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I Can't Breathe

blog.citigroup.com

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: I Can't Breathe

#41
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A C-level exec needs to pass "multiple layers of bureaucracy" to post a personal note on the company blog? That seems excessive, even for a large corporation. If you can't trust your executive management team to represent the company, what are they good for?

Do you have any idea how PR is managed..

Coming from a University research background for the last 5 years after obtaining my PhD, no I don't. Could you elaborate on this?

What process would this CFO need to go through to share this possibly "contentious" post on one of the world's largest and globally recognised banks' websites?

Re: I Can't Breathe

#42
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK, I’m a little more skeptical of this post. It seems more posturing than actually effecting change. CFOs have other means of doing that, in better ways than a simple blog post. This is no different than the celebrity cause du jour tweet except that it’s coming from a business leader rather than some actor/actress/pop star. Let’s see this CFO use their connections and influence to make things better in real ways.

Agreed. Actions speak louder than words. This (and many other company statements like this) are mostly empty nice feel good words, but merely that. Just like what a populist or demagogue would say/do to appear favorably in the eyes of others... IMO donating to an organization seems weak. It's like outsourcing the problem to someone else, and thinking your helping them because you're giving them money. If you really w…

Strongly disagree with this sentiment. Not everyone has the time, skills, or even the "cred" to get their hands dirty.

Giving money to good causes is never weak. It is an extraordinarily effective tool for those of us who want to help.

An effective legal advocacy or lobby group is a force multiplier - they're hands down the best "bang for your buck" in this situation.

By contrast, me spending a day working with inner city youth or building Habitat for Humanity is laudable or protesting in the streets is at best effective on a much smaller scale.

And secondly, this message is clearly aimed squarely at other well to do concerned citizens like him who are looking for ways to help.

He is effectively vetting these organizations as "acceptable by the CitiGroup C suite." As an example, I forwarded this to my parents who would never "get their hands dirty" but also are open to donating to good causes.

This will reach them in a way no celebrity tweet or protest sign possibly could.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CFOs have other means of doing that, in better ways than a simple blog post. I believe this CFO agrees with you. Most of the "celebrity cause du jour" tweets are just that, tweets. At least at the end of this post he listed groups that he's donating to [1] NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund [2] Advancement Project [3] Color of Change This may not mean much to you, but at least he's claiming to put his money w…

Meh, some of us have been making charitable contributions to (not these exact ones but similar) like charities for years. This just seems a little too convenient and charlatan.

Saying "meh" and declaring virtue signal! to someone donating money or otherwise doing good is the ultimate 21st century turnoff.

Quit being so cynical, it's not healthy.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#44

When it comes to speaking for racial justice and equality for LGBTQ, private corporations have been much more on the side of the angels than the government. The same government that wants to shut down Twitter.

You mean the same corporations that got bailed out by the us tax payer, had billions of dollars of fines, and should have executives in prison for misconduct. Yeah they are the ones we should look up to /s

You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a lot less concerned about white collar crime than I am about a government that systematically targets people who look like me.

But speaking of which, the government is also run by a President who actually quoted a segregationist governor about how to deal with protestors.

As far as crimes, he also was fined for both running a fake charity and a fake “university” and members of Congress basically got away with insider trading pre-Covid.

But your statement kind of demonstrates the problem. Unarmed Black people are getting killed by police and it getting covered up by corrupt government. When I have to worry about my son who has grown up all of his life in the burbs being seen as a threat because he is a big Black guy living in a predominantly White city, I really don’t give a damn about a corrupt CEO compared to a corrupt justice system.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#45
post #2

Pretty bold of Citi to publish something like this. I wish more companies had the balls to do something like this... Not just some "Yay equality!!" Tweet, but a real and specific stance. Kudos.

IDK, I’m a little more skeptical of this post. It seems more posturing than actually effecting change. CFOs have other means of doing that, in better ways than a simple blog post. This is no different than the celebrity cause du jour tweet except that it’s coming from a business leader rather than some actor/actress/pop star. Let’s see this CFO use their connections and influence to make things better in real ways.

Yet and still HN thought it was some type of act of martyrdom when a multi millionaire old enough to retire resigned from Amazon as an act of protest.

Taylor Swift for instance didn’t exactly gain fans among Trump supporters for speaking out against him. What exactly are they suppose to do besides use their platform?

Re: I Can't Breathe

#46
Police stood by and watch someone presumably getting murdered. Aside from also heart condition present, society can't tolerate bullying any longer. Grow some spine, even if they break you.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#47
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do you suggest?

I would hope and can safely assume that they (Citi) have relatively decent community and governmental connections. Leverage those.

I’m sure that the current administration will be willing participants in a forum about police conduct with respect to minorities.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#48

"Despite the progress the United States has made, Black Americans are too often denied basic privileges that others take for granted. I am not talking about the privileges of wealth, education or job opportunities. I'm talking about fundamental human and civil rights and the dignity and respect that comes with them. I'm talking about something as mundane as going for a jog." What progress? This song was written in 19…

What progress?

Seeing that my parents grew up in the segregated south where racism was the law - ie Jim Crow - I wouldn’t say there is no progress. Also redlining was the law.

While the criminal justice system is just as corrupt as it ever was. It isn’t getting worse - it’s getting filmed.

Technologically, this is 2020. Sociologically this might as well be 1966.

Did you or your parents grow up in the 60s? Have they told you what life was like then?

Re: I Can't Breathe

#49

I wish he'd gone a little further in condemning the rioting. It would have been the courageous thing to do. The rioting is a mistake. It will not change hearts and minds. It will not undo the problems endemic to police forces. In fact, it may very well exacerbate them. The problematic archetype is the bigoted cop who's drunk with power and behaves more like an animal operating on instinct than a thinking human. These…

How did that whole peacefully kneeling thing work out?

But yes rioting does change things. It forces people to pay attention.

Increased surveillance of political organizers and low-income neighborhoods, more military weaponry at their disposal, laxer guidelines around 'use of force'.

Because those types of things never happened in during the peaceful marches in the 60s...

We need to use the system of governance we have at our disposal to try and fix this. It's the harder but also only truly effective means of recourse society has at its disposal.

We don’t have that system at our disposal when the majority prioritizes the life of a fetus (or for that matter a dog) over the life of minorities.

Re: I Can't Breathe

#50
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From reports across the country, it's definitely unclear who is responsible for most of the rioting. Some people are clearly outsiders, provocateurs. In other places, it's clear that the cops are the ones escalating and provoking. There's a fair bit of evidence that protest organizers worked hard to stop rioting. Moreover, I think focusing too much on the property destruction is missing the point. As MLK says, "Riot…

I never said violent revolution isn't a possibly effective means of enacting political change. History in fact demonstrates that quite vividly. But violent revolution is also not, in the aggregate, a net benefit in the immediate term. Not even for black people. Believing otherwise represents a failure to anticipate 2nd/3rd order consequences and beyond. In the best case, you might experience a lot of suffering today…

We've been here before, many times (e.g. Rodney King). It doesn't work.

It caused an overhaul of the LAPD. Do you really think the Bush administration would have charged the cops otherwise?

The flaw in MLK's logic and the reason that black people still encounter systemic mistreatment 60 years later is that it fails to account for economic conditions

The Poor People’s Campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_People%27s_Campaign

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