Wall Street banks and corporate executives have wasted no time trying to establish themselves as allies of the Black Lives Matter movement, professing support for the historic protests against police killings of Black people.
But when you peel back their PR stunts and press
releases, the truth comes into focus: far from being the solution to
systemic racism in America, these billionaires and their corporations
are actively perpetuating it.
Consider Jamie Dimon, billionaire
CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who recently took a knee before a lineup of
cameras at a branch of his bank. In a statement, Dimon urged his
employees to “be inclusive in our work and in the neighborhoods where we
operate.”
Let’s take a look at that inclusivity, shall we? In
2017, the bank paid $55 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit
accusing it of discriminating against Black and Latino mortgage
borrowers — causing some 53,000 borrowers tens of millions of dollars in
damages. According to the lawsuit, even when the bank knew about the
discrimination, they did nothing to stop it.
When it’s not
discriminating against its customers, JPMorgan Chase is excluding Black
people from its upper echelons of management. Just 4 percent of the
bank’s top executives are Black, despite years of bragging about
increasing diversity. Under Dimon, the bank also agreed to pay $19.5
million in a settlement for racial discrimination against Black
employees in 2018.
It’s not just Chase. Larry Fink, CEO of the
giant investment firm BlackRock, recently wrote a letter to colleagues
opining that “These [racist] events are symptoms of a deep and
longstanding problem in our society and must be addressed on both a
personal and systemic level.”
That’s rich, considering BlackRock
is one of the largest investors in the notorious private prison
companies, GEO Group and CoreCivic. If Larry Fink was serious about
addressing structural racism, he would stop BlackRock’s investment in an
industry that disproportionately incarcerates and terrorizes Black and
brown men.
It doesn’t end there. Wall Street even manages to
profit off police brutality. Cities often issue municipal bonds to cover
the costs of settlements related to wrongful police shootings,
beatings, and imprisonments. These so-called “police brutality bonds”
have earned banks and investors more than a billion dollars in profits
in recent years. As if this weren’t egregious enough, banks – including
Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America – collect heavy fees on
these bonds. Of course, this hasn’t stopped them from rolling out empty
statements declaring “Black Lives Matter”.
Hypocrisy isn’t
limited to Wall Street. Amazon has pledged to fight systemic racism but
refuses to provide paid sick-leave to all warehouse and delivery
workers, the majority of whom are people of color.
Walmart, the nation’s largest corporate employer of Black Americans, recently announced that it would create a center on racial equality, but has overworked and mistreated its Black employees for decades. The company also donates to Republican politicians, including Senator Tom Cotton who openly called for the military to crack down on predominantly Black protestors.
Similarly, AT&T, whose CEO called on companies to
speak out against racism, has donated to Senator Rand Paul, who stalled
legislation to make lynching a federal hate crime.
Many CEOs
also fight against instituting a living wage and universal basic income,
two policies that would lift more Black Americans out of economic
oppression.
And the very banks plastering Black Lives Matter
banners on their websites not only oppose tighter regulations against
red-lining, they also have provided $5.5 billion in credit to the payday
lending industry. Of course, both redlining and payday lending
disproportionately hurt Black and brown communities.
Don’t be
fooled by glitzy press releases and flashy PR stunts. Wall Street and
corporations profit from and reinforce systemic racism in America.
We
have the power — as their consumers, clients, and employees — to demand
these companies and their CEOs stop their racist practices. It’s time
they back up their lofty rhetoric with fundamental change.
Raise your voices, and stay vigilant.
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