By Justice Allen
- Google donated over $350K to 89 congress members with an F rating from the NAACP
- Amazon has a market cap of $1.3T, but has only 1 Black person on their board of directors
We’ve seen the Fortune 500 companies who are taking a stand for justice on Twitter (TWTR +0.19%), but the fact of the matter is, that’s about as far as their stance goes. Corporate America’s newfound “awakening” to racial injustices is laughable at best, and downright cringe-worthy at worst. Some of these very same corporations who’ve put out heartfelt #BLM statements have knowingly given hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians that have directly opposed legislation that would benefit communities of color.
Why This Matters: The NAACP put together a handy “Legislative Report Card” that details key civil rights votes for the past 100+ years. It has been a magnificent resource for highlighting companies and politicians whose dollars and votes don’t align with social justice empowerment. For example Citigroup (C +0.40%) donated to 74 members of congress that had an F rating with the NAACP. Google donated over $350,000 to 89 F-rated members of congress. The largest U.S. based e-commerce company Amazon (AMZN +0.40%) gave over $380,000 to 137 homies in the good ol’ F-club.
Citigroup donated to 74 members of congress that had an F rating with the NAACP
Situational Awareness: We as consumers have to look past the veil of social media and towards the facts of what companies are actually doing versus what they’re posting. Many of these large corporations have just realized the importance of adding Black Board members, some of which are adding their first Black board members this year. As always, it’s up to us to dig a bit deeper, continue to ask questions, and call a spade a spade.
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