fortune--2020-06-19--Banking while black: How a new generation of leaders is overcoming a legacy of discrimination and mi

Banking while black: How a new generation of leaders is overcoming a legacy of discrimination and mistrust

In 1865, the United States chartered a hopeful, new bank—the Freedman’s Savings and Trust Co.—that was intended to help newly liberated slaves get on sound financial footing.
Less than a decade later, in 1873, amid a financial panic marked by railroad speculation and bad investments, the woefully mismanaged business shuttered. More than 60,000 depositors were left out in the cold, many never receiving compensation for their losses. (The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which backstops savings in qualified banks up to a $250,000 limit, was established later, in 1933, during the Great Depression.)
For as long as banks and black people have interacted in America, the relationship has been marred by discrimination, failure, and misfortunes, said Jennifer Tescher, CEO of the Financial Health Network, a nonprofit financial research group that, among other initiatives, partners with JPMorgan Chase on a program mentoring financial tech startups trying to improve underserved communities’ access to financial services. Tescher spoke Wednesday during a Brainstorm Finance Community Conversation, a virtual event hosted by Fortune.
“If you’re a black person whose family experience is that”—getting thwarted by the American financial system, such as in the case of the Freedman’s bank—“you’re not going to feel really great about banks,” Tescher said. “It really just creates a tremendous amount of mistrust and lost wealth. And then came redlining,” she said, referring to the since outlawed practice of denying loans and services to people based on their race or neighborhood.
Crossing a red line
While the U.S. made redlining in the housing market illegal in 1968, discrimination persists. Unsavory practices like this have kept people of color from enjoying the same prosperity as the rest of America.
Entrenched regulations around residential zoning keep wealth-building opportunities out of reach for lower-income families. Less fortunate people are prevented from owning real estate in single-family areas, thereby perpetuating inequality, said Jeff Hayward, executive vice president and head of multifamily at Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant. “Zoning is still, I think, racist, in general,” he said.
While redlining used to be “more overt,” it continues today in subtler ways, agreed Everett Sands, CEO of Lendistry, a small-business loan lender. One example happened recently as the government distributed loans to small businesses for pandemic-related relief through its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Rules related to supplying loans to sole proprietorships—a category of businesses that overwhelmingly encompasses black and brown owners—came out last, Sands said, putting these demographics last in line for needed aid. “Things like that are the new version of redlining,” he said.
“We looked at PPP and we said, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, you forgot the black people,’” said Kevin Cohee, CEO of OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the U.S. Flanked by large portraits of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X on the call, Cohee said his bank “went the complete opposite way” and sought to help individual members of its community and customer base, including by giving its first PPP loan to an Uber driver.
“That’s why OneUnited Bank has the heart of the black community. That’s why it grows,” he said. “The reason people like us is we’re real.”
Beating the system
All the experts on Fortune’s panel pointed to education as a necessary part of the equation to fix what perpetuates systemic racism and financial exclusion.
“The biggest problem I face in working with our community is just the lack of knowledge or lack of literacy,” said Bola Sokunbi, CEO of Clever Girl Finance, a personal finance education firm. “That in turn impacts their belief in themselves to be able to overcome these challenges around their debt. They are so overwhelmed and so afraid of what they don’t know, and knowledge is real power for them.”
People understanding and fixing their credit “is really important for long term stability,” Fannie Mae’s Hayward said. Otherwise, people will be preyed upon by subprime lenders, exacerbating inequality. “Everybody should be educated about financial choices that they make,” he said.
The problem extends beyond race. “Our school system is not only failing African-American children, and robbing them of the opportunity to better manage their financial future, I think society as a whole is being undereducated about finance,” said Jacob Walthour, CEO of Blueprint Capital Advisors, an investment firm.
Walthour’s No. 1 piece of advice was for people to own real estate. Forget hot stock tips, he said; owning a house is the best way for people to build equity and, later, gain greater access to capital, breaking the cycle of wealth disparity.
“It’s not a secret—it shouldn’t be a secret—these educational things, but somehow they seem to be a secret,” Hayward said.
Toward progress
Rectifying centuries of racial injustice and exclusion in finance is no easy task, but it is one where banks could have a much greater impact.
Being a bank is privilege, one that entails great deal of social responsibility. As stipulated in their charters, banks get access to cheap funds from the Federal Reserve and, “in exchange, you’re supposed to then lend that money in the communities in which you do business,” Tescher explained.
“Unlike a lot of other industries, banks have a special responsibility to focus on the credit needs of everyone, including black and brown people,” Tescher said.
Some financial firms are seeking to rally together to make amends. Jon Stein, CEO of Betterment, an investment “robo-adviser,” which automatically invests people’s wealth in various assets, called for his peers to come together, to formulate and sign an industry commitment letter designed to “support black Americans.”
Though details were scant, Stein said he looked forward to continuing conversations with members of the call to nail down specifics. “By standing together we believe that we can make a much stronger statement than we could individually,” Stein said.
Ryan Williams, CEO of Cadre, a fintech firm that manages a platform for investing in real estate, put it best when he shared his perspective as a black entrepreneur. “I’ve never really felt that it was fair or right, in the land of liberty and justice for all, that the odds seem to be so stacked against my community, or people, because of the color of their skin,” he said.
Banks have a long, dispiriting legacy of perpetuating inequality. But as pressure mounts for more financial firms to make progress, there’s hope the story doesn’t have to end like the Freedman’s Savings Bank.
“We need ambitious action commensurate with the depth of the problem,” Williams said. “And that means a lot of CEOs and leaders are going to have to put themselves in uncomfortable and unconventional positions.”


fortune--2020-06-19--Who needs economists? The real way to tell we’re in a recession is that Subway’s $5 footlong is back

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Forget the Big Mac Index, there’s a new fast-food economic gauge in town: The $5 Footlong Principle (5FP).
The concept is simple: When the economy goes sour, footlong sandwiches from Subway are priced at $5. When growth returns to normal, the prices increase to market rate. Think of it as a recession special.
The $5 footlong, one of the most successful campaigns in Subway history, was first introduced to the public in March of 2008. The deal was an immediate hit for the Connecticut-based chain. Sales increased by 25% within the first two weeks, according to Businesweek. The deal, originally intended to last just four weeks, was extended to seven.
Eventually the types of sandwiches available for $5 were narrowed in scope, but the concept was cemented. Subway became one of the 10 most popular fast-food franchises in the U.S., and other companies like KFC, Pizza hut, and Boston Market made their own copycat $5 meals.
By the end of August of 2009, the $5 footlong had generated $3.8 billion in nationwide sales.
But then, at some point during the longest period of economic growth ever recorded in U.S. history, the nation lost its taste for these inexpensive sandwiches. Fast-casual competitors like Panera (with $11 sandwiches!) presented a new challenge and as demand lessened so too did the revenue on the $5 footlong.
One franchisee in Northern California told the Washington Post at the time that it cost well over $4 to produce each footlong: $2 for ingredients on top of labor, utilities, royalties credit card fees, and rent.
In September of 2018, CEO Trevor Haynes announced that he would no longer require franchises to run the deal. “How do we help our franchises with more of a regional value message, so they’re able to (have) a value proposition that fits with their economic model?” Haynes asked USA Today. “If you look at California, there’s a very different cost of business than in Arkansas.”
But now, as we enter a recession that some economists predict will last for years, the footlong has returned.
A coincidence?
When asked, representatives from Subway responded with a “no comment.” Hmm.
In a press release, Subway officials announced that all footlongs would once again cost $5 for at least the length of the summer, so long as customers order two at once. It’s possible that the change in pricing wasn’t predictive and was in fact a response to the official announcement we are in a recession, but a little sleuthing shows that this campaign has likely been in the works for some time. Exhibit A: On Tuesday, Subway published a video staring pop star Charlie Puth and revealed a new jingle for the promo. Exhibit B: The company referenced a number of tweets in their campaign announcement dating back to February, right around the time economists say our current recession began.
Subway also announced Thursday that it would hire an additional 50,000 workers across the country this summer due to anticipated demand.
Not all is well, however, in the land of Subway franchisees. Some have already filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that they are being “bullied into honoring a promotion that is unprofitable to them.” The company, hoping to get restaurants on board, has offered an extra $2,100 in cash to each store that offers the promotion.
Regardless, if you’re looking for clues as to where the economy is heading, keep your eye on your local Subway to see if the promotion lasts into the fall.


