Corporate Accountability
By Jessica Pierotti
Politically, I am not moderate. I am not in the “reform” camp; I am in the “abolish” camp. In many cases, I’m even in the “let it burn” camp. Potentially in contradiction to this, I am also an advocate for trying literally every tool, in every space possible, to induce movement forward. I love the multi-prong approach to taking action. With folks fighting on the streets and fighting from their couches, there is a lot of work being done everywhere!
One of the things I have been focusing on lately is voting with my dollar. It can be disheartening to do research and find so many different skeletons inside the closets of companies you support - from sexual assault cases, to blatant racism, to the use of prison labor to produce products. But we cannot let perfect get in the way of good. Until we bring down basically every corporation and vote almost every politician out of office, we will have to swallow injustices like pumping gas at Shell, or communicating through Instagram/Facebook. That does not negate the impact of even one dollar being spent at the local farmer’s market versus Whole Foods/Amazon. Even the impact of removing yourself from Facebook though you might continue to use Instagram is progress. If you give them less money/data, you give them less power. For businesses that fall somewhere on the spectrum, we can push for more concrete actions such as discontinuing certain products, firing certain individuals, or making immediate cash donations to vetted organizations fighting for justice and equality.
The data represented here argues that standing up for civil rights issues is basically a win-win for businesses. This is from mid-2018 and has surely shifted further since. Source: Axios
I also really love pushing for corporate accountability as an action because you can focus on a niche that gets you personally excited. Do you love craft beer? Great! What BIPOC companies can you support? What are the labor and political practices of the industry’s biggest market shareholders? Or maybe you have a passion for a specific cause, like equitable and high-quality education. Who is on your bank statement that could influence change in that realm? What is Samsung or Microsoft doing to give young people access to technology? With a little research, you get to merge your passions with your politics and influence change!
Too many years have been spent thinking that there is no way to change the systems around us. I will admit to sometimes letting cynicism take the wheel, but we have seen proof daily that public pressure WORKS! Protests and emails and boycotts WORK! I have been monitoring the response to the Black Lives Matter movement, from local restaurants to top corporations, unfold over the last two weeks.These businesses are literally opening their wallets further and further in response to the rage and sheer numbers of the movement. If we work together, we have the capacity to influence a level of change many of us never could have imagined possible.
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There are obviously way too many companies to research and way too much material about each one to be comprehensive. I have focused here on some businesses from my latest credit card statement or platforms such as Instagram that I am using regularly. Who am I supporting with my dollars right now? How do they rate against each other? In addition, I have also included some basic language for emailing and for commenting on social media that can be tweaked for different companies.
If a company is rated “Troll ASAP” I am suggesting you go hit up their inbox and social media channels to put pressure on them to change policies, admit fault, and PAY UP! If there is a “Prison Labor Alert” it means they have been listed as such, but there is a lot of misinformation and intentionally obscured information regarding this. So please take that into consideration before potentially spreading outdated or inaccurate information. I am encouraging well-informed, fact-based adult trolling, not chaos.
This is a cursory investigation into each of these companies. I did my best, but please DO follow-up research and check back on their actions since the posting of this. Things are changing quickly!
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Shell Gasoline
U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. I mean, it’s an oil company, so a little research brings up major environmental violations throughout their existence. It seems BP & Shell are slightly less terrible than Exxon and Chevron regarding climate issues. Check out This Vice Motherboard Piece summarizing The Union of Concerned Scientists’ “Climate Accountability Scorecard.”
No public statement regarding BLM. Consistent, large donors to political campaigns on both sides.
Rating: Necessary evil, but feel free to troll on social in order to get a donation out of them. Prison Labor Alert.
Pet Supplies Plus
Founded in 1988 in Redford, MI. Owned by private equity firm, Sentinel Capital Partners. Founders consistently donate to Republican candidates.
No action taken to publicly address protests or movement against police brutality. They are full on ignoring all comments and trying to escape without taking a stance.
Rating: Troll ASAP
Trader Joe’s
Owned by Aldi - bought in 1979. Operates pretty independently it appears, but at the end of the day the money goes up the chain. Much more progressive than ALDI. They claim that 100% of unsold but safe products go to local food banks (in 2019, $384M in product was donated.)
TJ’s has made a public statement, without any concrete actions listed. They are being very publicly pressured on Instagram. It will be interesting to see if they come around with a cash donation. There have been issues with worker support during COVID, and a long term fight for a workers union that has been suppressed by the company. There’s a recent claim of an employee being sent home due to a BLM mask, and a Seattle store that has remained closed after the staff collectively chose to attend a protest. The company is claiming that they are just doing renovations on that location. Check out the TJ’s Store 130 petition.
Aldi
German company with 11,234 locations. There’s some environmental advocacy with a push for low-waste packaging and organic products.Their UK operations are “carbon neutral.” Employees’ starting pay rate is higher than minimum wage in the U.S., and benefits kick-in after 25 hrs/week. NO public statement on BLM protests.
