Oftentimes, when we read about a racial discrimination lawsuit, it involves a Black employee suing his white bosses. But rarely do we see a white employee claiming the same thing against their Black bosses.
That’s the case with Melissa Cooper, who worked at Nas’ Mass Appeal from April 2021 to June 2023. First as a consultant, and later as the Head of Development. According to Rolling Stone, she’s claiming that she was the target of a racial conspiracy to hurt her reputation and get her fired from the record label/media company. The defendants she names in the case include the company itself, one of her bosses, who is Black, and the CEO of the label, who is white.
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The lawsuit specifically singles out the actions of Jenya Meggs, Mass Appeal’s Senior Vice President for Partnerships and Acquisition, who is Black. The suit claims, “Meggs and her cohorts made venomous and racist comments about ‘White folk’ and ‘crackers,’ and bragged that they caused Cooper to shed ‘White tears.’”
Meggs is named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, along with Mass Appeal and its CEO, Peter Bittenbender, who is white. A rep for Mass Appeal did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Cooper’s evidence? She has a collection of screenshots sent from Meggs to other employees at Mass Appeal. Where’d she get them from? Allegedly, Copper received the screenshots from Meggs’ disgruntled ex-lover, Michael Harris, who also told her that Meggs and other employees conspired to get her fired from Mass Appeal.
The lawsuit also refers to a call that included Cooper, Meggs, Bittenbender, Mass Appeal’s Chief Creative Officer, and a human resources employee (who is allegedly a friend of Meggs) where they discussed organizing a town hall event about hip-hop and gun violence shortly after the unfortunate death of Takeoff.
Allegedly, when Cooper said she agreed with having the event, Meggs scolded and criticized Cooper saying that it was not her place to speak on the matter.
When Cooper was fired in June of this year, she claimed that Bittenbender told her that it was because “the company had not sold enough” and “the state of the industry.” Despite her termination, Cooper claims nobody else of similar status at the company was fired, according to Rolling Stone.
After Harris spilled all the tea and shared all the evidence Cooper needed to file a suit, she shared it with Bittenbender, who in response said none of the claims against the company are “illegal.”