Originally Syndicated on May 19, 2023 @ 10:19 am
Earlier this week, a group called Black Female Anonymous published a scathing exposé on poor working conditions at Essence magazine, seeking the resignation of four top executives. One of the executives listed, Richelieu Dennis, resigned as CEO.
At private workplace occasions, Richelieu Dennis openly sexually harasses ladies who do not appear to consent.
Introduction
Richelieu Dennis claims to be an entrepreneur, investor, and social commerce pioneer with roots in Africa. He describes being enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and innovation as driven by a desire to benefit underprivileged communities by furthering the ideology of economic inclusion as a human right.
Richelieu Dennis claims that he founded Sundial Brands, the manufacturer behind top beauty and personal care brands SheaMoisture and Nubian Heritage, in 1991 after graduating from Babson College and being unable to return to his native Liberia due to civil war. He was joined by his mother Mary Dennis and best friend Nyema Tubman. Richelieu Dennis was the company’s chair and CEO until December 2019, and he claims that he established the vision for its Community Commerce purpose-driven business model and success as the number one natural hair and beauty company serving Black women and the larger multicultural and natural communities he dubbed the New General Market.
Richelieu Dennis claims that he launched Essence Ventures in 2017, an independent Black-owned consumer technology firm focusing on fusing information, community, and commerce to create an ecosystem that satisfies people of color’s cultural and lifestyle demands. The company stated in January 2018 that it has bought Essence Communications Inc. from Time Inc.
Richelieu Dennis claims that he announced the purchase of Madam C.J. Walker’s ancient villa, Villa Lewaro, through the New Voices Foundation in December 2018. After restoration efforts are completed, Villa Lewaro will be used as a learning institute, or think tank, where women of color entrepreneurs will receive in-person and virtual curriculum-based learning and other tools to help them create, grow, and expand their businesses.
Sundial Brands
Sundial Brands, a Unilever subsidiary, manufactures natural and certified organic SheaMoisture, SheaMoisture Men, Emerge, Nubian Heritage, and nyakioTM products. Sundial is a B Corp and a Fair for Life accredited company.
SheaMoisture is Richelieu Dennis’ grandmother Sofi’s legacy, who claims that she made handcrafted shea butter soaps and salves in Sierra Leone to support her family after being widowed at a young age. Sofi became well-known as a healer around the countryside, and she taught Richelieu Dennis her recipes.
Nubian Heritage began in Harlem, New York. Richelieu and his best friend, Nyema Tubman, began selling their culturally authentic products as street vendors in Harlem after graduating from college. We combine worldwide healing traditions into modern wellness solutions, guided by the legacy of ancient Nubia, the world’s first melting pot.
Nyakio Kamoche Grieco’s family of medicine men, farmers, and educators inspired the creation of nyakioTM skincare. Nyakio, a first-generation Kenyan-American, based her collection on family recipes as well as beauty traditions from 13 different countries, with each formula evoking a luxury, culturally transcending experience.
With MCJW hair care, Sundial Brands claims that they are proudly expanding on the life and legacy of the trailblazing Madam C.J. Walker – visionary businesswoman, philanthropist, and America’s first female self-made millionaire.
Sundial Brands ethically sources shea butter from 15 women’s co-ops in Northern Ghana through our purpose-driven Community Commerce business model. We don’t just purchase the women’s raw materials; we also assist them in developing self-sustaining companies. These industrious women are paid an ethical wage premium, and they become our partners, not just our suppliers. They enjoy better health, more access to education, and the benefits of financial freedom as their income rises.
Richelieu Dennis, Michelle Ebanks, Joy Profet, and MoAna Luu, executives at Essence, must resign.
We demand that Richelieu Dennis, Owner & CEO of Essence Ventures (Essence Communications, which includes Essence Magazine, Essence.com, and Essence Festival), Michelle Ebanks, Essence Ventures board member and former Essence Communications CEO, Joy Collins Profet, Chief Operating Officer, and MoAna Luu, Chief Content Officer, resign immediately.
