Our hearts are heavy with the events of the past weeks.
As citizens, we applaud and stand in solidarity with all Americans exercising their civil liberties and risking their lives and livelihoods for a more just and inclusive nation. We know that our democracy will never be strong until we fully acknowledge and address America’s history of racism.
As business people, we see a great need—and opportunity—for the business community to mobilize on issues of economic, social, and racial justice in new, innovative and evidence-based ways.
We have seen heartfelt expressions of anguish and disgust from chief executives across Wall Street and corporate America. They acknowledge the senseless loss of life we have witnessed in recent weeks, not from the Covid-19 pandemic, but from this nation’s other deadly infectious disease: racism.
We applaud these statements, and do not doubt their sincerity. But virtuous condemnations of racism and broad commitments to diversity and inclusion rarely translate into tangible, measurable, anti-racist action.
Real change will require determined leadership from the business community.
To that end, the co-authors of this letter, whose members represent the highest levels of management at dozens of U.S-based companies contributing billions of dollars to the nation’s GDP, have devised a list of concrete actions that companies can take now to begin to dismantle three of the biggest levers of racist power in this country: biased policing, electoral disenfranchisement, and economic exclusion.
Policing
The roots of American policing did not evolve around the promotion of public health and safety, but the protection of business and economic interests, and enforcement of the social order.
The fact that Dylan Roof, a white supremacist and mass murderer of eight black churchgoers, can be taken peacefully into police custody, while Eric Garner and George Floyd lost their lives for allegedly selling loose cigarettes and using a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store, speaks to vestiges of norms and culture forged during slavery and Jim Crow. It is a system that too often devalues, criminalizes, threatens and, at its worst, ends innocent black lives.
We simply cannot allow another generation of black children to grow up in a nation where law enforcement can kill with near impunity.
We pledge to champion and drive meaningful progress across these actions:
Financially support data-informed police reform. Our members are making donations to the Center for Policing Equity, The Policing Project, and the Police Use of Force Project, three organizations with superb data and evidence-based approaches to racially-just policing.
Compel mayors and city legislators to make police reform a priority in cities where you have a significant presence. This public safety advocacy toolkit from the Obama Foundation offers an excellent place to get started.
Re-evaluate your company’s political donations. Scrutinize your company’s political donations to ensure the candidates and other political entities you support are not inadvertently (or intentionally) preventing progress on policing reform initiatives.
Civic Participation & Safe Ballot Access
Voter suppression is another form of systemic racism. We must take a stand to ensure ballot-box access to communities of color and to protect their right to vote.
We pledge to champion and drive meaningful progress across these actions:
Donate to organizations that protect voter rights, for example the NAACP and Black Voters Matter, that work specifically within the black community.
Publicly advocate for action at the state and local level, including access to early voting, vote-by-mail, and other efforts to ensure that your employees of all backgrounds can vote easily and safely, particularly amidst the ongoing Covid-19 public health crisis.
Economic Inclusion
Racism is a blight not only on the prospects of individuals and communities, but on the American economy as a whole. And the massive job losses caused by the current pandemic have hit Black communities especially hard. The economy we rebuild post-Covid must be an inclusive one.
We pledge to champion and drive meaningful progress across these actions:
Develop anti-racist workplace initiatives and track their progress. At a minimum, every organization should commit to inclusive hiring and retention practices; living wages and pay equity; board and supplier diversity; and anti-racist training for staff, especially frontline employees.
Establish talent sourcing partnerships with job training programs serving black communities. Work with established nonprofits successfully reskilling and upskilling workers in minority communities for in-demand jobs.
Direct more investment capital to black entrepreneurs, black-owned small businesses, and black fund managers.
These are just a few strands of a much broader and complex set of institutional challenges. A truly just and inclusive society will require innovative and equitable solutions to so much more: education, healthcare, and housing, to name a few.
But the initiatives above are an important start.
Signed,
The membership of the Leadership Now Project
Leadership Now Project was founded by Harvard Business School alumni in 2017. Several black executive and Leadership Now members led this effort, including Craig Robinson, Lisa Lewin, and Tamer Mokhtar, and welcome partnership and engagement in this initiative.
