#Blacklivesmatter (BLM) matters. If this does not please you - LOG OFF. Black people and their allies are TIRED from Minneapolis to London and Germany to Liberia. Even the NFL made a statement, donated funds and issued a pretend apology. For now let's call it what it is -  " Symbolism over substance since 1964" - LK Spencer

For corporate awards, a round of applause to Ben & Jerry's for "pulling up". They are the only company whose employees have the one time exception to post on LinkedIn about being proud of their company and company leadership. Anybody else should please sit down.  The riots have calmed now but make no mistake the fundamental issues remain. Now what? We have to hold corporations accountable for their words and promises. No more asking to be "Civil" or to "Matter". Did you get that? That was my weak attempt at saying that "Civil" rights and Black Lives "Matter" are very basic requests. Equality would be nice but equality will not bring about equity from the many years of intentional subjugation.

Before Joe Biden names his Vice President and takes up the next 5 minutes of our attention here are 5 things you should request of your corporation.

1. Workforce/Workplace Audit - Don't allow your corporation to be righteous. This is their problem as well and donating or supporting external initiatives does not "listen" to their Black employees. Demand a thorough audit (external preferably) of workforce and workplace practices. The audit should include hiring, retention, compensation, promotion, workplace culture and attrition of Black employees.  If you want trust start from the inside.  
   1. Establish a baseline - use audit to understand the gaps.
   2. Set strategy to close gap and outline tactics and metrics
   3. Establish ownership of metrics and link to management compensation
   4. Measure, report, adjust and measure again
2. Marketplace Review: Your Company sells a product or a service. Your company taps into the $1.3T spending power (Nielsen 2019 Report) of Black America. Your company appropriates black culture in music, dance, fashion, storytelling, and in media/entertainment. What has your company done for the Black consumer? Or, does your company only benefit from and perpetuate the degenerative cycle of implicit stereotypes against Black Americans? Paramount Network has officially canceled “Cops”. That was a bold action by Paramount and you should ask no less from your company.  
   1. Baseline - request a review of your company's marketplace presence. Replace Blackface campaigns with Black Panther movies. Wal-Mart and Disney will have totally different strategies.
   2. Strategies - require "Equality". Disney celebrated Pride week with a Product line and so should your company. Support with tactics and metrics
   3. Require executive leadership and truly diverse/inclusive teams to work on consumer facing initiatives. Black employees are not destined only for multicultural teams.
   4. Measure, report, adjust and measure again
3. Supplier Diversity: Fundamentally the problem of the black community is an economic problem - my opinion. Economics leads to jobs, disposable income, influence and political power. FOX News apologized for the graphic below (Source: Business Insider) but the point they made was that the American economy is indifferent to the Black consumer. I think the implication was that the economy performs better. 
   4. Supply Chain Audit: Request an audit of your company's supply chain to determine utilization of Black Owned Businesses
   5. Strategy: Work with a third party agency like NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) to identify capably suppliers in the marketplace and set a spend target commensurate with the spend profile of your company. For example, we commit to spend 500M in 3 years in the areas of Marketing, Construction and Food Services with Black Owned businesses.
   6. Resources: Ask for funds to provide training to Black owned businesses and support of Accelerators that focus on development of Black Owned
   7. Policy: Insert contract verbiage that requires major contractors to use black owned businesses with penalties for failure and require documentation of best effort.
   8. Measure, report, adjust and measure again
4. Community Engagement: That community on the "bad side of town" needs: education, healthcare, healthy food options and developmental programs. Your company will build brand equity by being in the community.  Why? “Hennessy was one of the first brands to feature an ad in the famous Ebony and Jet magazines with black models in the 1950s", "a decision that was rare given the times" - (Source - Vinepair).  Guess what? Hennessy is possibly the most popular liquor in the Black community today. I am getting tired but follow the same steps of evaluating, setting a strategy with tactics, measure and adjust.
5. Advocacy Organization: Let's use the NAACP for focus. If your company gets 1 -4 above your company is effectively executing on the mission of the NAACP. They will probably still hold you accountable for outliers but for the most part your company will be in the family. NAACP is the Ben & Jerry's for Black People as far as being socially conscious. The easiest thing your company can do is write a big check and walk away. Do not let them adopt that posture.

Forgive your black friends if they talk too much or too little. It is personal to them but not because of you. As James Baldwin said “To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage".

Author: Ben Tubuo