Amazon has dodged a legal bullet after a former Black employee’s claim of workplace discrimination was dismissed by a federal judge in Manhattan.
Keesha Anderson, who produced events for Amazon Music, alleged the company reduced her responsibilities and placed her on a performance improvement plan as part of a discriminatory scheme. The court, however, found little evidence that her performance rating was a pretext for bias or that the timing of supervisory changes targeted her because of race.
Judge Arun Subramanian noted that Amazon provided “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons” for its decisions, including a need for skills Anderson did not possess for a strategic role. The ruling comes in the wake of a recent Supreme Court decision that eased requirements for employees pursuing federal discrimination claims without showing tangible job setbacks like demotions or pay cuts.
Anderson is still weighing her options, though her legal team maintains that her claims raised critical questions about fairness at one of the world’s largest companies.
The case’s drama deepened when Anderson admitted to deleting secretly recorded conversations and citing a “whistleblower” whose statements she misrepresented. Subramanian refrained from sanctioning Anderson but warned that such conduct skirts the line of acceptable legal behavior.
“Setting aside the now-discredited whistleblower allegations,” the judge wrote, “the case looks like a typical workplace—arguably one with more positivity than usual.”
Anderson had quit Amazon in February 2022 after two and a half years, moving to a higher-paying role at Snap.
Case: Anderson v. Amazon.com Inc, Southern District of New York, 23-08347.
