I have an epiphany. It’s not one of a happy beginning context but the outcome could be a positive one. If the current rampant spread of the #coronavirus continues in the US it could inevitably create herd immunity.
Herd immunity is the result of a large portion of a community (the herd) becoming immune to a disease or virus, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.
Often, a percentage of the population must be capable of getting a disease in order for it to spread. This is called a threshold proportion. If the proportion of the population that is immune to the disease is greater than this threshold, the spread of the disease will decline. This is known as the herd immunity threshold.
According to the experts we are rapidly getting to the point of no return when it comes to controlling the spread of the virus absent a vaccine.
If the virus continues its wildfire like spread the blessing of a vaccine may come in the form of herd immunity.
The protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd by the knee of ex Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin has been all-encompassing for weeks. These protests received a lot of positive responses from corporations, activists groups, some lawmakers, and countless people in America and across the world.
They’ve been highly effective in getting bright spotlight on inequalities, injustices, and Police brutality.
I see a way protests could be even more effective and get almost every business owner in these cities to inadvertently aid in facilitating changes in local laws.
Weekday daytime protests.
Start early before businesses open and protest all day. The clogged streets will starve off traffic to the businesses impacting their revenue. Business owners would be quick to lean on city hall and local lawmakers to address the protested issues and begin a serious path to resolving those issues.
City hall would be more forthcoming and serious about resolving the protested issues because when business revenue drops tax revenue drops.
Day protests would eradicate these milquetoast curfews. Business owners aren’t going to stand for a curfew to further hurt business already slowed to a trickle by protests.
Building damage and looting would be lest likely as looters and window smashers wouldn’t have the cloak of darkness to disappear into.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the organizer of the most effective protests in history protested during the day and often targeted businesses purse strings as leverage to get his protester’s issues addressed.
Protest early that get in folk’s dollars will add additional energy and garner some local power that otherwise would not come from night only protests.
Following weeks of massive protests across the country sparked by the murder of George Floyd some major heavyweights opened their vaults and pulled out major bucks for Black causes.
SoftBank quickly put together a $100m Opportunity Fund that will invest only in companies helmed by people of color.
The VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is giving 2.2m to founders from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds.
Bank of America is committing $1B over the next 4 years to addressing racial and economic inequalities.
Target is investing $10 million to support long‑standing partners like the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum, plus new partners in their hometown and across the country.
Goldman Sachs’ has a fund to back companies fighting for social justice is starting at $10m.
Niantic, Uber, DoorDash, and dozens of other tech companies are all pledging money toward fighting racism.
Wendys pledged $500k to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and other social justice orgs.
Financial assistance is good and always appreciated. It sends the message that big corporations and large VC firms acknowledge there is a big racial problem in this country.
However, financial contributions are a bandage on a still heavily hemorrhaging social wound.
The big impact on racism by big business will come when the color of their upper management and boardrooms become equally diverse. The one-sided tilt in front line and line worker diversity has to be leveled. Compensation has to be equal for everyone regardless of race or gender.
For decades, people of color have been thrown crumbs and leftovers from every American right and opportunity. It’s high time they got a full slice of this American pie Whites have enjoyed all along.
Blacks as a people need more than a one time financial shower.
Blacks are deserving of an equality shower. A shower that’s going to cleanse from their lives, education and employment inequalities, lack of access to proper healthcare, rampant abuse and killings at the hands of law enforcement, and access to affordable housing.
I applaud those corporations for their financial support of small businesses and Black causes.
Now give us a seat at the table and join us in the fight to make some long time wrongs right.
After some of the largest and most effective protests since 1968 we cannot go back to the business of living as usual.
“It’s important that we don’t miss this moment and go back to business as usual” Keisha Lance-Bottoms – Mayor Atlanta Georgia