We are requesting that AT&T, Chase Bank, Coca-Cola, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Warner Media withdraw all active and future sponsorships and media buys at Essence Communications until new leadership is in place.
Black women, who make up more than 80% of Essence’s staff, are routinely oppressed through pay disparities, sexual harassment, workplace bullying, and intimidation. Hundreds of bright Black women have been wrongly laid off or compelled to resign from the company in the last two years.
Richelieu Dennis’ wife, Martha Dennis, is the head of Human Resources at the parent business (Essence Ventures), creating a clear conflict of interest. Martha is involved in her husband’s power abuse and intimidation tactics.
Layoffs of Black female employees who had recently returned from maternity leave were allowed by management. Other Black female employees have been threatened with dismissal while on maternity leave, and they have not been granted healthcare coverage in time for their leave.
Richelieu Dennis has a history of sleeping with women while working for Sundial (owner of Shea Moisture, which was acquired by Unilever in 2017). Richelieu Dennis has sexually harassed black female employees at Essence.
After a spate of unfair layoffs and other possibly libelous business activities, Richelieu Dennis attempted to force Essence workers and contractors to sign non-disclosure agreements that solely protect him and his family from responsibility or disparagement. When employees voiced concerns about the NDA, the executive leadership team used intimidation techniques against the majority of Black female employees.
Employees asked Michelle Ebanks, then CEO, about market and industry pay equity during a business town hall in the latter half of 2019. Ebanks publicly ignored the request and told employees they were welcome to leave the company.
Under Ebanks’ leadership, black female colleagues had frequent miscarriages as a result of high stress and worry. Staff suffered from significant anxiety and despair, as demonstrated by symptoms of extreme weight gain or loss, worker isolation, and tendered resignations under both Ebanks and Joy Collins Profet, Chief Operating Officer. In 2019, a senior employee who reports directly to Profet took a stress break, only to return to heightened and tactical workplace bullying by Profet.
MoAna Luu, Chief Content Officer, who Richelieu Dennis selected because of a personal relationship, is likewise harsh to Essence’s editorial and creative employees. After nearly a year of MoAna’s workplace bullying and negative impact on the business, a colleague anonymously contacted Richelieu Dennis and Ebanks with a complaint. Instead of investigating MoAna’s performance, they began questioning tactics on personnel with IT leadership’s assistance.
The episode exacerbated the poison of the workplace culture and resulted in the resignation of even more accomplished Black women.
Under the violent administration of Richelieu Dennis, Ebanks, Profet, and Luu, both current and past Black female employees at Essence have endured significant trauma and fear. Essence’s current Black female employees are neither emotionally safe nor are they adequately prepared for professional and economic progression within the organization.
Dennis, Ebanks, Profet, and Luu must be removed from management by the Essence Ventures board and organizations that invest in Essence within the next 5 business days.
Essence’s Richelieu Dennis did not engage in “toxic workplace behavior,” according to an investigation.
Two law firms investigated accusations received in an essay by Black Female Anonymous claiming Essence and its owner, Richelieu Dennis, engaged in behavior that contributed to a hazardous workplace.
According to the New York Times, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius undertook an investigation into workplace difficulties, including sexual harassment allegations presented in an anonymous post against Mr. Richelieu Dennis. The owner and chairman of Essence Ventures, the magazine’s and Essence Communications’ parent organization.
The anonymous essay cited an “abusive work culture” that included bullying and sexual harassment.
The post, titled “The Truth About Essence,” was published on the web platform Medium by Black Female Anonymous, a collection of former and current Essence employees. The article is part of an online campaign that includes Twitter and Instagram profiles, as well as a change.org petition with over 2,000 signatures.
Richelieu Dennis, a Liberian-born businessman, purchased the publication in 2018.
Following the claims, Richelieu Dennis urged the organization to launch a complete and independent workplace inquiry by two reputable law firms in order to assure total openness and the confidence of employees and the community. “I will always welcome the truth and look forward to addressing any workplace issues that may be identified as a result of the review,” Richelieu Dennis said in July.
