Two Investigations into Essence have concluded that no misconduct took place following the explosive anonymous essay, “The Truth About Essence,” which accused the media company and its owner, Richelieu Dennis, of creating a toxic workplace riddled with discrimination and sexual harassment.
The essay was published on Medium and signed by Black Female Anonymous, a group claiming to be Essence employees. The piece stated that Black women at the company were “systematically suppressed by pay inequity, sexual harassment, corporate bullying, intimidation, colorism, and classism.” It even demanded Dennis and several other leaders’ resignations and collected more than 4,500 signatures on its Change.org petition, calling for leadership to step down.
“His surface-level commitment to Black women is driven by greed and a debaucherous sexual appetite. He has a history of sleeping with women on the Sundial staff (the parent company of Shea Moisture he sold to Unilever in 2017), and for the women who don’t seemingly consent, he openly sexually harasses them at private company events. In the later half of 2019, Richelieu tried to force Essence employees and contractors to sign non-disclosure agreements that exclusively protects his family from liability or disparagement after a string of wrongful layoffs and other potentially libelous business activity,” the essay alleged.
In response, global law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius investigated the allegations. They interviewed 24 current and former Essence employees over a six-week review. Their report stated it “did not find any evidence of conduct that would amount to unlawful discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.” Proskauer Rose interviewed 17 people with knowledge of Mr. Dennis during their investigation that began on July 2nd and concluded on August 11th. The firm’s investigators were not able to find evidence to substantiate the claims. They were also unable to get in touch with anyone affiliated with the Black Female Anonymous essay despite reaching out to the group via Instagram and asking Essence employees to contact the investigators by email.
Essence shared the findings of the reports with The New York Times and emphasized that neither firm had “prior or current relationships with the company, outside of the independent investigations.”
“I appreciate that these independent reviews clear my name, though the most important focus for me is the future of Essence,” Mr. Dennis said in a statement on Tuesday. “The reason I insisted that two of the most respected firms conduct reviews in response to anonymous allegations is that I wanted to make this a moment to accelerate the transformation of this iconic and important 50-year-old enterprise.”
Black Female Anonymous has not publicly commented on the investigation’s findings.
