Major Corporations and VC investors Are Giving Big In The Backlash Against Racism

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

We deserve a whole piece of pie in every context.

How To Get From Great Dad To Super Dad

I am a man.

1. Put your children’s  interests first, always.

If you have some habits that are not conducive to your good health, continuing to engage in them is not in the best interest of your children.
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2. Protect Your Family

This in one of the main responsibilities of being a Dad. Start with safety.

Teach them good safety habits, and set a good example by using your seatbelt, school them on respecting fire and water, and the perils of drug and alcohol.

Protect them financially by obtaining and maintaining health and dental benefits. Never hand Mom out to dry.

3. Spend Ample Time With Your Children

We all come home from work tired and looking to relax. And no one expects you to head  out to the backyard or park for a game of touch football or hide and seek.

But you can have dinner together and discuss their day.

Or watch a family TV show together.

Ask to see or help them with homework.

Or just have talk hour. Be sure and tell them about your day (kids find some of the mundane characters and situations you encounter amusing). Make Thursday night Pizza night (Mom will love this too) Have pizza delivered, pop in a movie and enjoy. Even better go out for pizza….if it’s nice weather and the restaurant is close, walk together.

If you are not in the same household, you can still have quality time outside of the prearranged visits.

From 12 Years A Slave – How A Black Man Might Survive A Traffic Stop

“If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible.” 

– Clemens – 12 Years A Slave

If White People Love Drugs So Much, Why are the Prisons Full of Blacks? | Black Agenda Report

It is now commonly recognized that white people do more drugs than Blacks and Hispanics, but go to jail for it far less often.

White kids also smoke and drink more than Black kids, which most people would assume should correlate with youthful rebellion or rowdiness, but it’s the Black kids that are expelled from school at far higher rates than those hard smoking, booze-swilling whites.

What the numbers are telling us is that the way Black people actually behave is not nearly as important as the way the state intervenes in Black people’s lives.

Crime statistics do not measure actual crime; they measure arrests and convictions. In that sense, crime statistics are actually measurements of the activities of police, prosecutors, and judges; Black people are simply the objects that are being acted upon, by the criminal justice system.

Source: If White People Love Drugs So Much, Why are the Prisons Full of Blacks? | Black Agenda Report

How Menthol, Malt Liquor, and Black Folks Became Entwined — The GeoGee Experience Magazine — Medium

 

Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

Menthol cigarettes, Malt Liquor, and Blacks are are as a likely trio of bedfellows as a spoon, ice cream, and cake. It’s not a stereotypical observation or race bated observation- it is what it is.

 

Ask the average Black smoker what type cigarettes they smoke and they’ll reveal something of the menthol persuasion. You’ll find a lot of Newport, Kool, and Salem smokers in that lot.Roughly 42% of black adults smoke Newport while 84% of young African Americans smoke that brand as well.

Source: How Menthol, Malt Liquor, and Black Folks Became Entwined — The GeoGee Experience Magazine — Medium