Vaishnavi Jayakumar Files Complaint Alleging Anti-Asian Discrimination at Meta

Vaishnavi Jayakumar landed a job at Meta in January 2020.

Vaishnavi Jayakumar, an employee at Meta, recently filed an official complaint against the organisation, adding to the growing pile of lawsuits against tech companies for discriminating against Asians.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Vaishnavi Jayakumar, an employee at Meta, recently filed an official complaint against Meta, adding to the growing pile of lawsuits against tech companies for discriminating against Asians.

Jayakumar, an Indian-origin American woman from Singapore, previously worked at Disney, Google and Twitter and landed a job at Meta in January 2020.

She filed a complaint against the tech giant at California’s Civil Rights Department for alleged racial bias based on her Asian identity at Meta.

Her work at the company focused primarily on youth policy to protect children and teens from bullying, harassment and other forms of online abuse.

What is The Complaint About?

In an interview with USA Today, Jayakumar alleged that her supervisor at the company left her out of opportunities and initiatives that were in the scope of her job. Instead, she was “layered” under less experienced employees. 

According to the complaint filed by Jayakumar, she was consistently denied promotions despite developing experience over the years and receiving positive feedback.

She was told by supervisors at Meta that she was "not senior or collaborative enough."

The complainant maintained that although her responsibilities and workload kept increasing, her performance ratings kept slipping.

"I've never felt more keenly that as an Asian woman, I'm destined to be a worker, I'm not destined to be a leader. And that's an awful feeling.”

Vaishnavi Jayakumar in an interview with USA Today

Through her complaint, the Meta-employee is call on Meta make policy changes in the workplace. Some of these proposed changes include tracking the rates of promotion for Asian Americans and making managers more aware of stereotypes and biases through training.

Why Are The Number of Anti-Asian Discrimination Lawsuits Against Tech Companies Growing?

Jayakumar's complaint is a part of the increasing number of lawsuits filed in order to take action against long-standing racial biases in Silicon Valley.

Recently, Silicon Valley Asian-Americans have come together in support of Andre Wong after he filed a lawsuit in June against Lumentum Operations, LLC, alleging Asian discrimination throughout the company. Wong seeks $20,000,000 in damages for the same.

According to California's fair employment laws, companies cannot discriminate on the basis of race (including hair texture/style), sex, pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth, age (40 and over), ancestry, colour and religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), among others.