fortune--2020-06-19--Racism, recession, coronavirus: How employers are addressing this ‘unparalleled’ era of employee ang

Racism, recession, coronavirus: How employers are addressing this ‘unparalleled’ era of employee anguish

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A global pandemic, an economic implosion, and a national reckoning over systemic racism have created a brutal combination of stresses for Americans in the workforce—and new challenges for the companies who employ them.
“We were already facing an unparalleled time of concern for well-being. So there was physical, financial, emotional—and the civil unrest became almost a further catalyst to everyone realizing the changes required,” said Donna Morris, executive vice president and chief people officer at Walmart.
She and senior human resources executives at Salesforce and Chevron spoke Thursday at a Fortune Brainstorm Health virtual event on how employers should reimagine employee health and well-being in the current era. The conversation was moderated by Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global and cochair of Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference.
On the eve of Juneteenth, the holiday to celebrate the day in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned about their emancipation, the executives discussed their internal and external responses to the waves of protests against racism and police brutality. At Chevron, for example, senior leaders have been holding internal company discussions about the experiences of their black employees.
“These are conversations that many people have never had before in an open forum, but we’re getting comfortable having very uncomfortable conversations,” said Rhonda Morris, a vice president and chief human resources officer for Chevron. “And we also recognize that’s not enough.”
The oil and gas company has long had employee resource groups and dedicated outreach efforts to historically black colleges and universities, but Morris says its results are still insufficient. “We have to really hold the mirror up and look at ourselves, and what are we actually going to do differently that will drive a different outcome,” she added.
Walmart’s Morris noted that the protests and resulting looting of some of the retailer’s stores have complicated its discussions around employee health these days, especially for essential workers who have been going into stores during the pandemic and felt their physical safety was newly threatened.
“We embrace diversity within the company,” she said. “There’s that fine line between the true belief that people should have a voice and they should protest, but when that crosses over into increased safety concerns, that was really, really difficult.”
Jody Kohner, senior vice president of employee engagement at Salesforce, said the software giant has joined many other companies in observing Juneteenth this year. While the company has made it a floating holiday that employees can choose to take, rather than a mandated paid holiday, Salesforce is asking employees who are not taking the day off to minimize meetings “to create space for learning and for rest.” The company is also holding a related event on Friday.
“Our response was to try to pull people together, to focus on the whole situation, and to not try to create a one-point solution, but to hear many voices and create a sense of community,” she said. “We all can’t be well if we’re all not well together.”


fortune--2020-06-19--From MLK to Black Lives Matter: Iconic images from the fight for civil rights

