Company removes, apologizes for job posting with ‘preferably Caucasian’ in description

A tech staffing company in Virginia has apologized and removed a job posting that included a line seeking potential candidates who are “Preferably Caucasian.”

CBS News reports that Cynet Systems, located in Sterling, Va., apologized for the job posting in a statement posted to Twitter Sunday.

{mosads}The company said that the individuals responsible for creating the job post have since been fired, and that the post “does not reflect our core values of inclusivity & equality.”

“We will take this as a learning experience & will continue to serve our diverse community,” the company wrote on Twitter. 

Cynet apologizes for the anger & frustration caused by the offensive job post. It does not reflect our core values of inclusivity & equality. The individuals involved have been terminated. We will take this as a learning experience & will continue to serve our diverse community.

— Cynet Systems (@cynetsystems) April 29, 2019

The since-deleted job description was posted on LinkedIn and included a bullet point at the top that read: “Preferably Caucasian who has good technical background.”

The company issued a follow-up statement Monday, two days after the offensive post was first noticed, according to CBS News.

In the statement from Cynet Systems Co-CEO Ashwani Mayur, he pointed out that both he and the company’s other CEO are Indian-American, and said that 60 percent of the company’s workforce are minorities.

“We understand why some may have been upset seeing this listing, because we were too,” Mayur wrote. “It is a long-standing policy for our company to refuse any request to list jobs only seeking candidates of any specific ethnicity, gender, or other inappropriate restrictions.”

pic.twitter.com/5zjxaku2lY

— Cynet Systems (@cynetsystems) April 29, 2019

He added that the company is reviewing all existing current and future job postings to “ensure no similar issues exist.”

A LinkedIn spokesperson told CBS News the posting on the site was removed as soon as it was noticed, and that such ads are violations of company policy.