Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is the latest company being accused of gender and racial discrimination in their hiring practices, but this time it’s for allegedly failing to recruit and promote enough straight men.
At the center of the firestorm is the company’s Belgian-born gay CEO, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, who an anonymous group of Neiman Marcus employees claim only hires “men who are gay and/or European” and “white and Asian women,” according to the NY Post.
Raemdonck has been CEO since 2018 and previously worked at Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton.
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The employees first made their accusations against him in a December post on the anonymous blogging platform Telegra.ph, where they said they analyzed his hiring practices for more than 30 senior level positions.
“Geoffroy hires externally and does not like to promote from within. He prefers to hire white and Asian women. And then he favors men who are gay and/or European. Just like him,” read the post.
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The employee group is said to consist of “five or less” individuals of which two are women. Though the sexual orientation of the group of employees has not been disclosed, they shared their outrage over the plight of heterosexual men within the organization.
“The typical straight US male has been ignored and has been hired one time,” the post continued. “Statistically this is impossible unless it’s by design.”
The company took the accusations seriously and hired an outside law firm to investigate the situation further.
In an email to the NY Post, Neiman Marcus claimed the unnamed law firm found “no evidence” that Raemdonck or other managers “engaged in the conduct described in the allegations.”
The company refuted the allegations further by pointing out their proven track record of hiring heterosexual men and a sprinkling of non-white employees.
“13 straight men represent almost over 30% of the senior hires and promotion,” Neiman Marcus said in their statement, adding that it promoted “16 leaders from within” including “4 white, straight men; 1 Asian man and 1 black woman.”
The company also disclosed it “hired and promoted 9 straight, white men; 3 straight minority men; 1 Hispanic woman.”
Translation: Neiman Marcus is like most companies and employs lots of white, straight dudes.
Prior to the accusations of having an affinity for employing gay men, Raemdonck shared a video highlighting the company’s diversity efforts and “culture of belonging” as part of Neiman Marcus’ Pride Month initiative.
In a follow-up email to the Daily Mail, Neiman Marcus reiterated the outside law firm’s conclusion by stating, “We followed our protocols and conducted an independent investigation, which determined that the allegations were completely unfounded.”
This isn’t the first time Raemdonck, who shares two children with his interior designer husband Alvise Orsini, has faced controversy during his tenure at Neiman Marcus.
In 2020, he received flack for continuing to receive big bonuses while furloughing thousands of employees during the pandemic.
Around the same time, Raemdonck also raised eyebrows for having his lavish Dallas mansion profiled in an 11-page Paper City editorial while the company was handing out pink slips to lower-level staff.
In 2023, Raemdonck stepped in it again after telling Fortune magazine he wanted the company to stop appealing to the middle-class masses and focus selling to “the biggest spenders and win over more shoppers from the jet-setting millionaire cohort.” This rich gay needs some PR training, stat!
Raemdonck recently left the company’s Dallas headquarters – and his opulent 1927 Italianate-style estate – to relocate with his family to New York City.
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Benvolio69
When did Straight White Men become a protected class? They are not.
Sheppard87
I fully understand your point I promise. Because why should the majority/oppressor ever be part of a protected class. And I’ll start by saying that I don’t think this Neiman Marcus thing is real, it sounds like they started hiring more fairly and valuing input from more diverse people and the het/cis white guys got their panties in a wad.
However, white and straight are as protected as black and gay, at least legally speaking. Protected classes are defined as things like ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, ability, etc. It isn’t that people of color are protected or only queer people are protected. The idea is that we don’t use those categories in our processes at all. Granted that is in a perfect world.
If a company was found to only hire women or only hire Hispanic people, it can be found as at fault as a company that only hires men or white people. But, like 99% of the time its just cis/het white bros complaining because they see equality as oppression. We just have to be careful to be truly egalitarian in these things.
LumpyPillows
You lost me when you typed “majority/oppressor”. You are part of the problem.
still_onthemark
I was unaware that Needless Markups ever made a serious attempt to appeal to “the middle-class masses.” Haven’t they always presented themselves as upscale?
Chrisk
Ha. Haven’t heard that before. One time I got a NM $500 gift card. With $100 tee shirts and $500 shoes it sure didn’t go very far. Most of the shit looked cheap though. You were paying for some unknown designer and status basically.
This guy is so out of the real world he thinks they ever catered to the middle class. Lol
Sheppard87
What was the huge component? I’m curious.
LumpyPillows
Straight, white, American men are not their clientele. They don’t shop there. Straight, white, American men also do not, typically, have the experience or education in high end fashion and design. So, if the best people aren’t straight, white, American men, then they should not be hired or promoted. Now, if he’s not promoting straight, white, American men who are talented and have proven work histories, that is a problem. The article seems to report facts that contradict the claim of bias.
Reality, this is a hit piece on a successful gay CEO.
barryaksarben
exactly Worked retail form loading dock to sales to commission sales to magma training to. assistant Buyer and the only straight men were the stores general management and slightly over half of all buyers back in the 80s. Rarely were people promoted in store esp if gay men which I of course am. I left to go into corporate banking. but loved retail and saw so many gay men in it much more than banking. NM hiring sounded exactly right for retail if not still a little too many straight white men in reality
Fahd
It’s a mystery to me how anyone succeeds at retail nowadays. Maybe in Dallas.
This story seems like in the background a straight white male was pursuing an employment discrimination lawsuit against them. Tough lawsuit to win or settle well, especially if the company is willing to commission an “independent” law firm to say they did nothing wrong.
Chrisk
Actually even during Covid Neiman Marcus actually increased their sales while every other places saw a downturn.
Rich people are immune to economic downturns.
abfab
Can we clarify.
I’m not going to read this yet, but I have read the comments. Are we discussing straight white men or are we discussing heterosexual white men? Big difference, kids.
barryaksarben
not a BIG difference a small difference. cmon
abfab
Straight men are:
conservative
religious
right wingers
republicans
bigots
homophobes
boring
abusive fathers
wife beaters
anti-drag queens
exploitive of Lesbians and women in general
provincial
rascist
straight
Heterosexual men are:
cool
hip
stylish
campy
have many gay and lesbian friends
enjoy drag shows
supportive of our community
worldy
sophisticated
great conversationalists
have passports
know ohter languages
well educated
artisitc
confident
great dads
great husbands
fun
heterosexual