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- Alexis Ohanian has resigned as a Reddit board member.
- The 37-year-old's decision comes amid Black Lives Matter protests in the US.
- Of his decision he said: "I'm doing this for me, for my family, and for my country," before adding he has urged the board to fill his seat with a black candidate.
Alexis Ohanian recently shared that he's decided to resign as a board member of Reddit – the company he co-founded 15 years ago.
He said on Instagram: "It is long overdue to do the right thing. I'm doing this for me, for my family, and for my country. I'm saying 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."
He went on to share he's started with a pledge of $1 million (R16.8 million) towards Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights campaign.
SEE HIS POST HERE:
Over the weekend, the 37-year-old joined wife Serena Williams, for Serena Saturday on Instagram, and got candid about his decision.
He told the tennis pro: "When I thought about what Reddit needs, what business needed now more than ever was someone that had a position of power to say, 'There are too many white faces around the table, there have been for too long. What are the things that I can do beyond donations?'
"I have been so heartened by messages I have received from total strangers in business, in particular a number of black men and women who found my email, or through a friend sent me a note, saying how much they appreciated the gesture simply because of all the rooms, all the boardrooms, all the executive rooms they have walked into, where they have realized they have had to prove themselves."
He added: "I think if every company took a look around their boardrooms on Monday and really had the honest, hard conversations, and said, 'Are we doing the best by our customers, by our team and by our shareholders with this board makeup?' I think we'd see more change."
Alexis also acknowledged the conversation the couple will have to have with their two-year-old daughter.
"One of the things that really broke me at some point in the last week," he said, amid protests in the US in the wake of George Floyd's death, "was looking at Olympia and she is such a pure blank canvas. She only knows love. There is not an ounce of hate in her body.
"You know that at some point, Olympia is gonna have a talk with you, a talk with us, but especially a talk with you about how she's gonna have to work that much harder, how she's gonna have to deal with this much more..." he said to Serena. "That pisses me off."
SEE THEIR FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
