Roku faces discrimination suit alleging HR dismissed racism complaints

Parham alleges that Link, the account executive she was assigned to support, subjected her to racially charged conduct throughout her tenure. That allegedly included calling her by a revolving door of wrong names — “Joelle,” “Juliana,” “Josephine,” even “Josh” — while laughing, making assumptions about drug use tied to Parham’s race, and at one client outing, making offensive comments about the varying colors of individuals’ genitalia based on race. Link was, according to the filing, “notorious at Roku for her hostility towards non-white employees.”

What may draw the sharpest attention from HR professionals is how the company’s human resources function allegedly responded when Parham raised the alarm.

When she brought her concerns to HR representative Syeda Ali, the lawsuit alleges Ali told her: “I’m a business professional, not a camp counselor. Keep your head down and do your work, because at the end of the day we’re all just here for a paycheck.” In a later conversation, Ali allegedly said: “I just don’t want you telling anyone we didn’t help you.”

Parham’s manager, Frankel, allegedly took a similar approach — dismissing her complaints and telling her that her success at the company depended on “pleasing” Link. When Parham disclosed that she suffered from chronic migraines, the lawsuit alleges Frankel turned it against her, claiming she had “memory retention issues,” which Parham denies is a symptom of her condition.

Things escalated in February 2025, when Frankel allegedly pulled Parham off every team except Link’s — forcing her to report exclusively to the person she had been complaining about. On March 31, 2025, Roku terminated her employment. That was one day before a scheduled HR follow-up meeting and just days before she was set to be 50 percent vested in her company shares.