The only person explaining the context of the use here is the person who used it (and is potentially trying to save face). We don’t necessarily have the full picture.
Agree we don’t have the full picture. But the memo we have is from the CEO who fired him, not the person who used the word. And contrary to flametitan’s reading, the use is described as “descriptive” during a meeting on “sensitive” words, for which he was told inappropriate after the fact. Then he used the word again with colleagues when discussing his original use.
It’s obvious to me he wasn’t calling anyone that word.
We don’t have a transcript, nor do we know how he used the word in that meeting. The memo said he made, “descriptive use of the word,” in a separate paragraph from that detailing the initial event, which doesn’t read as “using the word as an example.” Likewise, the fact that people said “Hey, the way you used it was pretty badly handled,” as stated in the memo, even further implies it wasn’t just used as an example.
Also, considering the second incident was with black employees specifically, not just “colleagues,” I can see how the second incident implied some… lack of awareness, even if it wasn’t directed at them, per se.
It’s impossible to really fall one way or the other on this without further context, but I’m on the side of giving Netflix the benefit of the doubt on the decision.