In the almost three years since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in broad daylight, many corporations ranging from Target to Amazon have poured in financial support, implemented programs intended to help Black entrepreneurs and embraced Black culture in merchandising. But despite their efforts, some Black people have yet to be swayed by their support.

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“There's been no change,” said LeRon Barton, a Black writer based in San Diego.

 

Many people share the same sentiment as Barton. A national tracking poll from Politico and Morning Consult shows that 54% of its Black respondents believe that 2020 protests may have helped to start meaningful conversations, but have only brought on little change in America when it comes to addressing race relations.

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There are multiple culprits to blame for this distranslation as unhealed historical wounds have fueled a sense of distrust around progress made towards equality, and publicized mistakes from these corporations learning to appease this group as they go, have created a barrier of receptiveness from the Black community.

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Floyd Was Not Our First

Within less than 24 hours of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds before ending his life short, cell phone footage of the incident was shared on Facebook and protests emerged in Minneapolis by the following day. What occurred next was a ripple effect. Protests in support of the cause spanned over 140 cities and in all seven continents around the world.

 

“The case of George Floyd being on camera and being so shocking and disturbing and so widely circulated, it made it harder for people to look away or to accept alternate explanations,” said Nikita Carney, assistant professor of African American studies at Louisiana State University.

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The harsh reality for the Black community is that George Floyd was likely not their first realization of the scope of the police brutality problem within the country. Data from Mapping Police Violence shows that police brutality has taken the lives of over 2,000 Black individuals between 2013 and 2020.

 

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For the past decade, Black people have witnessed police murder Black youth like Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was shot while on his walk home from a convenience store back in 2012. Black people have witnessed police murder Black women such as Kayla Moore, a transgender woman who was killed in her apartment in 2013 after police used their full weight to restrain her as she was having a mental health crisis. And Black people have seen police escalate minor offenses, such as when Sandra Bland, a Texan woman passionate civil rights activist who was arrested for a minor traffic violation and later found dead in her jail cell three days later. 

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The bottom line is that we've seen it all. But it wasn’t until George Floyd’s murder where a number of corporations used their platforms to acknowledge and openly show support for the Black community. However, by then, it was too late. The lack of response in the past decade had become normalized by the community, leaving many skeptical of how long the newfound attention would last.

 

“People like myself have been screaming this and talking about the inequities and the immoral immorality of the system,” said Dr.Lessie Branch, a racial policy scholar and Fulbright specialist in race, ethnicity and religion in politics. “But yeah, nobody was really listening.”

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When the Racial Reckoning Feels Inauthentic

Floyd’s death triggered many emotions within the Black community, as it served as a blunt reminder of the country’s history of mistreatment towards the race.

 

“2020 America really had its racial Reckoning and where it was really paying for the sins of 200 plus years of oppression and slavery and subjugation of Black and Brown communities,” said Vanessa Mbonou, vice president of digital marketing and communications for the NAACP.

 

Because of that, much of the reform that followed Floyd’s death felt contrived with the intention of pacifying the concerns and discontent from the community.

 

Juneteenth – a holiday where over 250,000 slaves in Texas were informed of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation – being recognized on a federal level a year after Floyd’s death, for instance, was a prominent example of this.

 

White America made the decision to finally acknowledge the holiday on a federal level – despite having been celebrated for over 150 years – in 2021 during a time where racial tensions remained high in the country. The Black community continued to mourn deaths like Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, who had been accidently shot by Officer Kimberly Potter during a routine traffic stop less than a twenty minute drive from where Floyd took his last breath.

 

The passing of Juneteenth as a national holiday appeared as White America doing the bare minimum to appease the Black community and an opportunity to steer the conversations surrounding race away from a negative narrative to a more ‘progressive’ one.

 

“All right. So we are giving the appearance of doing something for you so you can stop complaining as it were,” said Branch. “Or stop engaging in this collective protest, which is, you know, making the country look bad.”

 

The perceived insincere nature of this progress led to complications as corporations began to act as allies for the Black community.

 

Many Mistakes Were Made Along the Way

The February following Floyd’s death was met with more mainstream attention than average as a number of corporations continued to show their support for the Black community in a number of ways.