Rating: Troll ASAP
Apple
Long time labor issues. Tech in general is exceedingly white. They do have a nice page with transparency on their diversity stats, even if the growth is slow and low.
Initially just public support of the movement via a good statement. Donation claimed, “to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative” but no cash amount listed publicly.
On June 11th Tim Cook, CEO, announced Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative with a $100 million commitment. He has been very outspoken on his personal Twitter. Although I remain skeptical, he makes a solid statement. It’s worth watching. This project will be overseen by Lisa P. Jackson, who was Obama’s EPA Administrator and now works at Apple as their Vice President of environment, policy, and social initiatives.
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying tech initiatives internally and externally; privacy issues and data mining; as well as quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Instagram (Facebook)
Facebook is recently in trouble over his passive/accommodating stance to Trump's authoritarian language. They’re generally notorious for doing little to respond to or fight against data mining (aka, complicit if not participating,) privacy violations, fake accounts, misinformation etc. Definitely watch The Great Hack. In my experience even the reporting procedure for issues on Instagram are toothless and slow in comparison to Twitter. Facebook/Instagram are the most cavalier about running political ads as Zuckerberg states, "Our policy is that we do not fact-check politicians' speech, and the reason for that is that we believe that in a democracy, it is important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying.”
Most recently these paid ads by Trump have been circulating, which seem so beyond unethical to host on a public platform or profit from. Read more here.
This is on the “Team Trump” page which is the official Trump Campaign Facebook page
The text has appeared in a few different iterations as paid targeted advertisements.
Facebook received early investment by the terrifying Peter Thiel, who held 10% of the company and made over a billion dollars selling his shares. He still sits on the Facebook board. The company has major diversity issues, with less than 10% Black and Latinx employees. Zuckerberg posted a long-winded statement on Facebook that focuses more on voting and censorship than addressing his white privilege, discrimination within tech, or concrete action to support the movement. He does not state support for protestors.
Instagram’s home account has had several decent posts with the #shareblackstories hashtag and a statement in support of protestors and BLM. Facebook pledged $10 million to an unnamed organization.
Rating: Necessary evil, currently. Zuckerberg is a lost cause. Get off Facebook! Long-term, we should dismantle it.
Finally pushed back against Trump’s horrific use of the platform, but critics say it’s too little too late. It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds. Twitter and sibling company Square announced they will make Juneteenth a company holiday. Founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey previously donated $1 Billion (28% of his wealth) to fund Coronavirus research and stated, “After we disarm this pandemic, the focus will shift to girl’s health and education, and UBI [Universal Basic Income].” You can track the money here. I love transparency! The company discontinued donations to political campaigns in 2018, but it is unclear on whether that goes for Dorsey as well. Twitter banned all political advertising globally in the fall of 2019.
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying tech initiatives internally and externally; privacy issues and data mining; as well as quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Google
Open support of BLM. In a June 3rd statement from CEO Sundar Pichai, "$12M in funding to organizations working to address racial inequities. Our first grants of $1M each will go to our long-term partners at the Center for Policing Equity and the Equal Justice Initiative. And we’ll be providing technical support through our Google.org Fellows program. This builds on the $32M we have donated to racial justice over the past five years. We’ll also offer $25M in Ad Grants to help organizations fighting racial injustice provide critical information. As a result of last week’s internal giving campaign, I‘m pleased to share that you all have contributed an additional $2.5M in donations that we’re matching.”
Google supposedly put in place stricter rules around political ad targeting in the fall of 2019, but still allows them on their platform.
On June 17th a more comprehensive statement was released, “announcing a $175 million+ economic opportunity package to support Black business owners, startup founders, job seekers and developers, in addition to YouTube’s $100 million fund to amplify Black creators and artists.”
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying tech initiatives internally and externally; privacy issues and data mining; as well as quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Comcast
Parent company of Xfinity, NBCUniversal, and Sky Group. CEO Brian Roberts is a consistent Democratic donor. There are many employee working condition complaints. The company has lobbied state governments ”... to pass legislation restricting or banning individual cities from offering public broadband service. Municipal broadband restrictions of varying scope have been passed in a total of 20 U.S. States.” Wiki
Public statement and $100M commitment to “Comprehensive, multi year plan focused on social justice, our employees, awareness & education, digital equity and small businesses."
Rating: Necessary evil. One of many corporations that has too many holdings within media and media distribution, which gives them an outsized impact on the media and political landscape. Long-term, we should dismantle it.
Venmo
Owned by PayPal. There was an attempt by conservatives to boycott PayPal in 2015 because of their work and support of the Southern Poverty Law Center to ban racist organization accounts. Peter Thiel was one of the founders of PayPal and worked as the CEO from about 2000-2002. Peter is a billionaire entrepreneur with his influence and money woven through a huge portion of big tech. He gave $1.25M to the 2016 Trump campaign, and his influence on politics, business and culture is outsized and disturbing. His current involvement with Paypal and other businesses that have received investments from him in the past is unclear, but there has been some recent pressure for anyone with past ties to Thiel to disentangle themselves from him and his many arms of investment. He’s also a racist and a rape apologist, though he has recinded those statements after public pressure.
