Today is the 3rd day where half the DoSomething staff is striking to demand the resignation of Aria Finger. I worked directly under Aria for 4 years as her assistant and can corroborate and affirm the stories shared and the toxic, abusive (1/21) #DSWalkout #DoSomethingDidNothing

and discriminatory culture she helped to usher in.

When I first started at DS, I was 20 & just moved from FL with no friends or family in the city. Immediately after starting, Aria & Nancy (CEO & COO at the time) pressured me to get a fake ID so I could drink and hang (2/21)

with the staff. I had never done anything like that before moving but felt like I had to because my boss and her boss were telling me to. This was not the only time I would feel pressured by Aria to engage in behavior I found inappropriate. (3/21)

Something I noticed quickly after starting was that Aria would talk about which male staff members and male board members she thought were “hot”. This ranged from showing me/other young staff members photos of a particular board member shirtless, waiting for us to agree— (4/21)

to verbally saying things like “if I was not already married” or “if I was younger, I could see myself with ____ (staff member).”

The sexual harassment she perpetuated spread like wild fire and created a culture with the entire staff where that was the norm. (5/21)

Because of this environment, I worked with a man who was a serial sexual harasser, who harmed me and many of my friends/colleagues. When I tried to report him for harassing my intern on a trip across the country, I did not feel heard or supported. Listening to her talk (6/21)

about who she found attractive in the office was a constant, & more times than not, you could map back that those getting promotions, raises, 2nd + 3rd chances before being fired, were men Aria frequently talked about finding hot (including the abuser mentioned above) (7/21)

Aria is also a very insensitive person, and that would come up most when race would be addressed. I remember she scheduled a secret meeting with Logan Paul right after THAT video came out. She knew about it for days & announced it to the staff 10 minutes before he arrived (8/21)

making it seem as if it were a surprise. The team, which was made up of many POC was understandably upset by this. In the meeting she held after to “address the concerns of the staff”, she was incredibly defensive & responded to concern by sympathizing with Logan Paul (9/21)

and saying “the worst thing you can be called in this world is a racist”. (10/21)

Think about that please. Imagine a white executive in her late 30’s standing in front of a room full of staff of color and saying that racist is the worst thing you can be called, to excuse her harmful behavior (11/21)

After months of the staff requesting some kind of diversity & inclusion training, Aria finally agreed to allowing it. Much of the staff came with open minds and a willingness to be challenged and to learn. To few staffers surprise, Aria did not have the same attitude. (12/21)

Aria spent the day getting in arguments in front of the staff with the facilitator (a gender queer POC), questioning why micro-aggressions are such a big deal, and belittling their work— among other offensive things. (13/21)

Aria also was not shy to verbally berate you in front of the entire staff. In a more pleasant memory of mine, I remember her asking me to order cookies for a meeting, I did, and after they arrived she screamed at me in front of all of my coworkers because she was upset (14/21)

that I did not get enough chocolate chip cookies (she did not request these…) I was humiliated. This was one of many times I would find myself crying in the janitorial closet with other black women in the office consoling me. (15/21)

That closet was the only safe place in the entire office for black and brown staffers (16/21)

Workplace violence is hard to speak about because it is so easy for a board or exec team to dismiss claims of bias, abuse, and harassment as “disgruntled former employees acting like children.” (17/21)

That is easier than them examining how they are complicit in creating an environment that has harmed countless people (18/21)

If I dared to be as negligent and admittedly ignorant in any of my jobs, I would have been (rightfully) fired immediately. (19/21)

It is shameful and cowardly to see the leadership team and board at DoSomething gaslight and minimize the concerns that have been vocalized clearly by staff since I started in 2014. The current staff @dosomethingEQ deserve to be heard and treated with respect. (20/21)

It’s unforgivable for the leadership to clearly state that 1 harmful CEO with limited experience is more important than the 24 brave people striking for their right to qualified, equitable leadership. (21/21) #DSWalkout #DoSomethingDidNothing