 

“It seemed that a lot of companies started making these additional commitments and made these shifts from what I would call corporate social responsibility to this idea of corporate social justice,” said Shawna Grant, a professor in the Business Management Department at the Borough of Manhattan Community College

 

However, many companies struggled to figure out the right type of support to give or failed to execute the support in a way that appeared authentic to the Black community.

 

Target, for instance, teamed up with Black designers and business owners for their sixth annual Black history month assortment of merchandise. One item within the line in particular caught the attention of a number of people on social media: a black hoodie with lime-green text reading “Eat your greens”.

 

“That is so tacky,” said Barton, adding that the hoodie contributed “nothing substantive” to efforts to celebrate Black culture.

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Hundreds of people took to twitter to voice sentiments that echoe Barton’s, pointing out that the merchandise came off as a performative way to celebrate Black history.

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“It’s a way of sort of showing with very minimal effort on behalf of white folks that they support black folks, but it may or may not do anything to further the movement of Black Lives Matter or the protection and the celebration of Black folks in America,” said Mariah Wellman PHD.

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Walmart received similar criticism the following year as it looked to celebrate Juneteenth with the introduction of its “Celebration Edition: Juneteenth Ice Cream” sold under its private label, Great Value. 

 

“Who asked for that?” said Mbonou. “They talk more than they listen. And that's something that needs to change when you want to be an ally when you want to support.”

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Meaningful Corporate Response Became

Overshadowed

As outrage for these acts of performative action filled social media and mainstream media, impactful work from large corporations became background noise.

 

 While Target caught fire for its Black History collection, the company made many strides in its corporate social response for the Black community. In addition to its $10 million donation to organizations like the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum in 2020 following Floyd’s death, the company made a pledge to spend $2 billion dollars towards increasing Black-owned brands in stores and online in 2021. That same year, the company supported the reopening of the Pensole Lewis, a historically black college that supports aspiring Black designers

 

Similarly, Walmart invested $35 million dollars to its Center for Racial Equity the same year as its Juneteenth ice cream fiasco, giving over $2 million in grants to organizations that support Black-owned businesses. 

 

Other large corporations silently did the same. Amazon launched its Black Business accelerator, an initiative aimed at helping Black business owners grow on the platform through mentorship and financial support, while also testing out a new function that would make it easier for customers to identify Black-owned businesses on its platform. Pepsi has worked to increase its Black representation in managerial positions, pledging to increase this figure to 10% by 2025. Even smaller corporations such as the clothing retailer Forever 21 continued to show support for the Black community, launching their first ever Black History Month collection in 2021.

 

Yet despite putting forth a greater effort and going beyond their initial commitments, these companies have not received credit and the perception that corporations continue to lag in their support continues.

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Moving Forward

While a number of corporations continue to provide updates on their efforts to fight race inequality, there is still work to be done as the Black community has yet to feel satisfied with their efforts.

 

“Some people may say, ‘Well, LeRon, something is better than nothing,” said Barton. “And I get that but  at the end of the day, are we gonna you know actually keep it real and say, ‘Well, this is, this is not really anything.’”

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Despite a few barriers that have contributed to this sentiment of skepticism from the Black community, there are a few ways that corporations can move towards gaining their support.

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Corporations need to maintain this momentum in the corporate social justice space and look towards ways where they can make a more meaningful effort towards progress that spans beyond a tub of ice cream.

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“A backlash comes whenever corporations are having initiatives and programs and pieces that come out that are intentionally focused on ‘how do we make ourselves more money?’ or ’This is a way that we can speak about black history that pushes folks to buy more of our products,’” said Qy'Darrius McEachern, a social justice and antiracism educator.

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McEachern suggests that corporations continue to keep the agenda of fighting racial inequality as a key part of their missions, even when the ‘hype’ of supporting this cause dies down and ask questions like “How are we still pushing back?” and ”How are we still educating people?” 

 

Others like Barton say that corporations need to look inward at racial inequalities that may exist in the demographics of staff, especially in management positions, to be perceived as making a meaningful impact.

 

“How many black folks are in part C-suite positions?” said Barton. “How many black folks are being hired and fired? What's the churn rate?”

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However companies choose to support the Black community, it has to be meaningful and have impact beyond a profitable product.

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"We're not saying go make Black Lives Matter t-shirts," said Mbonou. "We want you to care in a very authentic, substantial and measurable way."