Woman says she was denied job because of ‘ghetto’ name

ST. LOUIS — A woman who applied for a customer service job at a clinic that treats men with low testosterone said she was denied a job because of her “ghetto” name.

Hermeisha Robinson, of Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo., posted on Facebook an email she received from Mantality Health in Chesterfield, Mo., in response to her application.

“Thank you for your interest in careers at Mantality Health. Unfortunately we do not consider candidates that have suggestive ‘ghetto’ names,” said the email, with the signature line of Jordan Kimler, a nurse practitioner.

Kevin Meuret, the owner of the company, told the Post-Dispatch Tuesday afternoon that Mantality’s email system was hacked from someone outside of Missouri and it is believed to be a former employee. However, the company is waiting to get the computer IP address from the Indeed.com job-finding site, where Robinson had submitted her application for the job with Mantality. He said about 20 prospective employees received emails by the hacker.

“I’m a father of three daughters and that young lady getting that (response) is horrible,” Meuret said. “That young lady opened something that must have felt like a freight train and that’s unacceptable.”

Meuret said reports have been filed with Chesterfield Police and St. Louis County’s cyber crimes division.

“We will continue to pursue this even if it becomes a federal matter,” Meuret said.

Earlier on Tuesday, a woman who said she is the regional director for Mantality, told the Post-Dispatch the email did not come from Kimler.

“It looks like we were hacked and we have filed a police report,” said the woman, who gave her name as Rachel D. “Until that gets resolved, we are not to comment on an ongoing investigation. The person who sent that out signed it with an innocent person’s name.”

Rachel D. would not confirm Kimler’s affiliation, if any, with Mantality.

“Jordan Kimler has nothing to do with this,” she said.

Robinson’s cousin, Miltina Burnett, of O’Fallon, Mo., posted a separate Facebook posting along with a copy of the email Robinson received. It was apparently Burnett’s note that caught the attention of the company. On Monday night, Burnett received a Facebook message from Jack Gamache, clinical director of Mantality’s St. Louis locations.

“Our systems has (sic) been currently hacked with email and phones,” Gamache wrote. “Please give me a call at your earliest convenience.”

Burnett said Gamache apologized and said that it was a former employee who hacked into the system.

Robinson, 27, said on Facebook that the email she received was upsetting.

“They discriminated against me because of my name, which they consider it to be ‘ghetto’ for their company!” Robinson wrote. “My feelings are very hurt and they even got me second-guessing my name, trying to figure out if my name is really that ‘ghetto.’”

She asked for all her social media friends to share the post “because discrimination has to stop.”

Burnett said in her initial Facebook post that her cousin was stunned by the email she received after applying through the Indeed.com job-finding site for a position with Mantality.

“It made her cry and question her name, whether she should change her name to fit in corporate America. Her mom passed away a while back and gave her that special name. Don’t ever change who you are to become more like them,” Burnett said in her post.