Community voices concerns after accusations made against Diversity Richmond
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Community members voiced their concerns at a town hall hosted by Diversity Richmond Tuesday night after a former employee made claims of sexual harassment and racism towards the organization in June.
The town hall was held by the LGBTQ+ nonprofit thrift store on Tuesday, July 15 in response to backlash it received following claims made by former employee Danni Worthy-Mays.
Worthy-Mays has alleged that her boss at Diversity Richmond behaved inappropriately towards her on several occasions, including an instance of using racial slurs in texts sent to her.
She also accused him of touching her inappropriately and making unwanted sexual comments towards her -- despite being married.
MORE: ‘I felt like dirt,' Harassment claims challenge Diversity Richmond’s safe space image
While several individuals involved with Diversity Richmond did speak at the town hall on Tuesday, most of the event was facilitated by two individuals brought in from other organizations to mediate the conversation: David Campt from The Dialogue Guy and Matthew Freeman from Dialectix.
Diversity Richmond's July 15 Town Hall following a former employee's accusations of sexual harassment. (Photos: Julia Broberg/8News)
This was met with disapproval from a portion of the crowd, holding up signs towards the back of the event hall that read "Protect Black Women" and "Fire Him."
Diversity Richmond has declined to comment on specifics regarding the situation, due to ongoing legal action -- but this is not the first time the business has faced public scrutiny over how it addresses internal harassment claims.
Several signs at the event quoted sentences from a previous 8News article, which showcased a statement from Diversity Richmond that was provided during a harassment claim investigation towards the nonprofit back in 2021.
A sign containing a statement from Diversity Richmond used in a previous 8News article (Photo: Julia Broberg/8News)
To gather public input, the facilitators put up a QR code to be scanned that would take participants to a questionnaire that they could fill out.
At first, both hosts stated that artificial intelligence (AI) would be utilized to accumulate the most pertinent and recurring points brought up by attendees.
This was also met with disapproval by the crowd -- at which point the hosts said they were listening to community feedback and would not use AI to filter the comments.
The main question discussed was a poll where people could vote on whether they believed Diversity Richmond was handling the situation well or was handling it poorly. Voters could also say they were undecided.
A word cloud shown at the start of the meeting -- the biggest words are the words that were used most in the public's feedback (Photo: Julia Broberg/8News)
Some participants who voted that Diversity Richmond was handling the situation poorly spoke at the meeting. These individuals said that they had lost a safe space they used to rely on and that they wanted to hear more input from Black individuals in the community.
Two people spoke who voted undecided. They discussed the grief they felt for everyone involved and that they were trying to hear all the facts and perspectives before making an informed decision.
There was only one person who spoke who had voted that Diversity Richmond was handling the situation well. This person said they were not aware of the harassment claims before attending the meeting and, from what they had heard so far, they support the nonprofit.
Another person spoke who had not voted at all. They said this town hall was one of the "saddest presentations" they had ever seen and it made them not want to participate.
The hosts said that the information gathered through the polls would be publicly available -- but when asked by a member of the crowd where these results would be, the hosts answered that they did not know as of the time of the town hall taking place.
While Worthy-Mays was not at the event herself out of fear for her safety -- among other concerns -- a party separate from the town hall was passing out a flyer on her behalf, pictured below.
A flyer made available by a party not associated with Diversity Richmond (Photo: Julia Broberg, 8News)
Additionally, a person at the town hall brought a recording of Worthy-Mays to play during the public comment portion, which highlighted her concerns about the ongoing situation.
