Netflix fires head spokesman Johnathan Friedland for using N-word

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Netflix Fires Spokesman For Using N-Word Repeatedly

You’ll be happy to know that you can now stream your favorite movies, TV shows and documentaries with a clear conscious.

According to USAToday Netflix has fired its head spokesman Jonathan Friedland for being overly enthusiastic about using the n-word around his staff.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings released a memo further detailing Freidland’s use of the word:

I’ve made a decision to let go of Jonathan Friedland. Jonathan contributed greatly in many areas, but his descriptive use of the N-word on at least two occasions at work showed unacceptably low racial awareness and sensitivity, and is not in line with our values as a company.

The first incident was several months ago in a PR meeting about sensitive words. Several people afterwards told him how inappropriate and hurtful his use of the N-word was, and Jonathan apologised to those that had been in the meeting. We hoped this was an awful anomaly never to be repeated.

Three months later he spoke to a meeting of our Black Employees @ Netflix group and did not bring it up, which was understood by many in the meeting to mean he didn’t care and didn’t accept accountability for his words.

The second incident, which I only heard about this week, was a few days after the first incident; this time Jonathan said the N-word again to two of our Black employees in HR who were trying to help him deal with the original offense. The second incident confirmed a deep lack of understanding, and convinced me to let Jonathan go now.

The rest of memo addresses things like white privilege and the fact the non-Black people shouldn’t be using the word. You can read the entire internal note in The Hollywood Reporter.