Initial $500K donation and a good public statement. As of June 11 moved to $530M (yep, five hundred and thirty million) with a decently detailed plan for distribution and a 2-to-1 Employee donation match.
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying tech initiatives internally and externally; privacy issues and data mining; as well as quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Netflix
Tweeted "To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up." They added BLM as a permanent TV and Movie genre.
As of June 15th 5M to black nonprofits for creators with a 2-to-1 employee donation match.
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying initiatives internally and within content produced and quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Hulu
Owned by Walt Disney Corp. Public statement in support. Definitely making an effort to remain more “neutral” than others. They publish an annual Corporate Responsibility Update in an effort to be transparent.
Disney pledged $5M with $2M going directly to NAACP and are matching employee donations. Pulled ads from Tucker Carlson Tonight along with many others. Moved the release dates of two TV Series from Juneteenth, but did not announce it as a company holiday.
Rating: Troll ASAP. Encourage more concrete actions, language, and larger donations. $5M from a company that had $69B in revenue in 2019 is a joke.
Spotify
Swedish owned. In 2020 they banned political ads on their platform. Peter Thiel was an early investor.
Curated Black artist playlists and other content being promoted. Public statement in support but do not explicitly say “Black Lives Matter.” No concrete actions or cash donations.
Rating: Troll ASAP. Incredibly weak response overall.
Adobe
Public statement in support, and states “Black Lives Matter.” Supposedly matching employee donations but unclear. As of June 10th they released a full public statement of intended actions including $1M to Equal Justice Initiative and 2-to-1 employee matching.
Read about Adobe’s Guidelines for Law Enforcement Seeking Customer Data. It seems that if you are putting images in the Cloud they can be handed over directly to the police. On the safe side, don’t use it.
Rating: Follow up in 6 months. Focus on diversifying tech initiatives internally and externally; privacy issues and data mining; as well as quantifiable outcomes related to their donations and projects.
Joong- Boo
Chicago-based in 3 locations. Korean and pan-asian focused grocery store that is the “largest asian food distributor in the Midwest". No public statement on BLM or issues of race. Parent company is Chicago Food Corp, which is local and BIPOC owned.
Rating: I feel positive about supporting this local business.
Handlebar
Immediate response on 5/29 in support of BLM and protests. Regular posting in support of the movement. Recently opened the patio -appears they are being cautious and safe - no public complaints from staff. No public donations or fundraising.
Rating: I feel positive about supporting this local business. Read more from Lauren Dacy regarding race in the Hospitality industry. And the handling of COVID by Don Woolf.
Strand books
Almost 100 year old independent book family owned store based in NYC. Current owner is Nancy Bass Wyden. Has an employee union of 35 years. Promoting black voices and content on Twitter and Instagram actively. 10% of one week of sales was donated to BLM, but this donation severely lacks transparency and was not widely promoted.
Rating: Troll ASAP. I think they fall into the camp of liberal minded orgs/businesses that feel they were “already doing the work” so they can feel somewhat exempt from trying to change. This sentiment itself should be a red flag because no one is exempt from taking new and challenging actions to fight against systemic racism and oppression.
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Additional Resources
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Sample Letter:
This is a good place to start, but think about how you can customize to the business you are reaching out to. Ask exacting questions that the receiver may have to work to find answers to. Speak from a personal place and express your interest in supporting that business if they support your values.
Hello,
I am reaching out to find out what actions your company is taking to fight systemic racism within your offices as well as in your stores. What HR structures do you have in place to give space for employees to voice complaints safely? Do you place your stores in diverse neighborhoods or focus on primarily white audiences? What donations has your company made in recent days to support the national movement against police brutality? Do your employees receive training on de-escalation of conflict to avoid bringing in police and risking harm to BIPOC staff or guests? A great place to start is to make a donation to insert vetted local charity of your choice here located _____ and working to _______.
Thank you so much for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sample tweet or IG comment:
What ACTIONS is _____ taking to fight systemic racism within your offices as well as in your content/stores/products. What donations have you made in recent days to support the national movement against police brutality? #blacklivesmatter #corporatesocialresponsibility
Notes and Links:
Watch 13th on Netfilx, where they describe the functionings of the American Legislative Exchange Council and their terrifying influence on policy. Any corporations listed as a member here should be pressured to exit ALEC. A lot of the obvious culprits like big pharma and oil, but also some standouts like State Farm, Time Warner, UPS, Fed-Ex, and Anheuser Busch. Many of the members of ALEC are also listed on various sources as users of prison labor practices, with another member being CoreCivic, an almost $4 Billion dollar corporation that runs private prisons. So….yeah.
Lists of Additional Business Donations
Prison Labor
globaltel.com - They provide phone service for the incarcerated at ungodly inflated rates, so speaking out on prison labor is pretty laughable.
The Official #GrabYourWallet Boycott Spreadsheet
Racial Justice Groups Flooded With Millions in Donations - Read this one last, it’ll help take the sour taste out of your mouth, even if just for a second.