Black Lives Matter and The Wages of Cynicism
Are BLM organizers right to say that the private sector is incapable of closing the racial employment gap, or is their skepticism cutting the movement’s ambitions short?
How long is too long? When is it okay to give up? These are the questions Black Lives Matter organizers are posing to America on the issue of employment discrimination in the private sector.
“For nearly 70 years, Black people have had two times the unemployment rate of white people in the U.S — even when the economy is strong,” writes BLM organizers in their policy platform. “During tough economic times, Black unemployment is in the double-digits, with some cities and states reaching into the mid 20’s.”
For the organizers, this is enough to justify the abandonment of America’s private job market. “Since the private sector has proven it is unable to employ Black workers at the scale needed,” reads the platform, “we must demand the federal government step in and fulfill this role.”
Here, while the organizers’ historical assessment is spot-on, the policy conclusions they find are a bit questionable.
Is the Government Less Racist than the Private Sector?
Few will disagree that the private sector has discriminated against blacks — things like interview bias and pay discrepancies are a testament to this. But in a world where gerrymandering, voter suppression, and police brutality are a ubiquitous part of the political system, it’s silly to pretend that federal government doesn’t administer similar racial discrimination.
But somehow, when confronted with this government discrimination, activists don’t hold the same fatalistic views. In the public sector, activists meet the seemingly intractable problems like unaffordable medical insurance and college tuition with ambitious reforms of universal healthcare and education. But in the private sector, organizers view seemingly intractable problems as… nothing more than as intractable problems. How come? If racism in the government can be reformed, why can’t racism in the private sector be reformed too?
This unique cynicism organizers reserve for businesses and corporations betrays the movement’s goals. The private sector comprises most of our economy and hires most of our citizens. It is foolish to suggest that America can solve its racial employment problems without significant involvement from businesses.
Rather than labeling the private sector as a lost cause (and thereby absolving it from any responsibility of creating racially equitable employment), movement leaders should find companies who are addressing the racial employment gap, and then pressure the private sector to scale these innovations. If activists started looking for these solutions, they would see that private models for racial equity are abundant.
Business Models for Racial Equality
One model corporation is Starbucks. Over 80,000 of its 200,000 workers are people of color and all Starbucks employees are eligible for full tuition scholarships to Arizona State University, health care coverage, vacation time, free drinks, food discounts, and more.
The Ben and Jerry’s supplier Greyston Bakery is an example of a racially equitable small business. Greyston hires employees regardless of educational background, work history, or past social barriers, such as incarceration, homelessness, or drug use.
It doesn’t stop here. There is Sweet Beginnings in Chicago, Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, Rebel Nell in Detroit, and thousand more across the nation. These businesses exhibit that it is feasible for private employers to create good jobs for black people. Thereby they prove, that the question is not “if the private sector can employ blacks”, but “does it have the political will to”?
This is crucial because political will can be changed. Political will is precisely what organizers control. And, once the problem of black unemployment is framed in this context, the role of organizer becomes clear — they can employ the same techniques they use to change opinions and policies in the public sector to transform the private sector. In the same way they engage government, activists can lead direct action protests and campaigns to pressure corporate reform. This strategy would allow BLM activists to help close the racial employment gap by organizing in both the public and private sectors.
America’s Private Sector Needs to Change
Since 1619 African Americans have fought to secure equal citizenship. That is a very, very long time. But through it all — slavery, Jim Crow, separate but equal — they have never concluded that the American government is incapable of change. Rather, they concluded that it is in need of it. This idea, that the government could be reformed, spurred everything from Emancipation to Brown vs. Board of Education. These victories were won, because the hope of, and fight for reform was never given up.
And now, this same spirit of reformation is needed today. Even though the last 70 years of employment discrimination have been dismal for African Americans, activists can not resolve that the private sector is simply “unable to employ Black workers.” Rather, activists should advance that the private sector “must be made to employ Black workers”.
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