The civil rights movement in the United States happened in much the same way a character in the Ernest Hemingway novel The Sun Also Rises went bankrupt: gradually then suddenly.
Seminal moments in the struggle of black Americans like the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the lynching of Emmett Till, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred within a span of just 19 months in the mid-1950s.
Members of the black community gather to protest the murder of Emmett Till at Sharp Street Methodist Church in Baltimore, Sept. 28, 1955. Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
In the same way videos of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd have ignited a wave of unrest and protest in 2020, images of the mutilated corpse of 14-year-old Emmett Till had a similar effect in the fall of 1955. Till was abducted and lynched by two men in Mississippi after the white proprietor of a grocery store alleged he whistled at her and uttered obscenities. At his funeral in his hometown of Chicago, Till’s mother insisted on an open casket to show the world what the two men had done. The images were printed in African-American publications the Chicago Defender and Jet, and were soon picked up by the wider mass media. Till’s killers were acquitted by an all-white jury but later admitted to killing him under the protection of double jeopardy. His accuser admitted to fabricating parts of her story.
Rosa Parks being fingerprinted in Montgomery, in 1956. Underwood Archives/Getty Images
On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress in the segregated city of Montgomery, was riding a public bus and sitting in the front row of the “colored” section at the back of the bus. When the white section filled up, the bus driver ordered Parks and other black passengers to vacate their seats for white passengers. Parks refused and was arrested and fined $10. In response, a boycott of Montgomery’s buses—whose ridership was 75% black—was organized by the NAACP, black church leaders, and other black community groups. A legal challenge to the segregation of buses was mounted, and a federal court ruled the bus segregation unconstitutional under the equal rights clause of the 14th Amendment, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in December 1956. A day after the decision, on Dec. 21, black residents ended the bus boycott after 381 days.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressing the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, D.C., in 1957. Paul Schutzer—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Emerging as a leader in the Montgomery Bus Boycott was 26-year-old pastor Martin Luther King Jr., who was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and soon after formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to unify other black churches to end segregation across the South. On May 17, 1957, King’s status as a leader of the civil rights movement was cemented with his “Give Us the Ballot” speech at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom—a demonstration held to urge the U.S. government to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education ruling across the country, on the third anniversary of the decision.
“Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights…Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law…Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill…Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy…Give us the ballot and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court’s decision of May 17, 1954.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the historic March on Washington, 1963. PhotoQuest/Getty Images
Six years later, at the March on Washington, King would deliver his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” before a crowd of 250,000, which included an estimated 60,000 white allies to the cause of black Americans. King’s speech, which invoked the words of the founding fathers, Lincoln, and the U.S. Constitution, was broadcast live on television and radio. Afterward, King and other march leaders met with President John F. Kennedy to discuss civil rights legislation. Kennedy would be assassinated before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.
Martin Luther King Jr. leads a march for voting rights from Selma, Ala., in March 1965. William Lovelace—Express/Getty Images
Freedoms won under the the act included the end of segregation in public places, and the outlawing of employment discrimination based on sex, race, religion, or national origin. But many Southern states still obstructed black people from voting. In February 1965, while peacefully protesting black disenfranchisement in Selma, Ala., a young Baptist deacon named Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten by state troopers and shot dead by state trooper James Bonard Fowler. In response, three marches were held in March 1965 along the 54-mile highway from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. The first march, organized by the SCLC’s James Bevel and Amelia Boynton Robinson, would come to be known as Bloody Sunday as the protesters who crossed Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge were met by state troopers and possemen on the other side who beat them with billy clubs and used tear gas. The Selma to Montgomery marches were considered instrumental to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prevented states from restricting access to the ballot box.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists and give the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Bettmann/Getty Images
From Jesse Owens embarrassing the Nazis, to Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier, to Muhammad Ali refusing the Vietnam draft, sports have always been political. Nowhere was that more visible than at the 1968 Olympic Games held in Mexico City where American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos protested racial injustice back home. During the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race, Smith—who set a world record and won gold—and Carlos, who took bronze, donned black gloves, bowed their heads, and raised their fists during the national anthem. The pair left the podium to boos and were expelled from the Games. Facing a hostile reception back home, the men have been honored in the decades since and set a template for athletes peacefully protesting at major events.
Actor Marlon Brando addresses a rally of marchers at the completion of the Longest Walk, in Washington D.C., 1978. Bettmann/Getty Images
For five months in 1978, hundreds of Native American activists and their supporters walked from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to take a stand against the backlash to American Indians gaining rights to tribal lands and levels of self-governance. Speaking at a rally in Washington, D.C., at the end of the walk was actor Marlon Brando, who five years earlier rejected the Best Actor Oscar in protest of the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood.
Members of ACT UP in protest at the headquarters of the FDA on Oct. 11, 1988, in Rockville, Md. The action, called Seize Control of the FDA, shut the agency down for the day. Catherine McGann—Getty Images
The HIV/AIDS epidemic, which began in the early 1980s, was largely ignored by the American government for most of the decade, with members of the Reagan administration dismissing it as “the gay plague.” It wasn’t until 1985 that Reagan would publicly mention the disease, by which point 24,000 Americans—mostly gay and/or from communities of color—had died from it. ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed in New York City in 1987 to fight for funding research and access to experimental treatments and to fight discrimination against people with HIV.
Protesters gather outside the East County Courthouse, May 5, 1992, in Simi Valley, to condemn the acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King case. Hal Garb—AFP/Getty Images
In March 1991 construction worker Rodney King was severely beaten at the hands of 14 Los Angeles Police Department officers following a high-speed chase on suspicion of drunk driving. King would have been just another black victim of police brutality were it not for a nearby witness videotaping the assault and sending it to a local news station. The videotape caused a furor and pushed Los Angeles prosecutors to try four of the officers involved. But in April 1992, three of the four officers were acquitted, and the jury could not agree on one charge for the fourth. This lit the fuse for black communities in Los Angeles who saw it as another sign that the justice system would not protect them, even when a police assault was captured on video. Six days of rioting saw 63 people killed, more than 2,000 injured, and more than $1 billion in damage to property.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson addresses the crowd at the Million Man March, Oct. 16, 1995, in Washington, D.C. Porter Gifford—Liaison/Getty Images
The Million Man March was a gathering of black men held on Oct. 16, 1995. Organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who was joined by Christian and secular black civil rights leaders, the march aimed to “convey to the world a vastly different picture of the black male.” Speakers included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, as well as Farrakhan himself. Two years later, a Million Woman March was held in response to criticism that the original march excluded black women.
A rally in support of justice for Trayvon Martin on March 19, 2012, at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla., to demand the arrest of George Zimmerman. Red Huber—Orlando Sentinel/MCT/Getty Images
For four days in Los Angeles in July 2013, demonstrators protested the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. Robyn Beck—AFP/Getty Images
Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black high school student, was walking through a gated community in Sanford, Fla., when he got into an altercation with armed neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman, who shot him dead. Claiming self-defense, Zimmerman was not charged initially, sparking widespread protests across the country, and prompting President Barack Obama to call for a full investigation into the shooting. Zimmerman was eventually charged but was acquitted at trial, with the jury accepting he acted in self-defense. In response to the acquittal, community activist Alicia Garza posted on Facebook: “I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter…Our lives matter,” thus coining the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.
On Sept. 12, 2016, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid kneel in protest during the national anthem in Santa Clara, Calif. Thearon W. Henderson—Getty Images
In 2016, following the highly public deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, John Crawford III, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and too many more to name, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began to protest the U.S. national anthem as it was played before preseason NFL games. Initially Kaepernick sat on the bench during the anthem, but after a conversation with a former Green Beret, he chose to kneel as a sign of respect for the military while also protesting injustice in the country. He was joined by teammate Eric Reid, and soon hundreds more across the league would follow suit and kneel throughout the season. Kaepernick’s protest would contribute to the end of his NFL career with no team picking him up after he opted out of his contract with the 49ers in 2017.
Protesters gather at Foley Square in New York City to protest the killing of George Floyd on May 29, 2020. Liao Pan—China News Service/Getty Images
Which brings us to the moment we’re in now. In the crucible of quarantine, brewing unrest over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville was ultimately ignited by the video of George Floyd being killed by police in Minneapolis. People have taken to the streets under the banner Black Lives Matter, demanding the redirection of police resources as well as an end to qualified immunity for police officers.
Crowds wave rainbow signs in support of Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter on June 14, 2020, in Chicago. Protests erupted across the nation after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis, on May 25th. Natasha Moustache—Getty Images
As part of ongoing rallies in support of Black Lives Matter, protesters gathered outside Brooklyn Museum in New York City to proclaim that Black Trans Lives Matter. Trans people, especially black trans women, are disproportionately murdered in the United States.