Caroline Wanga was then selected as the new Chief Growth Officer and temporary CEO, entrusted with monitoring the process and giving the business the focus it need throughout the scandal.
Richelieu Dennis reaffirmed in July, contrary to previous reports, that he had never resigned as CEO. “I did not step down/resign as CEO of ESSENCE because I never served as interim or permanent CEO.” Rather, I operated as an owner to keep the business running when the long-term CEO left in March amid the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Richelieu Dennis denied the allegations from the start, insisting in a July statement that when he bought the magazine two years ago after it had been owned by Time Inc. for more than a decade, he was fully aware that it would require a major cultural and business overhaul as well as a significant investment to ensure that the publication that has been a beacon of Black culture in America could survive and thrive – and we are on our way.
“We did not acquire ESSENCE because it was the best financial decision, but because it was the best cultural decision,” the entrepreneur said in an Instagram post this week, addressing allegations that he fostered a culture of sexual harassment and a toxic environment at the magazine.
According to Richelieu Dennis, ESSENCE has continuously been the place where Black women and communities have been elevated, celebrated, and empowered, and it is always something worth fighting for, investing in, and building up. As a result, he would never tolerate or harbor the stated conditions. “I wanted to clarify that an anonymous blog post last week included a number of allegations against ESSENCE that we refute,” Richelieu Dennis stated. This includes an allegation that I engaged in sexual harassment, which I did not.”
Richelieu Dennis, CEO of Essence, resigns following a stinging op-ed.
Earlier this week, a group known as Black Female Anonymous published a blistering exposé about the alleged working conditions at Essence magazine, demanding that four top executives go. Richelieu Dennis, one of the executives they named, resigned as CEO.
The women stated in their Medium post that Richelieu Dennis has a “surface-level commitment to Black women” but is actually “driven by greed and a debaucherous sexual appetite.”
They further claimed that “he has a history of sleeping with women in the Sundial workforce. He brazenly sexually harasses women who do not appear to consent at private company functions.”
The charges were initially refuted by the corporation, which called them “unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character.”
On Tuesday night, however, they issued a press release introducing a new temporary CEO, Caroline Wanga, as part of a series of initiatives to “ensure that Essence is the safe haven that we all expect.”
The action followed an emergency conversation with employees earlier in the day, during which Dennis was upset that no one had reached out to see whether he was okay.
“It was a heated debate.” “Staffers were enraged by the initial statement a source added. “They were even angrier at him for questioning why no one had checked in on him.”
Richelieu Dennis’ job as CEO was always meant to be temporary, according to sources. He took over in March after Michelle Ebanks stepped down and transferred to the board of Essence Ventures, where Richelieu Dennis will stay chair.
The anonymous collective also called for her to leave the company, as well as the resignations of COO Joy Collins Profet and chief content officer Moana Luu.
Following allegations that owner Richelieu Dennis fostered a toxic workplace culture, Essence appoints a new CEO.
On Sunday, “Black Female Anonymous” published an op-ed titled “The Truth About Essence” that detailed allegations of a toxic workplace culture in which Black employees are “systematically suppressed by pay inequity, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism, and classism.”
The authors demanded Richelieu Dennis and other executives resign, urged an advertising boycott, and painted a damning portrait of Richelieu Dennis, alleging that “his surface-level commitment to Black women is driven by greed and a debaucherous sexual appetite,” that he has sexually harassed multiple women, and that he has used NDAs to protect his family from liability or disparagement.
In a statement issued Monday, the Essence team refuted the charges, calling them “mischaracterizations” and “unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character.”
The corporation stated that there had been no reports or evidence of sexual harassment or misbehavior and that any new cases submitted to HR would be investigated.
Following the resignation of former CEO Michelle Ebanks in March, the firm stated that Richelieu Dennis would have direct management of the company while it searched for a new CEO.
