Business Leaders Need To Step Up...Because George Floyd Could Have Been Me - Part 2
So going to work a bit awkward because, I might be 1 of 2 African American males at work. I really didn't want people asking me how I felt about the situation. But then I had a dialogue with my boss about things. Then I had a dialogue about things with one of my colleagues and every day, we have been talking about the case, riots, etc. But I can't expect people to really understand because they aren't in my skin.
Between Amy Cooper’s Oscar worthy Central Park performance, Ahmaud Arbery shooting death in Georgia, Breonna Taylor’s assassination inside her Louisville home, and the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd, black people in America are running on fumes.
We’re tired, angry, confused and yet, this space is familiar to us. This place of torment and trauma has become a home of sorts. The cycle begins in the far corners of Twitter with rumblings of a killing. Then a recording of the victim’s last moments pop up and shortly after, we finally learn the person’s name.
A new name to add to a growing list no one wants to be part of.
Sparks of outrage, disgust and bewilderment soon follow. Maybe a protest happens, and in the case of Floyd, uprisings. Men and women ballooned with righteous anger take to the streets to make their presence known; to scorch earth and shout from the pits of their belly to the top of their lungs that their lives matter. Whether the powers that be hear or acknowledge their chants is one thing, but it’s the community formed by the injustice of another black death that acts as a temporary solve.
But if we want to heal as a country, it begins with a dialogue such as the dialogues like I have been having at work. And it take everyone and all sides to be proactive in that awkward dialogue. Take for example the recent dialogue the CEO of American Airline had with a African American stewardess on Southwest Airlines.
Doug Parker, the CEO of American Airlines had to get to Panama City in Florida,b all the seats on his own company airline were booked. So he had to resort to a flight on Southwest Airlines. As he was boarding the plane, Southwest employee, JacqueRae Hill, noticed a book titled, White Fragility in his hand. Toward the end of the flight JacqueRae sat down next to him and asked what the book was about. Doug told JacqueRae that the book was about how white people are horrible at talking about racism and that what is needed is to talk about it. Once Doug and JacqueRae went their separate ways, Doug later told his executive about the encounter and told them he felt very uninformed about the topic was it was a special moment.
And thats what it's about, not the rioting and looting that's taking place taking away from the peace protests. Protests that is happening around the world. I came across an article talking about the stealing and looting in the US will cost $10 billion. But the cost really is a lot more than that. You have business owners who may not want to rebuild in those communities. You have people who may not want to live in those communities. You have the inevitable cases of COVID-19 that are going to spike because half the people protesting or looting aren't wearing mask. You have the delayed opening of local economies around the country due to all the damage to storefront and stolen inventory.
And despite all the madness taking place, the equity markets continue to go higher. Jim Cramer put it best and I'm paraphrasing here...many people want the market to go down because of the rioting and looting, but the Markets don't work that way, nobody is investing to make the world a better place.
Today, the Nasdaq-100 made an intra-day all time high. Speaking of technology, Steve Wozniak, inventor of the first personal computer said, "our de-facto, denied even, racism keeps many ethic groups in deep poverty. There may not be a lot tech can do." He later went on to say technology is just a tool used to get what we want.
But what if everyone just started with sparking a conversation about the topic, just like I intended not to do at work, but did when it was all said and done.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
Posted Using LeoFinance