Ololade Adeyanju/
Alexis Ohanian, American billionaire and husband of tennis superstar, Serena Williams, has resigned from the board of Reddit, a company he co-founded, to protest the alleged extra-judicial killing of African American, George Floyd, by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin.
Reddit is a social news aggregation and web content rating platform that is very popular among Americans and in other parts of the world.
Ohanian, in a message he shared on his social media pages, said he was compelled to take the step for the sake of his family and country, especially his black daughter.
He said he had urged his colleagues to fill his vacant seat on the board of Reddit with a black candidate.
To further drive home his point, Ohanian said he would henceforth devote all earnings from his Reddit stock to supporting causes that promote the interests of the black community and race equality.
He immediately announced a donation of one million dollars to black rights charity, Know Your Rights Camp.
His statement reads, “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.
“I’m writing this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: ‘What did you do?’
“I have resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, and 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 Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp.
“I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop.”
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