Across the country many people are taking a stand against systemic racism some companies say they are too [Music] but are companies serious about change or just saving face with customers let’s take a closer look at one business that has angered its fan base the nfl 59 of nfl players are black but when it came time to take a stand in the wake of george floyd’s death well just listen much more to do as a country and as a league [Music] need for action systemic issues it makes no mention of anti-black racism or police brutality no affirmation that black lives matter and the response was well just what you’d expect how many times do we need to ask you to listen to your players of course it’s not the first time the nfl has fumbled issues of race colin kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem back in 2016 and he hasn’t found a job in the nfl ever since you have a number of owners in the league that support donald trump they wanted the story to go away they wanted colin kaepernick to go away and it was just much easier to them to sacrifice his career and his dream of maintaining a professional football career than it was to deal with ugly issues that they don’t want any part of with police brutality once again front and center the nfl was taking yet another passive stance on an issue affecting the majority of its players but after taking a lot of heat the nfl changed its tune we the national football league admit we were wrong for not listening to nfl players earlier the nfl has no place in this conversation at all the nfl has very dirty hands you have three black head coaches you have two black general managers you’ve ruined a man’s career for standing out against these issues you claim to have always stood against so what’s really changed both for the nfl and the many other companies who stayed silent on issues of racism before i think a lot of these brands are very motivated from a financial standpoint to show that they’re engaged in black issues if they want to continue to have any level of connection with black consumers they’re going to have to at least fake pretend that they care about these issues in order not to be considered an enemy of the community one thing that is different now the power of social media brands want to reach customers on a more personal level with ads that fit seamlessly into your news feed just like posts your friends would share plus everyone can have a voice and a platform to demand change according to a survey in late 2018 62 percent of consumers globally want to buy from companies that stand up for the same issues they are passionate about but of course those values aren’t uniform so companies have had to walk a fine line taking a stand for some while not alienating others right now corporations need to actively definitively say what side they’re on it’s not that hard to do if you stand against racism say that if you stand for black lives mattering say black lives matter it’s not a dirty word and if you feel like that it’s going to piss off your customer base then you got the wrong base anyway and now some consumers are demanding more than just a statement and a one-time donation to a cause this is not just about putting out a statement or having a meeting about diversity or doing sensitivity training like it’s got to be an around-the-clock practice and there’s just a lot of corporations that just frankly aren’t really built for that you find that a lot of places are interested in black faces and not necessarily black voices you can have a bunch of black people that work in your newsroom or work at your network or wherever you are in corporate america but if none of them feel empowered to actually get you to change your culture then it’s going to stay the same and while the statements themselves may not do much they can open the door to bigger change let’s go back to adidas airbnb and l’oreal they were all taken to task on social media for their statements and since then those brands have released bigger plans and some new steps to fight racism i think the statements do nothing but i do think what is happening in conjunction with the statements is that people are demanding a higher bar so you can’t write black lives matter and then show us a corporate organizational chart where it’s only white people because clearly they don’t in your building the statement gives people a receipt once that receipt is shown then people start asking questions and hopefully real change occurs as a result
