Companies: Before pledging financial support for antiracism, look in the mirror.
3 reasons why companies should pause before pledging financial support for antiracism.
In recent weeks, there have been companies putting the word out that they will pledge $100 million dollars towards Black people, Black businesses, or other antiracist efforts. While the idea is cute, I believe it is short sighted. The organizations making the funding decisions benefit from racism and have not taken meaningful steps to rectify that.
- Companies cannot pledge money for antiracism while diversity is non-existent in it’s C-Suite.
Let’s look at some of the more recent pledges. Starbucks pledges $100 million “to help small businesses and Black communities”. This is aimed at funding community development projects and small businesses. But who decides where these funds are allocated? People with no conceivable idea of the root of the problem that they intend to solve. A 2020 racial workplace diversity chart shows that %3.7 of all corporate employees are black and 65.2 percent white.
In addition to little to no Black people in its top ranks, the company has been repeatedly accused of perpetuating racism. Starbucks already lost $16 million in sales due to indiscriminately calling the police on a Black man. In 2020, Starbucks banned staff from wearing Black lives matter t-shirts.
2. Institutional racism cannot be fixed with a self serving pledge with readily available assets.
Apple committed to an $100 million “racial equity and justice initiative”. Yet when we look at senior level or VP or C-suite executives, it consists primarily of white men and women.
Internal biases, racial stereotypes, and the culture at Apple all reinforce the companies willingness to exclude. The next level down, the board of directors, has only one black man and no black women. Apple claims that they have been on the best human rights diversity score for 10 years, but the company rarely has one Black person on their board of senior leadership.
Apple has been called out to focus on racial diversity at shareholders meetings and it is always met with less than %5.5 of the vote. This is because a group of senior level white men and women could not see racial disparities within the executive level of a company, as a pressing issue.
How can you pledge donations to fix a problem without an understanding of what the problem is? The very people who designate where the funding should go, are part of the problem. Incorrectly identifying a problem that Black people face will have an adverse effect on progress.
3. Without first examining internal bias, the money will likely not go to where it is most needed.
We have seen it before when people decided that single Black mothers were the reason for multigenerational poverty. This created the current foster care system that displaces families and offers no financial support to families in need. Or when the government decided that issues in the Black community were not due to economic violence perpetuated by the state, but was due to drugs. This led them to think the war on drugs was a solution when it created an even bigger problem for the Black community.
Programs and funding that are presented like a solution for the Black community, do not tangibly support the community. When the SBA targeted “minority owned businesses”, it did not materialize in more Black owned businesses getting approved for funding. When banks were called out for red lining, Black potential homeowners were still not being approved. Red lining was banned over 50 years ago and today we have less Black homeownership than back then.
When the government told banks to offer PPP loans, Black owned businesses were overwhelmingly flagged or not approved. Black business owners were left behind despite having the most need due to systemic racism. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/black-businesses-left-behind-in-covid-19-relief . The people in high ranks making determinations were the blind leading the blind.
It seems like these entities want a pat on the back by offering money with no true commitment to do the work to dismantle racism. If high ranking officers do not fix a company’s internal biases, that money will not go to the places that truly need it. How you choose where your funding goes is an indication of where your moral compass lies.
As stated in my last article, hiring Black people to do minimum wage work (U.S.) or slave wages (internationally) is not a stamp of true diversity. Are Black employees afraid to speak out about racism at your company? Then you need to look in the mirror. Do executives in your company behave like discrimination, racism, and microagressions are ok? Then that is the culture that you have established. Corporations should invest time, money, and equity to address structural racism before they attempt to solve outside issues.
“Structural racism — the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal that routinely advantage whites while producing cummulative and chronic adverse outcomes for Black people. A caste system of sorts that places people in categories of expectation and opportunity based on white supremacy. It is the preferential treatment and power of white people at the expense of Black people.” https://www.intergroupresources.com/rc/Definitions%20of%20Racism.pdf
For antiracist, diversity, equity, or inclusion training schedule a 90 minute deep dive for your company. https://qonnectus.carrd.co
