A series of discussions and forums at ESPN have seen "Black employees, many of them behind the cameras," begin "speaking out about the everyday racism and barriers they face," according to Kevin Draper of the N.Y. TIMES. Black employees have "detailed to their bosses and colleagues what they see as behavior and long-entrenched practices that have led to embarrassing missteps and kept many career Black employees from rising through the ranks." ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro acknowledged that the company was "not where it wanted to be on diversity, especially behind the camera, and said a frequent topic of conversation was how to make ESPN more 'relevant' to people of color." Many former and current ESPN employees "described a company that projected a diverse outward face, but did not have enough Black executives, especially ones with real decision-making power." ESPN made "four Black senior executives available for interviews" with the Times: Senior VP & Editor-At-Large/ESPN Content Rob King, Senior VP & Editor-in-Chief Kevin Merida, Senior VP/Production Dave Roberts and Senior VP/HR Paul Richardson. All four said that ESPN’s exec ranks were "not diverse enough, but mostly attributed that to a larger problem in corporate America." For his part, Pitaro has "laid out a series of changes." He said that ESPN "would have more diverse meetings and ensure all voices were included, that interview and hiring practices would be improved, that leadership development would be strengthened and new employee programs reviewed" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/13).
