What drives corporations today? It used to be innovation, excellence, ethics and opportunity. Today, many corporations repudiate those virtues and seem primarily driven by mob rule, elitism and rampant cowardice!
American culture has strayed so far that significant institutions now reject their founding principles and business ethics. Instead, they are standing with merely the loudest and most radical organizations. Corporations’ commitment to Black Lives Matter (BLM) proves this point. While BLM has been around for many years, its “voice” grew exponentially louder with the riots and carnage following the George Floyd death in 2020. Seeing the over $2 billion in property, business damages and many injuries and deaths that BLM and Antifa agitated and encouraged, many corporations publicly decided to bow and kowtow to these radical groups, stepping away from ethical norms that would reject such organizations.
Corporations operate appropriately as “capitalists” when they seek profits by serving consumers and extending the “American Dream.” But, acting contrarily now, they have bowed, cowered and kowtowed to BLM, proudly proclaiming Marxism and desiring to destroy American business and capitalism itself.
Why would corporations and institutions do this? Is it guilt? Or perhaps some level of shame? Whatever their calculation and relative justification for gross derelictions, the result translates into corporate cowardice!
Cowardice is running rampant in America! Individuals are pressured to remain quiet and complicit while riots and hatred rage, and corporations have followed suit. Brutish and even racist behaviors (toward “Whites”) are deemed praiseworthy as individuals and corporations declare that Black Americans must comply with BLM/Antifa radicals’ demands. The BLM, Antifa and “woke” activists expect Blacks to see compliant cowardice as a positive; they believe all Blacks sympathize with BLM. This view is offensive and demeaning and is an “elitist” view grossly misinformed about Blacks as individuals.
Elitists regard BLM as the voice of the majority of Black Americans. Reality confirms, however, that the majority of Black Americans reject rioting and urban violence.
BLM demands defunding and reducing law enforcement, but Blacks (by large majorities) want more peace-keeping and crime-deterrence in their communities. While BLM projects hatred toward Whites, Blacks generally reject racist hatred toward others based on immutable characteristics like skin color. While BLM demands the dismantling of the nuclear family, most Blacks desire nuclear families with fathers active in our homes and community. BLM wants Marxism and reliance on a government and centralized power structures,” but Blacks generally want to pursue maximizing God-given talents, skills and abilities through free-markets/capitalism! Elitists may be surprised to hear there are large segments in Black America who stand with the American Dream and against BLM, but we Every Black Life Matters (EBLM) people testify it’s true!
Frankly, the BLM position is demeaning, as it insinuates that putting up with rants and riots as a demonstration of being “woke” somehow helps curry favor and “good standing” in the Black community. In reality, many Blacks are appalled at the hypocrisy, cowardice and lack of corporate ethics on display when corporations and sports teams remain silent and complicit while observing notable evils and illegal activities of BLM.
Corporations must take a stand immediately! Standing with anti-American organizations is indecent and ignoble. Nobility disappears when standing with organizations that misuse funds and face charges for “irregularities” in accounting and business practices. Continuing to support and partner with organizations under criminal investigation in multiple States while the principals purchase multi-million-dollar mansions shows no virtue. BLM encourages anti-Semitism and attacks on law enforcement officers and their families; corporate partners remain silent. That’s cowardice, not a commitment to corporate ethics embracing all people.
The truth: Corporations do nothing to denounce and renounce BLM in the face of rampant wrongs because they feel all Blacks agree with BLM. As elitists, they treat Blacks as a monolith and don’t recognize the Black community as incredibly diverse, just like other ethnic minority groups.
I am a God-loving, patriotic Black man committed to righteousness and justice! I reject BLM because their beliefs and actions are antithetical to the Bible and actually exacerbate Black plight (instead of helping and improving). Corporate elitists should be aware that there are more Blacks like me (God-fearing, God-loving, not anti-White, patriotic) than radical Marxist/anarchists in the streets!
Corporations sincere about helping support Black communities must renounce BLM and pursue other routes to sponsor and endorse based on true diversity, equity and inclusion. First, they would practice their commitment to diversity by incorporating various sponsorships with other Black organizations (not just radical Left/Progressive ones). They would acknowledge a commitment to equity by sharing the billions of dollars with non-radical organizations. Lastly, they would embrace inclusion by not relying on a radical Leftist caricature (insinuated for all Blacks), and instead recognize Black communities truly represent a myriad of viewpoints. Neither BLM nor any single entity can satisfy or accommodate the Black community’s divergent preferences and goals. It is racist and demeaning to suggest otherwise. Therefore, corporations must extend partnerships and support for other Black organizations and bypass cowardice to demonstrate strength by canceling alliances that demolish long-standing corporate ethics. Renouncing BLM is the first step.
Every Black Life Matters (EBLM) offers help and support for corporations sincerely looking for opportunities to implement true diversity, equity and inclusion into their partner and alliance programs and portfolios. EBLM calls on corporate officers to reject elitist tropes that portray the Black community as a monolith and collaborate with other organizations to diversify partnerships and positively align with the myriad interests in the Black community. Please stand with us! {eoa}
Author Kevin McGary, president and founder of Every Black Life Matters, is an entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Kevin serves as chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California and is an executive with the Douglass Leadership Institute and the Northstar Leadership PAC. As a professional, Kevin has worked the past 35 years in information technology, specializing in the arenas of cyber-security, enterprise applications, application development automation and enterprise job scheduling/utilities. Kevin leads a collection of proactive individuals committed to developing innovative and new approaches to today’s socio-political issues, and with the assistance of elected officials and a myriad of community activists, he lectures and provides workshops about today’s most perplexing social issues.
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