Estée Lauder said on Monday that it had asked John Demsey, a top executive at the beauty giant, to leave the company after he posted a meme containing a racial slur on his Instagram account.“This decision is the result of his recent Instagram posts, which do not reflect the values of The Estée Lauder Companies, have caused widespread offense, are damaging to our efforts to drive inclusivity both inside and outside our walls, and do not reflect the judgment we expect of our leaders,” the company said in a staff memo, which was posted to its investor relations site.A spokeswoman for the company said that Mr. Demsey was not fired, but told that he had to leave the company. He agreed to retire effective March 4, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.The executive’s racist post this month unleashed a firestorm in the beauty industry, where Mr. Demsey, 65, was a powerful figure, and where Estée Lauder has been under scrutiny for its div …
