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After 32 years at Black Entertainment Television (BET), former CEO Debra Lee continues shaping culture and business. Today, she sits on the boards of Warner Bros. Discovery, Marriott International, and Procter & Gamble — but her legacy at BET remains untouched. At AFROTECH™ Conference 2025, Lee reflected on how her leadership from 2005 to 2018 helped define generations of Black entertainment, from shaping beloved programming to setting new standards for representation. Lee began at BET as the company’s first in-house counsel, building the legal department from the ground up. She later — and unexpectedly — became president and chief operating officer, succeeding founder Bob Johnson. “When people started writing articles, ‘Debra Lee is the heir apparent,’ it really shocked me,” Lee recalled. “I thought I was just going to continue to do the work, and Bob would get all the credit. That’s the way it went. No big deal. And it wasn’t until Bob left and I became CEO that people started...
A former Paramount executive has filed a lawsuit alleging age and racial discrimination , claiming the company’s diversity push led to his firing after 30 years. Joseph Jerome, who is white, filed the lawsuit in California federal court on Oct. 31, 2025, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the suit, Jerome, who worked at Paramount from 1994 to 2024, alleges he was one of three CBS Media Ventures (CMV) attorneys terminated and replaced by younger employees from minority groups. At the beginning of 2024, CMV reportedly had an approximately even split of white and minority attorneys, the lawsuit states. However, all those laid off from Jerome’s division were reportedly white and over 50 years old. The complaint states that a 25-year-old Black law school graduate and former CMV intern assumed Jerome’s position as the senior vice president of business and legal affairs and production counsel for Entertainment Tonight, while younger Asian attorneys whose prior roles were eliminated...
International Business Machines Corp. ( IBM ) is facing a lawsuit alleging it discriminated against Black executives when it terminated them to align with the Trump administration’s push to eliminate federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Former IBM executive Zena Washington filed the 15-page lawsuit on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. According to the suit, Washington, who spent 26 years with the company before her dismissal in February 2025, held various roles in product management and engineering, most recently serving as director of product management for data and AI . According to the lawsuit, Washington “was viewed as an excellent employee” and consistently received positive performance reviews and bonuses. She was also selected for an IBM program that prepares employees for senior executive roles. “This is further evidence that until her termination, IBM viewed the plaintiff as one of the most highly valuable employees with strong potential to go into a C-Suite...
Former CBS producer Trey Sherman is accusing his employer of only laying off people of color on his team. The Wall Street Journal reported that nearly 2,000 Paramount employees were being laid off, including those under CBS. The company’s chief executive, David Ellison, said the layoffs were to address “redundancies that have emerged across the organization,” while also removing roles that don’t align with the company’s “new structure” that will prioritize growth. Sherman, who is Black and served as an associate producer for canceled “CBS Evening News+”, per New York Post, took to TikTok to reveal that the show had been canceled and every producer on his team who was laid off was a person of color, while those who found new roles within the company were white. He claimed that he had personally asked each white person on his team if they had been laid off, and they each said no. “Every person who gets to stay and will be relocated within the company is a white person,” Sherman...
Debra Lee sees great opportunity in the digital landscape. The former CEO of BET acknowledged during a conversation held at AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 that it’s hurtful to see Black programming under attack. In the past two years, various shows rooted in the culture were cut, such as “61st Street,” “South Side,” and “Sweet Life: Los Angeles,” and in June, it was announced that CBS and NBC were canceling a number of Black-led shows, including “Poppa’s House,” according to the Nubian Message. “It’s very hurtful to see the progress we’ve made in Black programming and programming targeted to the Black community, but also programming we hope all people will watch,” Lee told AFROTECH™ in an interview . “It’s very hurtful to see that under attack. And I think it’s really necessary in our society for groups to understand each other.” Photo Credit: Ismael Quintanilla III She explained, “I think the numbers show that there’s an audience for it. When you look at the movie ‘Sinners’ or you look...
In a move marking the first major round of Target layoffs in over a decade, incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke announced that the company will cut 1,800 corporate jobs for an 8% reduction in its corporate workforce. According to CNBC, Fiddelke shared the news in a memo to employees at Target’s Minneapolis headquarters on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. He said the retailer is focused on regaining growth after four years of roughly stagnant sales. “This spring, we launched our enterprise acceleration efforts with a clear ambition: to move faster and simplify how we work to drive Target’s next chapter of growth,” Fiddelke wrote. “The truth is, the complexity we’ve created over time has been holding us back. Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life,” he continued. A Target spokesperson reportedly told CNBC that the eliminated roles include about 1,000 employee layoffs and roughly 800 positions that will not be refilled. Affected employees...
The impact of the reversal of affirmative action is proving to be harmful for Black students. Black Student Enrollment Declines In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions, meaning race-based admissions could no longer be considered in college decisions. Two years later, data reveal the outcome of that decision. AP News reports that enrollment data from 20 colleges show a decline in the enrollment of Black students. Most of the colleges surveyed have a smaller population of Black students than in Fall 2023, with some campuses logging Black students as low as 2% of their first-year class. The study included Columbia University, Harvard University, Emory University, Yale University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Smith College, Amherst College, Haverford College, Carleton College, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, Tulane University, Williams College, Cornell University, Colgate University, Bates College, University of...
