Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has resigned from the tech firm’s board and urged the company to replace him with a black candidate.
The 37-year-old tech entrepreneur, who is white, is the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams.
Ohanian decided to quit after days of violent protests across the US over the killing of African-American George Floyd, a 46-year-old man who died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while the handcuffed man gasped for breath.
In a series of tweets on May 5, Ohanian said he was resigning, “as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: ‘What did you do?'”
“I’ve resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, + I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to @kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp,” he said. “I co-founded @reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging. It is long overdue to do the right thing. I’m doing this for me, for my family, and for my country,” he said.