fortune--2020-06-19--What to watch this Juneteenth on Netflix, Amazon, and more

Juneteenth—a holiday marking the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, 1865—has been celebrated by black Americans as far back as 1866, especially in Texas. But very few Americans have been aware of its significance until this year. As protests erupted throughout the country and the world after George Floyd, a black man, died in police custody, some local governments and companies are acknowledging the significance of the date and making it a paid holiday.
This Juneteenth, Fortune is highlighting some movies and television to watch in honor of the holiday, realizing that these are simply a fraction of the titles available. Some are centered on black history and race relations in the U.S., some are about Juneteenth itself, and some are present-day stories told by black creators, worthy of celebration.
Clockwise from top left: “Insecure” on HBO; “I Am Not Your Negro” on Amazon; “Malcolm X” on Netflix; “Atlanta” on Hulu. Merie W. Wallace—HBO; Walter Daran—Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Largo International NV—Getty Images; Guy D’Alema—FX
Netflix
13th: The Ava DuVernay-directed documentary gets its name from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which formally abolished slavery. The film dives into modern-day America’s prison system and its ties to slavery and racial inequality. (Note: Netflix has made the documentary free to stream on YouTube as well.)
Dear White People: The series from Justin Simien (who wrote and directed the film of the same name) is partly a dramedy about college students, while also providing commentary on race, owing to its focus on a group of black students at a predominantly white university. There are currently three seasons available to stream, while a fourth and final season is on its way.
Malcolm X: The 1992 Spike Lee film starring Denzel Washington as Malcolm X spans the slain civil rights leader’s life. The movie was nominated for two Oscars.
Moonlight: The winner of the 2017 Oscar for best picture (following a slight envelope mix-up) focuses on a young black man growing up in Miami and grappling with his sexuality. “These are all people we grew up with but never had their space on camera,” best supporting actor winner Mahershala Ali told EW when the film was released in 2016. “These are people in the black community that I’ve seen, that I’ve known.”
When They See Us: The Ava DuVernay miniseries tells the story of the Central Park Five, a group of black and Hispanic teenagers wrongly convicted of a vicious attack on a female jogger in the park. Jharrel Jerome, who played Korey Wise, won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
Other notable titles on the streamer include Michelle Obama’s Becoming, Da 5 Bloods, Beyoncé’s Homecoming, LA 92, Mudbound, She’s Gotta Have It (the movie and a 2017 series based on the movie), and What Happened, Miss Simone?
Novelist James Baldwin sprawls across the bed in his New York apartment, in 1963. “I Am Not Your Negro,” based on his unfinished work, is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Bettmann/Getty Images
Amazon Prime Video
I Am Not Your Negro: The 2016 documentary based on James Baldwin’s unfinished Remember This House delves into racism in the U.S. based on the writer and activist’s observations.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco: The 2019 film follows a young black man who’s trying to reclaim his grandfather’s Victorian home in gentrifying San Francisco. “I had a good team that helped me believe that this [was a] story that people wanted to hear, because I didn’t really think anyone could care,” said Jimmie Fails, who stars in the film, which is based on his family’s story.
Additional titles include Marshall, as well as PBS documentaries on the Black Panthers, John Lewis, and Jackie Robinson.
From left: LaKeith Stanfield as Darius, Donald Glover as Earn, Brian Tyree Henry as Alfred, a.k.a. Paper Boi, in a scene from the second season of “Atlanta,” which is streaming on Hulu. Guy D’Alema—FX
Hulu
Atlanta: The series, which takes place in…Atlanta, focuses on Earn (Donald Glover) and a cast of characters including his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry). The whole series is worth watching, but if you’re seeking something Juneteenth-specific, “Juneteenth” from the first season is definitely an episode to check out.
Black-ish: Atlanta isn’t the only show that had an episode focused on Juneteenth—ABC sitcom Black-ish, another series worth watching in full, did the same in its fourth season premiere, breaking down a “150-year-old tradition that no one’s heard about.”
If Beale Street Could Talk: The 2018 drama by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel of the same name, was a critical darling that scored Regina King a best supporting actress Oscar and Golden Globe.
Living Single: The ’90s sitcom, whose stars included Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, and Kim Fields, followed the lives of friends in Brooklyn—a fairly standard setup. But it also stood out because it focused on the experiences of young black people. “We don’t get to show that blackness is really more than a color and that we are in every facet of society and every facet of life,” Cress Williams, who played Terrence “Scooter” Williams, told The Atlantic in 2018. “And so what was great about that show was that you saw such a variety.”
Sorry to Bother You: In this blend of comedy, sci-fi, and fantasy, black telemarketer Cassius Green (LaKeith Stanfield) discovers a secret to success—using a “white voice” to sell products over the phone, taking viewers on a surreal journey that is honestly impossible to explain in a simple paragraph.
Other notable titles include—but are not limited to— Everybody Hates Chris, Black-ish spinoffs Grown-ish and Mixed-ish, Key & Peele, and Queen Sugar.
Yvonne Orji (left) and Issa Rae in HBO’s “Insecure.” Merie W. Wallace—HBO
HBO
The Apollo: The legendary venue at the center of this HBO documentary plays host to “85 glorious years of the history of black entertainment,” filmmaker Roger Ross Williams told Fortune last November. From touching upon 17-year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s Amateur Night win in 1934 to a 2017 stage adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, the documentary captures the crucial role the Harlem venue has played for black Americans up until this day.
BlacKkKlansman: The 2018 Spike Lee film is set in the 1970s and follows the first black detective in a Colorado police department as he tries to expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
Insecure: The dramedy based on Issa Rae’s Awkward Black Girl web series just wrapped up its fourth season. If you haven’t watched it yet, now’s the perfect time to catch up on this show focusing on the ups and downs of a young black woman and her friends’ personal and professional lives in Los Angeles.
Other titles include 2 Dope Queens, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Eve’s Bayou, I May Destroy You, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Us, Watchmen, and Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas. (Note: HBO is offering all nine episodes of Watchmen to stream for free from June 19–21.)
Also of note
Miss Juneteenth, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, will be out on video-on-demand (VOD) on June 19. “The legacy of slavery is woven into the fabric of our country’s history and how all Americans navigate our present,” director Channing Godfrey Peoples told Fortune via email recently. “I think a day of observance of this history and future we want to create is appropriate.”
A number of films—Just Mercy, Selma, and The Hate U Give—are among those that are available to watch for free on VOD platforms this month, following worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.


fortune--2020-06-19--Marketing strategies during the pandemic should be focused on building relationships

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The coronavirus pandemic has noticeably devastated the U.S. economy, with consumers pulling back on spending as they encounter furloughs, layoffs, and additional economic uncertainty. The crisis is also coinciding with a period of social unrest, amid mass protests and calls for justice after George Floyd’s death in police custody.
This leaves the business community in a bit of a quandary as it sorts out how to market brands and products effectively while also being sensitive to the challenges people are facing right now.
This is something that can be achieved if businesses focus less on the bottom line, according to marketing experts David Meerman Scott and Dan Oshinsky. Instead of focusing on selling a specific product, businesses can benefit more from focusing on acts of kindness and generosity, as well as building relationships with customers, while also acknowledging what’s happening in the world without sounding forced.
“What I’ve noticed is a lot of people have been trying to jump onto these various bandwagons, and I think, in a way, that doesn’t work for a lot of them,” said Scott during a virtual Q&A hosted by Fortune, pointing to instances where companies set up sales or offer free shipping because of the pandemic or in an effort to mention the Black Lives Matter movement. “What we need to do is recognize what’s happening, but don’t try to sell things in sort of nefarious ways, given the pandemic that we have.”
He urged business owners to think about what they can offer without any expectation of something in return, which could also help “grow fans for your business.” He noted that some companies following this philosophy have pivoted to making masks, or in the case of battery maker Duracell, given away batteries to the first responders and health care workers that needed them.
As businesses increasingly rely on email to notify customers of reopening dates and sales, they should also consider taking their time to develop relationships with customers before simply talking shop, Oshinsky, who runs email consultancy Inbox Collective, said. This can involve anything from exchanging helpful tips or asking how someone is doing.
“When you’re thinking about email right now during this moment—first, before you send an email, make sure you’re asking yourself: ‘Is this something my fan, my reader, my customer actually needs to hear from me right now?’” Oshinsky said.
Connecting on a human level could ultimately result in stronger customer loyalty even when lower-cost or more convenient providers come along, because people end up feeling “recognized,” Scott said.
“That relationship that we have with our customers can be a lot more important than the products and services that we sell to them,” he said.


