Thread by @nathanielpopper

NEW: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has long styled himself as a Silicon Valley thought leader on management and culture.

The culture he built, however, led to a history of complaints about discrimination and racism from Black employees, buried until now.

nytimes.com/2020/11/27/tec…

In one period -- in late 18, early 19 -- almost all of the company’s Black employees left in a short period of time, with nearly a dozen of them making complaints to managers and HR before leaving.

“Most people of color working in tech know that there’s a diversity problem. But I’ve never experienced anything like Coinbase," Alysa Butler, who worked in recruiting at Coinbase, told me.

The company said this week that only three of the complaints went through official channels, but many Black employees said that managers ignored their concerns or pushed out employees who brought them up.

blog.coinbase.com/upcoming-story…

These problems have stayed in the shadows because most of the Black employees who complained about their treatment were given generous severance packages if they agreed not to talk about their experiences at the company.

But many of them spoke with us.

nytimes.com/2020/11/27/tec…