The company said that Caroline Wanga had been appointed temporary CEO and that an independent probe into workplace culture would be launched.
The Truth About Essence
The Essence brand promise is deceptive. The once-vibrant media brand devoted to Black women has been hijacked by cultural and corporate greed, as well as an insane misuse of power.
Richelieu Dennis, the new owner and CEO, Michelle Ebanks, Joy Collins Profet, and Moana Luu collaborate to immortalize a severely unfavorable work atmosphere. In the last two years, dozens of bright Black women have been wrongly laid off or coerced to leave the organization. Essence’s C-suite leadership team strategically tells the market that it “serves Black women deeply” under the safety seal of 100% Black ownership, but the Black women who make up more than 80% of the company’s workforce are systematically suppressed by pay disparities, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism, and classism.
The Truth About Richelieu Dennis, Essence Ventures owner, and CEO of Essence Communications
Despite his well-constructed public messaging, Richelieu Dennis acquired Essence from Time Inc. in 2018 to expand his personal power and influence. His superficial connection to Black women is motivated by wealth and a hedonistic sexual hunger. He has a history of sleeping with women in the Sundial workforce, and he openly sexually harasses them at private company parties.
After a string of unlawful layoffs and other potentially libelous business behavior, Richelieu Dennis attempted to force Essence workers and contractors to sign non-disclosure agreements that solely protect his family from lawsuit or disparagement in the latter part of 2019. When employees raised concerns about the NDA, the executive leadership team used coercive techniques to silence them. Martha Dennis, Richelieu’s wife, is the company’s Head of Human Resources, creating a clear conflict of interest. Martha is a willing participant in her husband’s abuse of power. When the family matriarch is the head of HR, there is no mechanism for Essence employees under Richelieu Dennis’s family leadership to express their problems or disappointments.
Overall, Richelieu and the Dennis family have bought the silence of current and former Essence Black female employees who are afraid of the backlash from Richelieu’s vast financial and social capital. However, the toxic culture at the corporation originated with one Michelle Ebanks.
The Truth About Forced Black Female Anonymity
Essence magazine has let Black America down. When Black media firms become insecure, the entire culture becomes unstable. Black women and men have historically relied on Black-owned media sources for cultural identity, cultural memory, purpose, and economic progress.
In the emerging push for a more equitable corporate America, there is no intersectionality on race and gender. The testimony of a huge chorus of brave Black women on Twitter and Instagram exposed racial bias and discrimination in America’s white-owned mass media firms. This resulted in resignations, which were followed by current corporate promises to do better.
But Black women at Essence have been forced to remain silent. We are concerned that the public narrative for Black Lives Matter and civil rights 2.0 will be cannibalized. We are also concerned about losing our employment or being barred from Black cultural sites. We can only look to the orchestrated intimidation directed toward Russell Simmons’ survivors. The shocking accounts of Drew Dixon, Sil Lai Abrams, Sherri Hines, and Jenny Lumet, all Black women who were sexually abused by Russell, have been culturally ignored and ridiculed.
What exactly is workplace bullying?
Workplace bullying is defined as verbal, physical, social, or psychological abuse perpetrated by your employer (or boss), another employee, or a group of employees.
Workplace bullying can occur in any setting, including companies, stores, cafes, restaurants, seminars, community groups, and government agencies.
Volunteers, work experience students, interns, apprentices, and casual and permanent employees are all susceptible to workplace bullying.
How bullying may impact your job
If you are bullied at work, you may:
- Be less active or prosperous
- Be less confident in your work; feel fearful, agitated, anxious, or sad; and have your life outside of work impacted (e.g., studies, relationships)
- Want to avoid work because you don’t trust your employer or the people you work with lack confidence and happiness in yourself and your work experience physical indicators of stress such as headaches, backaches, and sleep issues
Wrapping Up with How to Deal with the abusive environment at Workplace
- Make certain that you are well-informed. Examine your workplace’s bullying policy and complaints system.
- Keep a journal. Documenting everything that occurs, including everything you did to try to stop it. This can be useful if you file a complaint.
