meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Recode Daily

Amazon’s race problem

Recode Daily

Recode

Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Current and former employees describe a culture of bias, disrespect, and demotions at the e-commerce giant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

With an approved use Volkswagen, you're in good hands because these are no ordinary use cars.

0:05.4

We carefully inspect each car's history. Our Volkswagen technicians lovingly check them over

0:10.3

and we look after you too with two years warranty, two years UK roadside assistance,

0:16.1

and up to two years MOT cover. Find your perfect car. Search Volkswagen approved used,

0:22.0

you're in good hands. Cars with up to 100,000 miles of activation,

0:25.5

MOT cover underwritten by the spoke underwriting limited, subject to eligibility,

0:28.9

exclusions and terms. Amazon has a race problem. That's the allegation of over a dozen

0:38.7

current and former employees who spoke to recodes Jason Del Rey. Jason wrote the story and

0:43.2

is here with us. Hey Jason. Hey Teddy. So Jason, you spent the last few months talking with current

0:48.2

and former Amazon employees. Give me the quick headline on what you found. Sure. So there are

0:54.2

quite a bit of anecdotes and allegations of racial discrimination at the company.

1:00.3

But there's also this bigger point, which is structural issues at the company that create a place

1:06.4

where black employees are promoted less frequently and rated more harshly than their non-black peers.

1:13.9

And Jason, you're talking about Amazon headquarters. We're not talking about warehouse workers,

1:17.7

which you've also covered. We're talking about Amazon HQ in Seattle.

1:21.6

Correct. So these are corporate employees who may work in Seattle, but Amazon now has

1:27.4

sort of big office presence in a bunch of major cities, obviously around the globe, but also

1:33.5

around the US. Right. And Jason, you lay out in the piece kind of some of these big structural reasons

1:39.9

how Amazon is acting in a biased way against black employees according to them.

1:45.9

Talk to me about the ways in which Amazon employees are classified, which seems

1:51.5

like inside baseball, but I think it really speaks to the bigger issues you're applying.

1:56.4

Amazon has these corporate levels that employees are slotted into four to through 12.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Recode, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Recode and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.