Alexis Ohanian Sr., husband of tennis great Serena Williams and co-founder of Reddit, recently announced his resignation from the company’s board, citing his and Serena’s 2-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. as the reason.
Ohanian’s resignation comes almost two weeks after the brutal murder of Black Minnesota resident George Floyd on May 25, who was killed by Minneapolis Police officers. Since then, protests against police brutality and systemic racism have spread around the country and the world.
Alexis Ohanian Sr. took to Instagram to announce his resignation in a short video, saying that he resigned because “as a father,” he “needs to be able to answer his Black daughter when she asks: What did you do?” He urged his fellow Reddit board members to fill his vacant seat with a Black candidate and said he would use his future stock gains to aid the Black community. He also pledged to donate $1 million to former NFL star and Civil Rights activist Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp. Ohanian Sr. wrote his resignation statement in the caption, which reads:
“I co-founded @reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging. It is long overdue to do the right thing. I’m doing this for me, for my family, and for my country. I’m saying this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: “What did you do?” says Ohanian Sr.
“I have resigned as a member of the Reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, and I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to @kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp. I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop.”
