,” Hill, who is 40 and lives in Orlando, said in an interview. “It’s the derogatory comments that are often made, that people look beyond. It is being blocked from opportunities that others would have.
After Sony asked Hill to appear in the Black History Month video in January, Hill said, his supervisor, Senior Sales Manager Jaime Raffone, pushed back Hill’s appearance. Hill claimed in his lawsuit that in conversations Raffone said that “the Black Lives Matter movement made black people feel more powerful than them and black people should feel grateful for everything given to them”, that “she appreciates black people ‘who know their place’ and are willing to work hard instead of on welfare,” and that Kamala Harris was chosen to serve as vice president “because of pressure from the Black Lives Matter movement ”.
Raffone, who is among the defendants listed in the lawsuit and who has worked at Sony for more than 20 years, did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment. Sony and Raffone have yet to file a legal defense against these claims. A third-party investigation for Sony earlier this year into Hill’s allegations of abuse and offensive comments concluded that there was no evidence that company policy had been violated, according to the lawsuit.
Hill said she spoke to Director of Sales Kevin O’Connor, Vice President of B2B Company Rich Ventura and Director of Human Resources Matthew Whelan about his manager’s alleged statements and treatment of her, but said they dismissed his complaints. Hill then returned to human resources with concerns that Raffone, O’Connor and Whelan were all personally close and therefore had a conflict of interest, according to the complaint. O’Connor, Whelan and Ventura are also listed as defendants in the lawsuit. None of them have responded to multiple requests for comment, and they have yet to respond in court to the lawsuit.
Raffone and other Sony executives “have launched a campaign of retaliation against [her] with the aim of sabotaging its success at Sony and driving it away, ”according to the complaint. Her manager launched a “success plan” on April 22 to improve Hill’s performance over the next 30 days, but took away opportunities – like removing her from certain accounts and excluding her from a meeting despite requests. of the customer to include it, according to the complaint. .
Hill said working for the company has been a dream since buying her first pair of Sony headphones years ago. When interviewed for a position last October, Hill said, Sony emphasized diversity and inclusion. She was encouraged to apply and was hired for a position forming strategic partnerships with companies that would purchase Sony products such as projectors and screens.
In her complaint, however, Hill claimed that she was hired so that Sony could “meet its diversity requirements” but did not have “the same chance of success.”
As an Affirmative Action Employer, a distinction bestowed on federal contractors, Sony is required to “recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities and veterans covered or lose current contracts and eligibility to future contracts, “according to Hill’s lawyer Nancy. Abrolat. Hill claimed that despite these demands, her managers at Sony subjected her to racial and gender discrimination during most of her nearly seven months with the company, a time she spent working remotely. , to communicate by telephone and videoconference. She is suing Sony for damages, loss of earnings and injunction to comply with affirmative action employment laws and to end discrimination based on race and gender at Sony.
An employee who worked with Hill and asked not to be named to protect his privacy echoed Hill’s claims, saying that managers asked them not to explain certain business practices to Hill and to exclude him from relevant calls, unless necessary. Often, the employee said, Hill was left out for work opportunities.
“It seemed very directed [against Hill]Said the employee, who was with the company when Hill filed her complaints but has since left the company.
The employee who worked with Hill said a representative contacted him in connection with an HR investigation involving Hill, but that the bulk of the questions revolved around Hill’s behavior, as they interpreted the conversation: ” Was she out of control? Was she, you know, was that an angry black woman? The employee recalled. “They didn’t ask that question specifically, obviously, but that’s what it sounded like.”
BuzzFeed News has also contacted four other Sony employees in an attempt to corroborate the allegations made in the lawsuit, although none have responded at the time of publication.
In May, Hill’s husband, her daughters and eventually Hill herself contracted COVID-19, she said. Shortly after she went on sick leave on May 19, she was fired, her lawsuit said. According to his complaint, “Sony’s reasoning for his dismissal was [her] alleged failure to meet the requirements set out in its “success plan”.
Hill saw it differently.
“Diversity and inclusion fraud is real,” Hill said in an interview. She hoped to stand up for others discriminated against despite their employers’ commitments, she said. “I want to give them a voice.