fortune--2020-06-19--On this Juneteenth, many Americans celebrate for the first time

Like many of you, Fortune staffers have a new paid holiday today, so we’re sending along your Haikus bright and early and taking the rest of the day off. Aric Jenkins, whom you formally met in the last newsletter, worked with Fortune video producer Devin Hance to expand upon his debut Juneteenth essay. Check out the video here. Also in the news: Google has a plan, Kaep’s got a new platform, DACA’s can keep dreaming, and Aunt Jemima is out of a gig.
But first, here’s your emancipation-inspired week in review, in Haiku.
If I had known that
everyone was fixin’ to
celebrate Juneteenth
this year, I would have
booked a bigger room! I’m low
on red velvet cake,
strawberry soda;
I’ll save the watermelon
just for the children.
There’s plenty of good
spirit to go around — for
those with air to breathe,
there’s a righteous song
for ev’ry voice to sing, ‘til
earth and heaven ring.
Many companies have made splashy announcements about Juneteenth company holidays, but the way they treat their Black employees when they return on Monday matters just as much, if not more. Fortune has compiled stories from Black employees across industries that reveal what their experiences in corporate America are like. It’s clear: No matter what companies are doing to take a stand against racial inequality right now, there is much more work to be done. We’re not done compiling stories, either. Let us know your experience as a Black employee in the workplace here.
One more thing before we get into the news: If you were to assemble the people who could help you truly understand health care and how it’s affected businesses today, who would you pick? Here’s a few on Fortune’s list:
The CEOs and presidents of healthcare giants Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis, Aetna
Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis, Aetna Co-discoverer of CRISPR-Cas9 Dr. Jennifer Doudna
Dr. Jennifer Doudna Dean of Stanford Medicine Dr. Lloyd Minor
Dr. Lloyd Minor Chief medical officers from IBM, Verily, Google Health
from IBM, Verily, Google Health Healthcare Venture Capitalists like Sue Siegel
like Sue Siegel Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington CEO of REFORM Alliance Van Jones
Van Jones NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
Hear from them and more at FORTUNE Brainstorm Health, our virtual health care conference on July 7-8. As a newsletter subscriber, you’re invited to use this code—BSH20HALF—and get half off.
Wishing you a spirited and heavenly long weekend.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On point
SCOTUS gives DACA recipients a reprieve for now That said, it was the decision that brought an unalloyed joy to anyone who had been shielded from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and the people who employed or cared about them. The Supreme Court has ended President Trump’s bid to end the program that covered some 700,000 young immigrants. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, saying that Trump’s rationale for ending the program was insufficient. “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” the chief justice wrote. “We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”
New York Times
Google CEO is looking to diversify the company, and beyond I learned a great deal during my recent conversation with Google CEO Sundar Pichai. For one thing, he’s declared addressing systemic racism an emergency worthy of a crisis response team similar to one they used to address the coronavirus epidemic. But I believe he thinks this time it’s different, and that matters. "It's been a long journey," Pichai says. "I've heard it before, but to hear stories, particularly in this context, it's clear that there is systemic racism that permeates not just dealings with law enforcement, but be it housing, be it education, be it health care and in the workplace, right? And so I think the question is how can we capture the moment and translate it into attention and effort that sustains over time to create change." Please read and share.
Fortune
Colin Kaepernick joins Medium’s board of directors The most consequential quarterback in history continues to make excellent use of his power, privilege, and spare time. Ev Williams, founder of the online publishing platform announced the news today on Medium. “In addition to the board seat, Medium will partner with Colin and Kaepernick Publishing to create and feature stories focused on race and civil rights in America, and to elevate emerging voices from communities of color,” he wrote.
Medium
AirBnb has a new initiative to measure discrimination on the platform Project Lighthouse is a partnership with advocacy powerhouse Color of Change. The partnership has been years in the making, says Color of Change. "The goal of the project is to measure discrimination based on factors that drive perception of race, including first names and profile photos," the company tells raceAhead by email, and once complete, Airbnb will share the findings publicly. “Airbnb is setting an important precedent by taking measurable steps to examine and dismantle discriminatory online systems," COC President Rashad Robinson said in a statement. “Silicon Valley has a long way to go to constructively engage with civil rights groups by proactively, not reactively, seeking out our expertise to build platforms that serve Black people instead of harming us.”
Airbnb newsroom
A quick roundup of news from the financial sector Wells Fargo issues a new plan to boost diversity, which will link executive pay to diversity goals. And it will help, for a while. Edward Jones plans to increase diversity among its 18,700 financial advisers, and is giving $1 million to the National Urban League “Fights for You” campaign. And Marilyn Booker, first joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 and served as their first-ever diversity chief for 16 years, is now suing the firm, alleging she experienced and witnessed “systemic racial discrimination” against Black employees at the bank. More on that below.
Bloomberg
Have Spike Lee’s latest, ‘Da 5 Bloods’ low in your Netflix queue? Read this, and move it up Fortune’s Radhika Marya sat down virtually with Jonathan Majors, one of the stars of the new film, which focuses on the story of four Black veterans who return to Vietnam in search of a fallen comrade — and something more. It’s an overdue opportunity to understand, in great detail, the unique and often wrenching experiences of Black soldiers in Vietnam, Majors says. “The story of war and the story of African-Americans does not go hand in hand,” he explains. “We have been divorced from that narrative a great deal.” The nuances in his character were vital and interesting, adds Majors. His character was “a Morehouse [College] man— the motto of Morehouse is ‘Let there be light,’” he says. Proud, accomplished, with a complicated relationship to his own father. “My [character's] mission was: Get my father’s love, make my father proud, and in doing that, you can get a whole lot of stories.”
Fortune
On background
Well, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are out of work Both brands have retired their long-running logos, acknowledging their racist origins. "As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations," said Quaker Oats, which is owned by Pepsi, in a statement. Mars, the owner of the Uncle Ben’s rice brand made a similar statement. While we wait for the Cream of Wheat folks to get on board, now would be a good time to meet the character who was the basis of their logo – an ugly stereotype of a formerly enslaved man, universally known as "Rastus." The image of the former slave was central to the success of this product, which made company founder Emery Mapes millions of dollars. More here and below.
Historyapolis
Wait, Beethoven was Black?!? Well, no. Oh, hell yes! “I was definitely in high school when I realized Beethoven was Black,” tweeted Oscar-winning director Matthew Cherry. “He was, without a doubt a mulatto,” claim some. Yeah, seems unlikely, says The Beethoven Center. In any event, the “was-he-or-wasn’t-he” debate which erupted this week was the most fun I've had heading down an internet rabbit hole in ages. He did, for a fact, have a Black friend named George Bridgetower, a prodigy and master violinist. (At least for a while.) A blog post from 2015 resurfaced on Twitter this, reignited the controversy — hoards of Beethoven-curious have since crashed the site. A 2015 album by a group called Beethoven Was African even attempted to prove that the composer’s style reflected West African roots. Did it? I have no idea! But I’m claiming Ludwig van as a cousin anyway.
The Guardian
How watermelon was lost to racist cruelty Watermelon, along with other red foods, are traditional fare for Juneteenth celebrations — but in most circles, watermelon, and images of Black people with or eating them, has long been a racist trope. “[T]he stereotype that African Americans are excessively fond of watermelon emerged for a specific historical reason and served a specific political purpose,” says William R. Black, a historian of American religion and culture, with a focus on the Civil War era. “Free black people grew, ate, and sold watermelons, and in doing so made the fruit a symbol of their freedom,” he says. “Southern whites, threatened by blacks’ newfound freedom, responded by making the fruit a symbol of black people’s perceived uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence.” Come to find out, the racist association with watermelon goes back to Europe.
The Atlantic
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board
A man smiling at the prospect of no longer being used as a racist mascot.
Some Juneteenth to read and share


