Wells Fargo, a prominent American multinational financial services company, has promised to investigate allegations of racial discrimination against Oluwaseun Adeoye, who is believed to be its staff.
The company’s response followed a post by Joyce Agbanobi, a US-based Nigerian lady, wherein she called out Adeoye for allegedly body-shaming her during this year’s Father’s Day celebration.
Agbanobi, a strategy & analytics staff with Amazon, had shared a screenshot of the message Adeoye sent to her via her page on Linkedin, a professional networking platform.
In the post, the Nigerian man appeared to have asked Agbanobi why “her skin is so black” and advised her to bleach her skin.
“Why is your skin so very dark/black? Or I think it’s the way the sun was facing you though,” he had allegedly written.
The lady, however, replied: “is that a question or are you expecting an answer to this question?”
But in what seemed to be his response, Adeoye wrote: “You’re still black as charcoal at the end of the day. Go and bleach dear.”
In her reaction, Agbanobi, a business analyst and tech educator, said she never expected such a remark from a fellow black who is also from her country.
Agbanobi also recounted how she faced similar treatment from those around her while growing up in Nigeria, a development she said made her hate her skin at the time.
“Today is a great day and I am super excited to celebrate fathers for all that they do and how they constantly put their life’s on the line for their families! But also on a great day like this, another black mature man @oluwaseun Adeoye working for Wells Fargo who I barely know, deemed it fit to colour shame me for no reason,” she wrote.
“But why??? What was my offense??? I grew up hating my skin, was bullied, insulted and sort just because I am black, went through this as a Nigerian in Nigeria “black nation” (surprising right but it’s the fact)! 6years ago I would have taken @oluwaseun’s Adeoye advice by going to change my skin color for any amount and cried myself to death!
“But no, I am not that girl anymore! I am a strong black successful woman and I love my skin but will not allow this bully to run around the street emotionally abusing women!
“In 2021 and on a beautiful day like this, when we celebrate fathers I didn’t expect a message like this from another black man but this has to stop here!!! @oluwaseun Adeoye a Wells Fargo employee has to be called to order, we need to protect other women from people like him!!!”
In its reaction, Wells Fargo commended Agbanobi for bringing the matter to its attention while asking her to forward details of the conversation to the company’s email for proper review.
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Joyce, and we’re so sorry to learn of this experience. Could you please send us an email at socialmedia@wellsfargo.com with more details and the screenshot attached? We’ll forward this to our HR department for review. Thanks,” it replied.
It remains unclear if Adeoye is indeed a staff of the company as another user claimed — in the comment section of the post — that he works with the Bank of America (BoA).