Black Lives Matter: What should businesses do?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2020
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Large corporations around the world are using their social media accounts and PR machines to announce support for those people protesting in the wake of the George Floyd killing. But are corporate expressions of support mere publicity exercises, and do they crowd out the space for more marginalised voices at times of crisis?
Manuela Saragosa asks Dometi Pongo, MTV News Host, how he sees the role of corporate media and broadcasting. Also, what proactive steps could the wider business community take to address systemic racism in their society? John Harmon, Board Member of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, explains what can be learnt from the accumulated experience of black business owners. We'll also hear from Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation, and Jim Segal, whose shop in Minneapolis was destroyed in the rioting after George Floyd was killed by police.
Producers: Frey Lindsay, Laurence Knight
(Picture: Protestors in Manhattan,June 02, 2020. Picture credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Saragossa. |
| 0:06.0 | Some of the biggest names in corporate America have been lining up to condemn police brutality |
| 0:11.2 | against African Americans. |
| 0:13.2 | This is unique seeing CEOs of companies like Walmart, Target, Lowe's, McDonald's, |
| 0:20.2 | Macy's make very, very strong statements of |
| 0:24.7 | support. |
| 0:25.3 | Is there substance, though, to their pledges to fight racism? |
| 0:29.4 | And what do African-American business owners now want to see happen? |
| 0:33.2 | We build the United States. |
| 0:35.4 | So there's a debt owed to blacks in this country. |
| 0:38.5 | We build this country. |
| 0:40.4 | And at a minimum, they need to make it right. |
| 0:43.5 | That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:50.4 | Black people. |
| 0:52.0 | Black people. |
| 0:53.6 | Stop killing black people. Black people. Stop killing black people. |
| 0:56.4 | Politics and business don't usually like to mix in public, |
| 1:00.6 | especially when emotions are running high. |
| 1:06.8 | But the protests that have swept across America |
| 1:09.3 | following the death of the African-American |
| 1:11.2 | George Floyd in police custody appears to have changed something. |
| 1:15.5 | Many of the country's biggest brands have been queuing up to condemn his killing. |
... |
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