fortune--2020-06-19--Wirecard’s disappearing $2.1 billion

Wirecard’s disappearing $2.1 billion

Happy Friday.
Though it’s most certainly an uneasy one for Wirecard, a high-flying German financial technology group once valued at €24 billion ($27 billion) and hailed as the country’s next great tech star. Already parrying allegations around its accounting, the company revealed that auditors were unable to find some €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) in cash.
The disappearing cash, which was the equivalent of Wirecard’s profits since 2012, was supposedly held by two Asian banks. But the two banks, BDO Unibank and the Bank of the Philippine Islands, say Wirecard was not a client. The CEO of BDO Nestor Tan added that a “rogue employee” falsified documents mimicking BDO’s officers.
Now Wirecard is trading at a valuation of roughly €4.9 billion ($5.5 billion). CEO Markus Braun has resigned amid ongoing investigations into allegations that profits at key subsidiaries had been fraudulently inflated, and the company is facing a potential liquidity crunch.
A stunning part of the story: The Financial Times first published a report alleging the use of forged contracts in Singapore to inflate revenues in January of last year. Yet sell-side analysts maintained their bullishness and early on, BaFin, Germany’s financial watchdog, accused the Financial Times of potential market manipulation alongside short sellers rather than taking aim at Wirecard. BaFin later concluded that there was no collusion, according to the FT.
It’s Juneteenth—155 years ago today, the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas learned that they had been freed over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation formally returned those rights to them (news travelled slow, back in the day). Many businesses have made splashy announcements about Juneteenth company holidays, but the way they treat their black employees when they return on Monday matters just as much, if not more. Fortune has compiled stories from black employees across industries that reveal what their experiences in corporate America are like. It’s clear: No matter what companies are doing to take a stand against racial inequality right now, there is much more work to be done. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
***
If you were to assemble the people who could help you truly understand health care and how it’s affected businesses today, who would you pick? Here’s a few on Fortune’s list:
The CEOs and presidents of healthcare giants Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis, Aetna
Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis, Aetna co-discoverer of CRISPR-Cas9 Dr. Jennifer Doudna
Dr. Jennifer Doudna Dean of Stanford Medicine Dr. Lloyd Minor
Dr. Lloyd Minor chief medical officers from IBM, Verily, Google Health
from IBM, Verily, Google Health healthcare venture capitalists like Sue Siegel
like Sue Siegel Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington CEO of REFORM Alliance Van Jones
Van Jones NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
Hear from them and more at FORTUNE Brainstorm Health, our virtual health-care conference on July 7-8. As a newsletter subscriber, you’re invited to use this code—BSH20HALF—and get half off.
VENTURE DEALS
- Palantir Technologies, the big data company, raised 54 billion yen ($500 million) from Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings. Read more.
- DoorDash, the food delivery company, raised $400 million in a Series H funding. Durable Capital Partners and Fidelity Management co-led the round, and were joined by investors including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. The round values the firm at $16 billion.
- Payfone, a New York-based identify verification platform using mobile phone data, raised $100 million led by Apax Digital. Read more.
- Big Health, a San Francisco, Calif.-based digital therapeutics company focused on mental health, raised $39 million in Series B funding. Gilde Healthcare and Morningside Ventures co-led the round and were joined by investors including Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Octopus Ventures; and Samsung NEXT.
- Kaia Health, a New York-based digital therapeutics company, raised $26 million in Series B funding. Optum Ventures, Idinvest and capital300 led the round and were joined by investors including Balderton Capital, Heartcore Capital, and Symphony Ventures.
- Wise Systems, a Cambridge, Mass.-based-based maker of dispatch and routing software, raised $15 million in funding. Valo Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Gradient Ventures, Prologis Ventures, and E14 Fund.
- UNest, a North Hollywood, Calif.-based mobile app for college savings, raised $9 million in funding. Anthos Capital led the round and was joined by investors including NBA All-star Baron Davis, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Artemis Fund, Draper Dragon, and Unlock Ventures.
- Acquire, a San Francisco-based customer engagement platform, raised $6.4 million in Series A funding. Base10 Partners led the round and was joined by investors including S28 Capital and Fathom Capital.
- Mabl, a Boston-based test automation company, raised $6 million in funding. Amplify Partners led the round.
- Outer, a Santa Monica-based direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand, raised $4.3 million in funding. Mucker Capital led the round.
- Apolicy, a San Francisco-based cloud-native policy orchestration platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. StageOne Ventures led the round.
- Plume, a Denver-based selling hormone replacement therapy to the trans-community, raised $2.9 million in funding. General Catalyst and Slow Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Springbank Collective. Read more.
- HASH Inc., a New York-based maker of a browser-based tool for creating multi-agent simulations, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Root Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners led the round.
- PreVu3D, a Montreal-based maker 3D capture technology, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Brightspark Ventures led the round.
- Shipper, a Jakarta, Indonesia-based logistics platform, raised an undisclosed sum in Series A funding. Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) led the round.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Blackstone, Bain Capital and Taisho Pharmaceutical are among the final bidders for Takeda Pharmaceutical’s consumer drug business. The deal could be worth 400 billion yen ($3.7 billion), per Reuters citing sources. Read more.
- Athene Holding, backed by Apollo Global, acquired a stake in Jackson, a U.S. annuity provider. Prudential was the seller. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more.
- LightBay Capital invested in Barry’s Bootcamp, a Los Angeles-based fitness chain. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more.
- Caring Brands International, a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, acquired the Bluebird Care Master Franchise, a Ireland-based homecare company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- L Catterton invested in Petlove, an online pet retail brand in Brazil. SoftBank, Tarpon, and Monashees also back Petlove. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Brook and Whittle, a portfolio company of Snow Phipps Group, acquired Label Impressions, an Orange County, Calif.-based provider of printed label solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Crest Rock Partners invested in investment in Unbounce Marketing Solution, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based provider of technology for marketers. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Full Spectrum Group, a portfolio company of Pfingsten, acquired the assets of the Third Party Field Service Division of Pion, a Benson, N.C.-based provider of repair, maintenance, validation, and qualification services for laboratory instrumentation. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- IG4 agreed to acquire CLI, a Brazilian company that owns one of the largest grain terminals in the country, from CGG Trading and its creditors. Read more.
IPOS
- Albertsons Companies, a Boise, Id.-based grocery chain, plans to raise as much as $1.32 billion in an IPO of 65.8 million shares (100% insider sold) priced between $18 to $20 per share. It posted $60.5 million in revenue and income of $131 million in 2018. Cerebus (44.3% pre-offering) and Bessemer (14.9%) backs the firm. It plans to list on the NYSE as “ACI.” Read more.
- GVS SpA, a maker of biohazard masks, raised €497 million ($558 million) in an IPO in Milan. Read more.
- Sri Trang Gloves, a Thailand-based rubber glove maker, plans to raise as much as 15 billion baht ($484 million) in an IPO in the country. Read more.
EXITS
- Facebook acquired Mapillary, a Swedish mapping technology company. Sequoia Capital, NFX, BMW i Ventures, and Atomico are among its investors. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
F+FS
- Ares Management has raised $2.9 billion so far for Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund VI. Read more.
- Bullpen Capital is seeking to raise $150 million for its fifth fund. Read more.
- Grishin Robotics, an early-stage venture capital firm, raised $100 million for Fund II.


