According to a Page Six investigation Roma Khanna, CEO of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ network, Revolt, has been accused of racism by a former staffer. But after an investigation, Diddy says he’s keeping Khanna on board.
An ex-employee of Revolt wrote to Revolt’s board “from a place of genuine concern on behalf of myself, as a young, educated black woman, for the people currently employed at Revolt who are fearful of losing their jobs, and in an attempt to preserve the reputation and perception of this company.”
The ex-employee alleges in the letter, “I’ve witnessed Roma say that black women intimidate her,” and that at a May brainstorming session for the Revolt Music Conference, when it was suggested that rapper Meek Mill host a talk on prison reform, “Roma responded, ‘Maybe the conversation isn’t about prison reform, maybe it’s about how to stay out of jail, black boy.’ ”
The memo adds, “In my own discomfort, I spoke up, saying that her comment was not only insulting but would also be disrespectful to Meek as he’s not a ‘boy’ . . . She then proceeded to propose . . . ‘Maybe that’s it . . . Maybe it’s a conversation on how not to be black.’ ”
An insider told Page Six: “When we heard about this, two and a half weeks ago, the minute that letter was received, it was handled immediately and sent to an outside source to investigate.”
The letter also alleged: “Roma let 30 percent of the Revolt staff go for restructuring, and 99 percent [of those] are African-American.”
Khanna has Diddy’s full support.
The music mogul told us: “This story is inaccurate. We are a black-owned and -operated network and we have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind. Revolt is led by a woman of color who is expected to uphold the same standards that I hold for all of my companies. After an extensive review led by outside counsel, there were no findings of deliberate misconduct. At this time, Roma Khanna will remain as CEO of Revolt.”
He added of the cuts: “Regarding the recent restructure, Revolt’s diversity remains unchanged. We are 67% ethnically diverse, with more than 60% of the senior leadership being women. Any suggestion that any company of mine negatively targets African Americans is absurd and offensive.”