Arthur Grand Technologies’ ‘Whites Only’ Job Posting Sparks Furor

Virginia-based IT services firm Arthur Grand Technologies is in hot water over a racist job listing they posted on Tuesday on Indeed. The listing was for contract work as a business analyst in the Salesforce and insurance claims team of HTC Global/Berkshire Hathaway.

The portion circled in red fueled a firestorm on social media.

Prominent in the center of the otherwise routine-looking posting was the notation: “Only Born US Citizens [White] who are local with 60 miles from Dallas,TX [Don’t share with candidates]”

Outrage over the posting was immediate and ongoing. One Reddit user posted, “This is illegal and nauseating.” Comments on Twitter ranged from “Cannot wait for the lawsuit that comes out of this” and “WHOOPSIE DOODLE” to “It’s just Tuesday in Texas, nothing to see here” and “Why not just write ‘looking forward to ruinous litigation and disqualification from federal contracting’ while they’re at it.”

Arthur Grand specializes in digital transformation services for federal, commercial, state and local customers.

The company denies responsibility for the posting but appears to be having trouble keeping their story straight. Originally, they blamed the posting on “a new junior recruiter” at the firm. This excuse had been anticipated on Twitter in the post, “How long before they blame an intern or say they were hacked?” That posted was proven to be correct on both points when Arthur Grand later changed its official statement to include, “This job posting was neither authorized nor posted by Arthur Grand or its employees. A former employee took an existing posting and added discriminatory language, then reposted it through his own account. Necessary legal action has been initiated.”

The company was quick to point out that it was minority-owned, although there are no statements to this effect on their website, when accessible. Neither is there any information on the firm’s executive team.

An Accident or a Leak?

Many Twitter users wondered if the Indeed posting wasn’t so much an accident as a leak. “Whenever I see posts like this I can’t help but wonder how often it happens WITHOUT someone having the courage to leak it,” read one post. “I’m going to choose to believe that someone in HR saw this, said ‘**** it’ and decided to go out with a bang,” said another. Other comments along this same line included “The person that didn’t didn’t delete that text know [sic] exactly what they were doing. #blessthem” and “Bless that HR tech specifically.”

In addition to pulling down the listing, Arthur Grand pulled the plug on its Twitter and Facebook accounts. Throughout the day on Wednesday, their website experienced crashes, and many links simply brought up a WordPress installation page.

Meanwhile, the company has requested that the public not “raise any of the assumption comments or questions further.”