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Speaking Up on Racism

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21–30 of 46 posts

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#21
post #6

Am I the only one who's tired of these statements from corporations? I guess they're a relatively positive thing, but they feel so hollow. I got one from DoorDash yesterday, and it's tough not to roll my eyes at a company that has worked so hard to screw their drivers, many of whom are minorities, talk about how a food delivery service is fighting racism.

You can also see how hollow it is by how little they have at stake in their statements. Hong Kong has it much worse than the US protesters, where is Apple's statement on that? Once Apple puts their iPhone factories at risk then I'll start respecting their statements.

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#22
I understand that Apple is a brand first and foremost, so it's no surprise that they're going to release token PR efforts and publicize their tax shelter non-profits.

I also understand that activists, if they actually knew of the severity of working conditions in the Foxconn factories in Shenzen or the child slaves working in illegal cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to power their smartphones and laptops, they'd stop buying Apple products immediately, full stop.

It's a tragedy to me that a video taken by a smartphone, the privileged end product of the slavery, dehumanization, and political repression of hundreds of thousands outside the West takes precedence over those same anonymous sacrificial lives--anonymous only because they don't live in the West where recording and spreading evidence of violence is trivial.

Here's a tangential fact that should chill every human alive to the bone: George Bush, his administration, and the instruments of his war machine still walk free, without charges, after launching a foreign war of aggression that killed directly and indirectly hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, legitimated torture, indefinite detentions, and drone strikes.

The Patriot Act and the lead-up to the War in Iraq led directly to ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, the militarization of the police, the rejection of the sacrosanctness of civil rights, and the total unaccountability of public officials to the media. Alternate Facts and Fake News began in 2002 with the lies of WMDs in Iraq.

Where is the rioting, the UN pressure, the international protests for charges to be brought against George Bush, the single most responsible individual outside of Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers for the death of George Floyd and hundreds of thousands of others?

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#25

To save people time, this is the percent of people in leadership positions at Apple (from https://www.apple.com/diversity/ , 2018): 63% White 26% Asian 3% Black 7% Hispanic 1% Multiracial 0% Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander

Not good enough.

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#26
post #25

To save people time, this is the percent of people in leadership positions at Apple (from https://www.apple.com/diversity/ , 2018): 63% White 26% Asian 3% Black 7% Hispanic 1% Multiracial 0% Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander

Not good enough.

How should it look like according to you to be good?

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#27
post #6

Am I the only one who's tired of these statements from corporations? I guess they're a relatively positive thing, but they feel so hollow. I got one from DoorDash yesterday, and it's tough not to roll my eyes at a company that has worked so hard to screw their drivers, many of whom are minorities, talk about how a food delivery service is fighting racism.

No, but that's because I've worked on a team that has crafted these statements before (and then we emailed them out as the CEO). Our statements would get passed around in a Google doc to about 5 different people who would distill it down to platitudes that ended up sounding right, but soulless.

With a social media team, no one is going to stick their necks out and take a strong stance because it'll never get approved. Also you are speaking as a corporation which is a collection of people, so you wind up hitting the lowest common denominator of stances on social issues. But you have to do something because your competitors are doing something. Also, your employees may be asking for you to put out a statement on an issue. So these things get born.

At the end of the day you should just remember that corporations are not people, even when it looks like a single person is talking. I'll stop there before I start going on a tangent.

Also for what it's worth, I thought DoorDash's response was fairly decent because there was substance to it. But I do agree that you can't take their statements in a vacuum and it's easy to see that it's just platitudes based on their crummy employment and business model.

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#29
post #27
post #6

Am I the only one who's tired of these statements from corporations? I guess they're a relatively positive thing, but they feel so hollow. I got one from DoorDash yesterday, and it's tough not to roll my eyes at a company that has worked so hard to screw their drivers, many of whom are minorities, talk about how a food delivery service is fighting racism.

No, but that's because I've worked on a team that has crafted these statements before (and then we emailed them out as the CEO). Our statements would get passed around in a Google doc to about 5 different people who would distill it down to platitudes that ended up sounding right, but soulless. With a social media team, no one is going to stick their necks out and take a strong stance because it'll never get approved…

Okay, but then I guess my question is what's the point? If everybody knows it's a soulless statement, why make it at all? It just doesn't seem like this contributes anything to the discourse at all.

I would actually respect a company like Apple putting out a statement that just says, "We're almost entire white guys, so we're not really qualified to say anything meaningful here. We support this movement and are making a donation of $X to Y charity, and beyond that we're going to be quiet and listen."

Re: Speaking Up on Racism

#30
I've seen a lot of people comment about their employers in different forums that they are upset that the employer did not make any statement at all about the current situation

I'd like to ask you folks on what you guys think and feel about employers deciding to make statements or not make statements at all

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