Since 2020, Target has partnered with the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE) to support small business founders with the access, education, and connections needed to grow and thrive, Target shared in a news release on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. Through this collaboration, Target has helped bring innovative products to market, elevate emerging brands, and equip entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed in the competitive mass retail space. RICE’s Retail Readiness Academy (RRA), a seven-month program that provides tailored strategies, insights, and retail connections to accelerate the growth of established Black-owned brands, is a key part of this effort. In 2024, Target doubled the size of the RRA cohort and deepened its involvement with RICE through executive mentorship and behind-the-scenes store visits to inspire entrepreneurs. A long-time supporter of historically Black college and university (HBCU) students and alumni, Target also launched “HBCU, Always,” — a...
Wells Fargo has agreed to resolve a settlement regarding claims around its interview processes. Lawsuit Explained As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the bank giant was accused in a lawsuit of conducting interviews with “ diverse ” candidates without the intention of hiring for the role. Former executive Joe Bruno addressed this concern, saying the “ fake interviews ” were “ inappropriate, morally wrong, ethically wrong, ” according to the New York Times. Bruno was fired in August 2021, and Wells Fargo states that it resulted from his combative behavior with another employee. Nonetheless, other employees have shared similar sentiments to Bruno’s regarding Wells Fargo’s interviewing practices. Some admitted they had to conduct interviews with diverse hires even though the role was already filled. Accounts of these claims surrounding Wells Fargo can be traced back from February 2021 to June 2022 and are documented in a class-action lawsuit filed by SEB Investment Management on behalf of...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed Assembly Bill 7 (AB 7), a proposal introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles, that would have allowed colleges and universities to give admissions preference to descendants of enslaved people in an effort to address the long-term effects of slavery, the Los Angeles Times reports. The bill passed both the State Assembly and Senate before reaching the governor’s desk in October. Supporters said the measure recognized the continuing effects of slavery and systemic inequality in access to higher education. The California Faculty Association and several civil rights groups, according to Politico, supported the legislation, stating that it aligned with the state’s broader discussions on reparations and equity. AB 7 would have given colleges the option — but not the obligation — to consider whether an applicant was a descendant of an enslaved person as one of several factors in admissions decisions. The bill was written to comply with...
NBC News has reportedly laid off journalists reporting on marginalized communities, according to the Advocate. Restructuring In August 2025, NBC News reported that Comcast announced its various cable television networks would be moved into a separate publicly traded company called Versant. This umbrella would include MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and the Golf Channel. Comcast will maintain NBCUniversal assets, such as the NBC broadcast network, NBC News, NBC Sports, Peacock, and Bravo, under its portfolio. Why It’s Happening Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said the spinoff is about “building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses,” according to NBC News. “This gives us the opportunity to charge our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin,” he added. Advocate reports that executives noted the restructuring...
Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education offers a fully online Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership Graduate Certificate for $13,760. According to the program’s website, the next term begins in Spring 2026. To complete the certificate, participants must take one course from each of the following four categories: history and context, core, leadership principles, and applied learning. One course offered under the history category is “Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History,” while the leadership category includes options like “Gender, Leadership, and Management.” “With a graduate certificate in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) Leadership, you can become a powerful voice for strategic change within your organization. You will gain critical knowledge and skills to address bias and marginalization and to foster an inclusive corporate culture,” the program’s website states. The website notes that, among other outcomes,...
Barack Obama urges businesses and universities to take a stand against President Donald Trump. During an interview on the podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” the former president shared his opinion on the current political landscape. There has been a growing movement towards retracting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments, which has been a gesture emboldened under the Trump administration’s leadership. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, the administration requested that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) be approved to cancel grants tied to DEI efforts in July. This followed after Florida A&M University (FAMU) lost $16.3 million for a grant that reportedly produced 60% of the nation’s Ph.D. graduates in pharmaceutical sciences, which resulted from one of Trump’s executive orders. Several companies, such as Target, Meta, Walmart, McDonald’s, and more, have also been motivated to dismantle their DEI commitments. Burberry recently slashed its head of diversity role,...
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens remains committed to the city’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities. In an interview with AFROTECH™ released in May, Dickens shared that he takes pride in promoting diversity and inclusion and acknowledged why preserving the city’s commitment to DEI was important, even in the face of the Trump Administration’s rollback of its programs, roles, and initiatives. “We pride ourselves on economic inclusion, and the words ‘diversity and equity’ and all that matters to us. So, when those things are under attack, it could really affect the households in our city and affect how we do business,” he told AFROTECH™. He later said, “We want Atlanta to be a city of opportunity for everyone, no matter what race, no matter what age, no matter what physical condition, no matter what sexual orientation, no matter how much money you have. We want it to be an opportunity for everyone… I’m an optimist. I believe there’s a solution for just about everything.”...
In January, President Donald Trump claimed that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) was “nonsense,” reports The Hill. e.l.f. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin disagrees. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, Amin said diversity is a key driver of the company’s financial success. He added that many CEOs he speaks with also strongly support greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “I’ve never met a CEO who didn’t want the best possible workforce they could get. And we see lots of data, there’s a lot of rhetoric, but without the actual facts,” which he notes tell a different story. Amin cited a press release highlighting research from North Carolina A&T State University — the nation’s largest historically Black university — showing that, from 2018-2024, companies with greater than average gender diversity on their boards outperformed those with below-average gender diversity by a staggering 256% annually. The press release spotlighted e.l.f.’s Change the Board Game...