fortune--2020-06-19--19 Black economists to celebrate and know, this Juneteenth and beyond

As the world grapples with uprooting systemic racism—a conversation catapulted into collective consciousness by the death of George Floyd—it is imperative that Black economists become household names. Their work will move us through the current moment to enable a long-lasting future that upends the oppression in the Black community that subsequently harms the economic system at large.
Economics—a discipline whose core focus is exploring who gets what, where, when, and why—is of great interest to Black people, who too often find themselves on the wrong side of America’s divides in wealth and income. But they’ve faced barriers in matriculating into the profession, as Lisa Cook and Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman noted in their recent New York Times article, “It Was a Mistake for Me to Choose This Field.” The most recent data, from 2017, show that only 3.2% of doctoral degrees in economics are awarded to Black people each year. More than 52% of Black economists experience racism and/or discrimination, according to a 2019 report by the American Economic Association, and less than half of 1% of all top economics papers across a 30-year period explicitly address race/ethnicity.
Nearly 100 years have passed, and not much has changed since America’s first Black economist, Sadie T.M. Alexander, obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1921. She aimed to champion economic inclusion and justice, despite being denied the ability to practice as an economist in the pre–Civil Rights era. Even though she was deliberately excluded from the profession, she continued to use her economic expertise to recommend better policies for the working class such as the federal jobs guarantee, a concept embraced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that has been a foundational concept in progressive politics ever since.
Scholars Julianne Malveaux and Nina Banks have been committed to unearthing Alexander’s legacy through her speeches. Her passion for using economics to serve marginalized voices through policy is a common thread that connects the earliest work of Black economists as well as current scholars in the field. Phyllis Ann Wallace, the first woman to receive a doctorate of economics at Yale University, focused on racial, as well as gender discrimination in the workplace. Abram Lincoln Harris, who published major economic studies in the 1920s and 1930s, made it a point to focus on “class analysis, black economic life, and labor to illustrate the structural inadequacies of race and racial ideologies.”
To turn the tide against blatant exclusion in their field, today’s Black economists have been keen on supporting pipeline efforts through a variety of organizations including The National Economic Association, the American Economic Association, the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP), the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race, and the Sadie Collective.
The list presented here, on Juneteenth, serves as a means to center and celebrate the work of Black economic experts across various specializations—both emerging and well-established. Their research and policy analysis should inform public discourse not only on how to improve the Black community’s reality, but in turn to make policy that is better for everyone. Please note: This list is certainly not exhaustive.
Each economist’s name is followed by their main area of specialization, in parentheses.
Bryan Frank
Dania Francis (Education) is a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston whose work spans from the implications of educational outcomes for Black female students based on perceptions of Black girls in the classroom to economic reparations for African Americans. Her research interests include labor economics, public finance, economics of education, and stratification economics.
Courtesy of Brown Dog Studio
Peter Q. Blair (Education and the Future of Work) is on the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, where he codirects the Project on Workforce. He serves as a faculty research fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the principal investigator of the BE-Lab, a research group with partners from Harvard University, Clemson University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His group’s research focuses on the link between the future of work and the future of education, labor market discrimination, occupational licensing, and residential segregation.
EPI
Jhacova Williams (Race and Inequality) is an economist for the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE). In this capacity, she explores the role of structural racism in shaping racial economic disparities in labor markets, housing, criminal justice, higher education, and other areas that have a direct impact on economic outcomes. Williams’s research has focused on Southern culture and the extent to which historical events continue to impact the political behavior and economic outcomes of Southern Blacks.
Courtesy of Kristen Broady
Kristen Broady (Race and Inequality) is the dean of the College of Business and Barron Hilton Endowed Professor of Financial Economics at Dillard University. She is also the proprietor of KBroad Consulting. Her most recent publications include “Passing and the Costs and Benefits of Appropriating Blackness,” “Dreaming and Doing at Georgia HBCUs: Continued Relevancy in Post Racial America,” and “Race and Jobs at High Risk to Automation.”
Justin Cook for The Wall Street Journal
William Darity Jr. (Race and Inequality) is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics and the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. He has served as chair of the Department of African and African American Studies and was the founding director of the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke. With well over 300 publications, Darity launched the subfield of stratification economics in 2005. Darity’s research focuses on inequality by race, class, and ethnicity, schooling and the racial achievement gap, North-South theories of trade and development, skin shade and labor market outcomes, the economics of reparations, the Atlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution, the history of economics, and the social psychological effects of exposure to unemployment. His most recent book, coauthored with A. Kirsten Mullen, is From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.
Courtesy of Darrick Hamilton
Darrick Hamilton (Race and Inequality), one of the country’s leading economists examining racial disparity, will serve as the founding director of the newly created Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification, and Political Economy at The New School. His research spans the gamut from stratification economics through economic and social policy, race, ethnicity, and colorism, education, health, labor, asset and debt markets, and family formation. His TED Talk, with over 1.5 million views, incited much conversation during the past presidential election season about how to end inequality in America.
Courtesy of Trevon Logan
Trevon Logan (Economic History) is the Hazel C. Youngberg Trustees Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at The Ohio State University. As the youngest president of the National Economic Association to date, he specializes in economic history and applied demography. He obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Courtesy of Willene Johnson
Willene Johnson (International Economics) is president of Komaza Inc., a consulting firm that offers instruction and advice on economic and financial development, including microfinance, security sector resource management, and the role of economics in conflict management. Johnson has worked extensively in Africa, where she was first a volunteer teacher and more recently the U.S. executive director at the African Development Bank. She worked for 20 years in the Federal Reserve System, where her assignments included both research and operational responsibilities in international financial markets.
Courtesy of NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Peter Blair Henry (International Economics) is a former dean of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he is now the William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business. He’s the author of Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth. His research interests include international finance, emerging markets, international economic policy, globalization and trade, and macroeconomics.
Austin Thomaso/Michigan Photography
Susan Collins (International Economics) is the interim provost at the University of Michigan. She joined the Michigan faculty in 2007, serving as the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy until 2017. Before coming to Michigan, she was on the economics faculty at Georgetown University and Harvard University, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (where she retains a nonresident affiliation). She is an international economist whose research interests center on understanding and fostering economic growth in industrial, emerging market, and developing countries.
Courtesy of Sandile Hlatshwayo
Sandile Hlatshwayo (International Economics) has research interests in the areas of international trade, international finance, and macroeconomics. She is an economist at the International Monetary Fund, where she helps identify and evaluate global risks through predictive modeling, text-based analytics, and strategic foresight tools (e.g., scenario planning). She also sits on the board of Black Professionals in International Affairs and serves as an inaugural member of the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Individuals in the Economics Profession.
Michael Marsland
Ebonya Washington (Public Finance), a professor at Yale University, specializes in political economy. Her work explores the formation of political attitudes and how marginalized populations use the political system to attain economic needs. In a recent paper she turns her lens on her own profession, asking what economists can do to increase racial and ethnic diversity in their ranks.
Courtesy of University of Chicago
Damon Jones (Household Finance and Public Finance) is an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. He conducts research at the intersection of three fields—public finance, household finance, and behavioral economics—and focuses on topics of inequality. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (2009–10) and is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Courtesy of Julianne Malveaux
Julianne Malveaux (Public Finance) has long been recognized for her progressive and insightful observations. As a labor economist, Malveaux has been described by Cornel West as “the most iconoclastic public intellectual in the country.” Her contributions to the public dialogue on issues such as race, culture, gender, and their economic impacts are shaping public opinion in 21st-century America. She was the 15th president of the historically Black all-women’s school Bennett College. Her notable works include writings on race, class, and Black women’s economics.
Courtesy of William Spriggs
William Spriggs (Labor Economics) is the former assistant secretary for the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor. He currently serves as the chief economist to the AFL-CIO and has been professor of economics at Howard University since 2005. Spriggs’s economic expertise lies in workforce issues, labor, tax, and public policy. Prior to his position at AFL-CIO, he led economic policy development at several think tanks such as the Economic Policy Institute and the National Urban League. He has also held roles at the Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, and the Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.
JM Photo
Ellora Derenoncourt (Labor Economics) is an economist with research interests in labor economics, economic history, and inequality. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Industrial Relations Section of the Department of Economics at Princeton University. In July 2020, she will join the University of California at Berkeley as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy.
Courtesy of John Jay College City University of New York
Michelle Holder (Labor Economics) is an assistant professor of Economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. Prior to joining the John Jay faculty, she worked as an economist for a decade in both the nonprofit and government sectors. Her research focuses on blacks and women in the American labor market, and her economic policy reports have been covered by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Amsterdam News, and El Diario. Her first book, African American Men and the Labor Market During the Great Recession, was released in 2017.
Valerie Wilson (Labor Economics) is the director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE), a nationally recognized source for expert reports and policy analyses on the economic condition of America’s people of color. Prior to joining EPI, Wilson was an economist and vice president of research at the National Urban League Washington Bureau. She has written extensively on various issues impacting economic inequality in the United States—including employment and training, income and wealth disparities, access to higher education, and social insurance.
Courtesy of Dr. Lisa Cook
Lisa Cook (Macroeconomics) is a professor in the Department of Economics and in International Relations at Michigan State University. Among her current research interests are economic growth and development, financial institutions and markets, innovation, and economic history. She was a National Fellow at Stanford University and served in the White House as a senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. She also served as president of the National Economic Association and is currently director of the American Economic Association Summer Program.
Update: This article was updated on June 22 to more accurately reflect the biographies of Dania Francis, Damon Jones, William Spriggs, and Susan Collins.
Fanta Traore is an MPP and MBA candidate at Yale University. She cofounded the Sadie Collective, which addresses the underrepresentation of Black women in economics and related fields. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TheFantaTraore.


