Jasmine J. Ortiz is a realtor with Gallagher Real Estate Co., and will be the team leader for its new Worcester office opening in June. Reach her at jasmine@gogallagher.com.
June 18, 2020
Advice
Doing business in the times of Black Lives Matter movement
By Jasmine Ortiz
For almost a month now, the country has seen unprecedented nation-wide rallies, silent vigils, prayer ceremonies, pow-wows, and protests, on behalf the slayed George Floyd and the countless other black and brown men and women he represents who have been killed at the hands of on-duty policemen. The incident recorded on video was horrific and traumatizing to watch for many Americans across the country, and moved many to go to their town squares, streets and city halls to demand for justice.
This larger racial justice movement has been in development for many years, and as a business community, corporations large and small are asking themselves important questions: Have we as a company done our best to be more equitable and diverse? Can we as business owners and corporate executives push the needle forward to increase more opportunities for our employees or executives of color? Or are we supporting black and brown business owners in our purchase orders? Are our corporate boards representative of the consumers and populations we serve?
The resounding answers have been a strong no; large and small corporations are now being forced to look within themselves and analyze everything from their pay structures, their purchase orders, board member accountability, advertising, etc., with a resounding, “We can do and should do better” moment.
Large corporations like Ohio health product maker Proctor & Gamble have used their advertising dollars to promote an anti-bias campaign around commercials speaking about “The Talk,” and “The Look,” which address racial profiling and bias in our daily lives not one as black and brown people, but most importantly as white American’s unconscious bias towards people of color, in general. This is quite bold and fascinating to me, and I am marveled at the fact they took the lead here. Kudos to them.
Even more importantly, P&G is not the only other large corporation making pledges to diversify their products, corporate boards, and the like. For instance, LVMH, the luxury brand company giving us Louis Vuitton bags, luxury brand perfumes and makeup from Sephora, and countless other brands, has made a pledge, specifically for its’ branch at Sephora stores to support beauty brands created by black and brown founders at the same ratio of our current national population for black Americans, which is 13.4%. This means LVMH has pledged to support and shelve 13.4% of its product lines by founders of color.
These are concrete initiatives to move the needle in the business space; but I believe one of the most significant moves I have seen is when one of Reddit Co-Founder and board member, Alexis Ohanian, himself a son of an undocumented immigrant and an advocate for paid family leave, stepped down from his own company board, and mandated a black business leader replace his board seat.
Locally, we have a long way to go, as I sit here writing for our business community; I think of all the bank partners and real estate businesses and companies without one single person of color on their boards of directors, their corporate boards, or even their company advising structure. It is a failure to have community initiatives, and yet, the power has not shifted in who is having an equitable stake in doing business. At many times, these companies will support community initiatives as donation moments, or philanthropic photo-opts, but not as concrete shifts of power: Even having a woman on a bank corporate board is quite striking these days, as many are not there, or maybe one candidate. There is this pitfall created of the token person of color on a board, why only one? If there is a board of 12 individuals, can you have three at least? See, it is not only about diversity, but it is also about equity.
And equity is how in the business world we discuss numbers, and tracking the numbers is what makes economic justice possible. In this present moment, this is what we should strive to be as business leaders, vehicles of economic justice and advocates for equity, not only because it is good business practices, where we all benefit: consumer, society, shareholders, but because it is the right thing to do.
WBJ Web Partners
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