- Seek help from someone you trust, or contact a support service. Even if you don’t know somebody you can talk to, there are support services under the Get Aid area that are immediately available to aid and support you. Contacting your union is part of this.
- Come up to the bully. If you feel safe and confident, you can confront the bully and inform them that their behavior is undesirable and unacceptable.
- Inform someone at work. Your business will typically have a mechanism in place for filing a complaint and resolving disagreements, which may involve issuing a warning, requiring the bully to attend counseling, a mediation process, or even dismissing the bully if the situation persists.
- Obtain information and guidance. If the bullying is severe, if the situation has not improved after you have complained to your manager, or if there is no one you can talk to safety at work, you can seek outside information and help.
Essence Executives Richelieu Dennis, Michelle Ebanks, Joy Profet & MoAna Luu Must Resign.
We demand the immediate resignation of Richelieu Dennis, Owner & Chief Executive Officer of Essence Ventures (Essence Communications including Essence Magazine, Essence.com and Essence Festival), Michelle Ebanks, Essence Ventures board member and former Essence Communications CEO, Joy Collins Profet, Chief Operating Officer, and MoAna Luu, Chief Content Officer.
We are calling for AT&T, Chase Bank, Coca Cola, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Warner Media to immediately divest all active and future sponsorships and media buys at Essence Communications until the company is under new leadership.
Black women who makeup over 80% of Essence’s workforce are repeatedly suppressed with pay inequity, sexual harassment, workplace bullying, and intimidation. Scores of talented Black women have been either wrongfully laid off or forced to resign from the company in the past two years.
Richelieu Dennis’s wife Martha Dennis, is the parent company’s (Essence Ventures) head of Human Resources, a blatant conflict of interest. Martha is complicit in her husband’s abuse of power and intimidation tactics.
Leadership approved layoffs of Black female staff recently returned from maternity leave. Other Black female staff have been threatened with dismissal during maternity leave, and were not timely offered healthcare coverage in time for leave.
Dennis has a history of sleeping with women under his employ at Sundial (owner of Shea Moisture, acquired by Unilever in 2017). Black female staff at Essence have experienced sexual harassment by Dennis.
Dennis tried to force Essence employees and contractors to sign non-disclosure agreements that exclusively protects him and his family from liability or disparagement after a string of wrongful layoffs and other potentially libelous business activity. When staff raised questions about the NDA, the executive leadership team launched a series of intimidation tactics on its mostly Black female staff.
At a company town hall during later half of 2019, employees inquired with Michelle Ebanks, then CEO, about market and industry pay equity, Ebanks openly dismissed the ask and told employees they were welcomed to leave company.
Black female staffers experienced repeated miscarriages due to intense stress and anxiety under leadership of Ebanks. Under both leadership of Ebanks and Joy Collins Profet, Chief Operating Officer, staff suffered from intense anxiety, depression, evidenced by signs of extreme weight gain or loss, workforce isolation and surrendered resignations. In 2019, a senior staffer who directly reports to Profet, went under a stress leave only to return to heightened and tactical workforce bullying by Profet.
MoAna Luu, Chief Content Officer, hired by Dennis due to a personal relationship, is also rampantly abusive to editorial and creative staff at Essence. After staff sustained nearly a year of MoAna’s workplace bullying and adverse impact on the business, a staffer anonymously emailed a complaint to Dennis and Ebanks. Instead of investigating MoAna’s performance, they initiated interrogation tactics on staff with support of IT leadership. The incident strengthened the toxicity of the company culture and led to the resignation of even more proven Black women.
Both present and former Black female staff at Essence have experienced extreme trauma and fear under the terrorizing management of Dennis, Ebanks, Profet and Luu. The current Black female staff at Essence are not emotionally safe nor are they fairly set up for professional and economic advancement at the company.
The Essence Ventures board, and corporations who invest in Essence, must remove Dennis, Ebanks, Profet and Luu from management within the next 5 business days.
