Included
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Hey, you! Welcome to “Included.”
In this stream, you’ll find stories that reflect on the importance of diversity in business — from equal pay to LGBT rights to representation in Hollywood, the Fortune 500 and beyond.
In this first edition of our new series, we unpack what’s happening with Charlottesville, that Google memo and more.
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Charlottesville forces tech and biz leaders to take a moral stand
What happened: Two of President Trump’s business councils disbanded after a slew of execs quit to protest his response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that left one person dead and dozens injured.
Why it matters: The incident ignited a wave of questions for corporate America: How should companies condemn racism and distance themselves from ethical firestorms in the age of Trump? Should tech platforms change how they host organizations behind hate speech? What is the extent of the First Amendment?
Since then: CEOs have been pressured to check in with their consciences. Obama-era adviser Larry Summers, among others, has called on all CEOs advising Trump to quit. They “should feel ashamed for complicity in Mr. Trump’s words and deeds,” Summers wrote in a Financial Times op-ed. “I sometimes wonder how they face their children.”
Read: How every single member of Trump’s business councils responded
Tech is also reckoning with its role in the crisis. Firms like PayPal, Google, Facebook and Airbnb all refused to host online communities such as those of “Unite the Right.” (Even the tiki torch company whose products were spotted in Charlottesville made a point to distance itself.)
But here’s another pickle: Industry leaders are rejecting neo-Nazi business, but those customers are finding alternatives. As the Los Angeles Times reports, extreme-right groups are establishing an underground infrastructure to provide services mainstream outlets won’t, including “Nazi Uber.”
The Google memo heard ’round the world
What happened: Former Google engineer James Damore set off a firestorm by arguing “biology” is one of the reasons “we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai swiftly condemned many of Damore’s assertions, saying that parts of his 3,300-word memo violated the company’s Code of Conduct.
Days later, Damore was fired. Pichai also canceled a town hall on the issue because of online harassment concerns.
Why it matters: It’s hard to imagine the barrage of controversy coming at a worse moment for Google:
- The search giant had just hired a head of diversity, Danielle Brown, who pointedly noted in her response to the outcry that she “had hoped to take another week or so to get the lay of the land.”
- All eyes were already on Silicon Valley after a string of sexism and sexual harassment scandals rocked the industry, including the resignations of investors Dave McClure and Justin Caldbeck earlier this summer.
- Google is being challenged by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly systematically underpaying women.
Since then: Debate continues over whether Damore’s firing was an affront to free speech. Damore himself has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, and indicated he may pursue legal action.
The former employee, who accuses Google of shaming his views, recently told CNN that he does “not support the alt-right,” adding: “Just because someone supports me doesn’t mean I support them.”
The right to ‘alternate history’
HBO and Amazon recently waded into a sticky situation when both companies announced, with limited details, they’re developing alt-history dramas of life after the Civil War.
Producers behind HBO’s “Confederate” and Amazon’s “Black America” argue they’re offering something never before seen. “Black America” reimagines a world in which freed slaves get reparations; “Confederate” reimagines a world wherein slavery is still legal.
But familiar questions remain: Who gets to tell the story of slavery, and is there a right way to tell it?
Writer Roxane Gay’s New York Times op-ed brings a piercing perspective: While HBO showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have a right to reimagine history, she argues, that doesn’t make it any less painful for those still suffering the very real ramifications of slavery today.
“I wonder why people are expending the energy to imagine that slavery continues to thrive when we are still dealing with the vestiges of slavery in very tangible ways.” — Roxane Gay
ICYMI:
- Amazon sued by transgender woman and her husband (Fortune)
- For the first time, Harvard’s incoming class is majority minority (Quartz)
- The uncomfortable truth about Asian Americans and affirmative action (New Yorker)
- Before he was CEO of Merck, Kenneth Frazier helped get black inmates off death row (CNNMoney)
- 💰 👀 BBC’s female stars are getting paid a lot less than their male counterparts (CNNMoney)
- Serena Williams: Black women are 37 cents behind men in the pay gap (Fortune)
- This South Korean woman is tired of being asked about her weight in job interviews (Bloomberg)
- 💳 Who gets left behind in a cashless society (Recode)
- ‘Bathroom bill’ dies in Texas legislature (CNN)
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