If businesses really care about Black lives, let’s see action, not public relations

On Kansas City Public Schools’ website The Plug, Superintendent Mark Bedell wrote last month: “Members of the City Council, as well as business leaders, have stood up in the recent weeks to say Black Lives Matter. I commend them for doing so, but as the adage goes, actions speak louder than words.”

Over the past few weeks, we have been led to believe America finally understands what Black Lives Matter means, though we’ve endlessly debated the meaning during the past six years since the deaths of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland. We’ve reached a new path of enlightenment with the recent tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

The meaning has always been clear: that Black humanity matters despite the instances when America tries to make us feel as if that’s not the case.

If there’s a newfound acknowledgment of some of the systemic racism that has plagued our country since even before its inception, what are we doing better than we were yesterday for the Black children who grow up in a world that dictates that it’s better for you to be educated in Johnson County than in Jackson County? What are we doing to improve a health system that says your ZIP code is a better predictor of your health than your genetic code?

Corporate America is more worried about the appearance of racial progress than the actual fight for it. It seems vastly more concerned about eradicating symbols of institutional racism such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and “Gone With The Wind” than showing real concern about Black lives. Big business makes moves that attempt to placate by checking a public relations box, rather than investing in the educational and economic vitality of the Black lives that now matter more than they did 90 days ago.

If these major corporations have a greater understanding of Black lives, what are they doing as companies to better promote diversity within their workforces? What hiring practices are business leaders implementing to give minority applicants a better opportunity of being hired than before? What are they doing to better equip Black lives east of Troost Avenue, in Grandview and in Kansas City, Kansas, with the education necessary to thrive in the communities that give so much to these corporations? The constant attempts to seek tax abatements, strategically usurping funds from the inner-city school districts, don’t demonstrate that businesses think Black Lives Matter. Figuring out how to properly invest in Black people and communities will.

These are the conversations we should be having as Kansas Citians, about the policies we need to be trying to implement as a nation.

Frederick Douglass once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” There’s a reason the term “fight” is used in matters of justice, civil rights and equality.

Conceding power and superiority is not something institutions do voluntarily. It takes great effort to wrestle that power away. The American public seems more willing to engage in that fight right now more than any other time since the 1960s. Let’s hope this isn’t a fleeting fight. Let’s hope it is one equipped with the patience, diligence and strategy necessary to move toward true equality.

That’s showing Black lives that they matter.

Carrington Harrison is host of “The Drive” on 610 Sports Radio.