WASHINGTON — The United States Mint celebrated a milestone this month when it announced the first shipment of a new batch of quarters featuring the image of writer and poet Maya Angelou, the first black woman featured on the 25-cent coin.
The announcement came weeks after President Biden said he would nominate Ventris C. Gibson to lead the Mint, where, if confirmed, she would serve as the first Black director.
But among the public signs of social progress is an agency that has struggled for years with racial tensions, with black employees saying they feel threatened, marginalized and professionally disadvantaged. While cases of racism have surfaced at the Mint in previous years, a new internal report reviewed by DailyExpertNews shows an institution rife with uproar over allegations of racist behaviour.
A draft of the report, commissioned last year by La Monnaie and prepared by an independent human resources consultancy, found that the agency, which is part of the Ministry of Finance, had a “culture problem” and that the employees have a “lack of psychological safety.” The report described a workplace with “implicit bias” and “micro-aggressions” toward minorities.
Participants in a survey conducted by the consultancy, including more than 200 employees, senior managers and executives, said racing was divisive at the Mint. Many at the agency expressed concern that minority recruitment and promotions were not being treated fairly and said they feared retaliation for filing formal complaints.
In company interviews quoted in the report, some Mint executives seemed to dismiss the racial concerns. Comments from executives included that “we need a model minority” and that “if we put a minority as assistant director of the United States Mint, the minorities will see that we are not racist or sexist.”
The company, TI Verbatim Consulting, said in the report that its findings “point to possible root causes of the racial divide” at the Mint. The report cited outdated policies, cliques, ambiguous promotional practices and the perception of favoritism. While some members of the Mint’s workforce described a positive environment, others said there had been a noticeable “downward spiral” in recent years amid mounting racial tensions and as acts of overt discrimination surfaced.
“The workforce does not feel that the organization is living up to its values,” the report said.
Concerns about a culture of discrimination at the Mint received national attention in 2017 after a white employee at a Philadelphia facility tied up a rope used to seal coin bags in a noose and left it at a black coworker’s workstation. In a 2020 letter to Steven Mnuchin, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, Mint employees said another noose had surfaced and the N-word had been written across walls in toilets. They also said a White Mint official had referred to a black leader at the agency as a “zoo keeper” in a chat conversation.
The allegations were referred to Treasury Department Inspector General Richard K. Delmar. He found no evidence of racial animosity surrounding the Philadelphia noose incident, but his investigation into other allegations is ongoing. Mr. Delmar declined to comment on the ongoing review.
The day after the noose was found, the employee in question was removed from his job. He challenged his dismissal before the US Merit Systems Protection Board, which reviews cases of government employees challenging their dismissal, saying his job was tying knots. De Munt later agreed to a settlement with the employee after the Justice Department declined to take action; a Mint spokesperson said the settlement was made in an effort to end the dispute and ensure the employee would not be reinstated.
The revelations of racial unrest come as the Mint finds itself at a potential turning point. Mr. Biden has made racial equality a central point of his agenda, and he announced in December that he would nominate Ms. Gibson as director of the agency. She is currently deputy director of the Mint and heads the agency on an acting basis.
Ms. Gibson, who has to be confirmed by the Senate, has vowed to improve the culture of the Mint. Last month, she led a diversity briefing at a senior executives meeting, and plans to launch new career development programs to make the promotion process more transparent.
“Our staff comes from diverse backgrounds and I am committed to ensuring that we respect, honor and leverage that diversity,” Ms Gibson said in a statement. “We need to make sure there are no barriers to an employee’s success and advancement at the Mint.”
She added, “We at the highest leadership level must make concerted efforts to always treat our employees fairly and with integrity, and to restore trust in those foundational principles of good leadership and exemplify genuine concern for the workforce.”
But there are lingering concerns within La Monnaie staff about its commitment and ability to change an organization where cultural challenges have dragged on for so long.
Mint employees worry that symbols of change don’t necessarily lead to tangible cultural change at the 1,600-person agency created by the Coinage Act of 1792. That includes the decision to put Ms Angelou on the quarter.
“It’s a distraction,” said Rhonda Sapp, the president of the Mint Workers’ union, who questioned Ms Angelou’s value on a coin “when you mistreat the people, some of whom are people of color, who own the coins. ”
Ms Sapp, who said she had not seen the consultancy’s report, said changing the agency’s culture would require more sweeping changes under the Mint’s leadership.
“What good is having the first black female director, if she’s confirmed, if you have all these people with this behavior and mentality that undermine her at every turn?” asked Mrs. Sapp.
Others are more optimistic that Ms. Gibson will be able to foster a culture of inclusion.
“Ventris brings years of human resources experience to large organizations,” said Rosie Rios, who served as United States treasurer during the Obama administration. “I’m sure she’ll do well at the Mint.”
The report credited the Mint’s leadership for having its culture assessed and allowing respondents to speak freely about the agency. It said there is “an enormous opportunity for real change.”
Before Mr Biden announced her appointment to lead the Mint, Ms Gibson was appointed deputy director of the agency in October. At the time, Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the treasury, praised her selection as a sign of progress.
“Her historic appointment reflects our continued commitment to building a qualified, diverse workforce at Treasury and its agencies that will serve the American people well,” he said.
Historically, La Monnaie pioneered diversity, but did not always prioritize healthy working conditions. In 1795, it became the first federal agency to hire women when it began hiring them to work in the so-called adjustment room, a poorly ventilated area where they would weigh and file blank coins.
In recent years, it has been a priority for the Mint to bring diversity to the images on US coins. The bipartisan Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, signed by President Donald J. Trump the week before he left office, led to the addition of notable women, such as Ms. Angelou, on quarters through 2025.
The findings of the report have yet to be made public. They are expected to be more widely shared within the Mint’s staff later this month, Ms Gibson said in her statement.