by Jeroslyn JoVonn
September 24, 2024
Nike’s new CEO started as an intern 30 years ago. But would a Black employee have been able to do the same?
Black Twitter launched a new discussion around Nike’s recent appointment of Elliott Hill as the sports retail giant’s new CEO.
According to his LinkedIn, Hill, 60, has a 30-year history with Nike dating back to 1988 when he started as an apparel sales representative intern. Since then, his only non-Nike role was as an assistant athletic trainer with the Dallas Cowboys in the ‘80s. However, while Hill was able to work his way up from intern to CEO, many on Black Twitter think that wouldn’t be the case if Hill were Black.
On Thursday, Nike’s stock valuation jumped when the company announced that Hill would replace current CEO John Donahoe, who will step down next month. The news prompted Sports and Business journalist Joe Pompliano to share a screenshot of Hill’s LinkedIn profile highlighting his three-decade career at Nike.
“Nike’s new CEO may have the best LinkedIn profile ever — 32 years with the same company, from intern to CEO!” Pompliano tweeted.
The tweet garnered a response from a Black Twitter user who shared what the “Black version” of Hill’s resume would look like.
“The Black version of this is making it to Sr. Manager / Director and plateauing,” the user wrote.
The hit tweet garnered responses from many who agreed with the message and how it reflects the Black experience in corporate America.
“Elliot: each role given w no experience nor proof they’d succeed in new roles.Black people: excelled in role (& their actual role) for 2-3 years w/o equivalent pay & had network 10 deep of people they’d done free work for in some capacity. Constantly 2nd guessed & scrutinized,” one user wrote in response.
“Either that or they give you the role right as the company going through some BS whether financially or socially so that if you can’t fix it the bigots will blame you being a DEI hire & forget that the company was going bad beforehand,” added someone else.
It’s been five years since the “Being Black in Corporate America” report highlighted how diversity and inclusion efforts failed Black workers. What followed a year later was the murder of George Floyd, which saw significant corporations and companies nationwide make sweeping efforts toward DEI.
However, in recent years, many companies have started to reverse diversity, equity, and inclusion programs with efforts facing increasing opposition from conservative lawmakers and activists. Across college campuses and corporate America, concerns over legal risks and political pushback are prompting some to scale back or rebrand their DEI initiatives.
What remains is a community of professionals, in this case, Black workers, who feel overlooked, ignored, and undervalued in the workplace. While Elliot Hill’s story of going from intern to CEO at Nike does give hope for what could come out of remaining loyal to a company, research shows that that’s not always the case for team members from different racial backgrounds.
As one Black employee who joined the Twitter debate shared, expressing interest in a promotion can garner a “funny” response from higher-ups.
“I feel like this is where I’m headed. They start acting funny once you start asking about the promotions that come with stock,” they wrote.