fortune--2020-06-19--Why black-owned businesses were hit the hardest by the pandemic

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While small businesses across the country struggle amid shutdowns, the brunt of the impact has fallen on black-owned businesses.
According to a recent study for the National Bureau of Economic Research by Robert Fairlie at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the number of black business owners actively working fell 41% from February to April—representing a massive loss of 440,000 black business owners. The number of black business owners who were working in April was 640,000, down from 1.1 million. Active white business owners dropped 17%.
Fairlie, the author of the study, tells Fortune he was “shocked” at the findings. But those like Eugene Cornelius, senior director at the Milken Institute’s Center for Regional Economics and California Center and alum of the Small Business Administration, don’t think anyone should be surprised.
“What is amazing is everybody is asking why—we knew this,” he tells Fortune. “The virus has pulled the sheet off of what has been going on in the black community for years.”
Not only have black Americans been harder hit by unemployment during the crisis (the unemployment rate for white Americans fell to 12.4 % in May, while the rate for black Americans rose 0.1% to 16.8%), they’ve also been disproportionately affected by the virus itself, with higher deaths and hospitalizations reported among black Americans.
But black-owned businesses faced disadvantages even before the coronavirus hit the U.S.
A ‘financially precarious’ position
Many black small-business owners “were already in financially precarious positions before the start of COVID-19,” Everett Sands, the founder and CEO of Lendistry, a black-owned fintech and community development financial institution, tells Fortune.
A large portion of black-owned businesses are in service industries like retail, health care, and restaurants—sectors hit hard by shutdowns. According to Fairlie, the “industry distribution of black [business owners] was partly responsible, placing black business owners at greater risk of losses due to the pandemic.”
But many black-owned businesses were struggling before the crisis hit, too. According to a Federal Reserve survey, 21% of non-Hispanic black and African-American businesses were financially “distressed” at the end of 2019, considering things like earnings and credit, versus only 5% of white-owned businesses.
Meanwhile, the wealth gap between black and white Americans is a yawning gulf—an average black family’s net worth is $17,150, a fraction of an average white family’s net worth of $171,000, based on the latest Federal Reserve data. And 19% of black families have a zero or negative net worth, compared with 9% of white families.
With so little cash to fall back on, “What can you do? That might pay [for] a month or two of rent, [or for] your equipment [for] your business, but you’ve also got to pay the rent and mortgage on your home and all of the other bills you have for yourself,” Fairlie says.
Some of these disparities set up black businesses to take a bigger hit as the country plunged into shutdown. “Wealth and income gaps are the difference between whether a business can survive a shutdown, survive an economic downturn, survive a pandemic, or not,” says Ashley Harrington, the director of federal advocacy and senior counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), a nonprofit advocacy group. “Many of these businesses and the communities of color they are based in don’t have that wealth that helps with the shock of an economic downturn, so they’re coming to this without that cushion, without any cushion whatsoever.”
A ‘systematic issue’ with bank relationships
Over the past five years, just 23% of black-owned businesses got credit from banks—versus 46% for white-owned businesses. “Drilling down, why is that?” asks Cornelius. He offers, “because of lack of collateral, because of net worth, they tend to have less relationships with banks.” Without those banking relationships and loans to bolster their businesses during crises like this, Cornelius adds, “then it’s the systematic issue.”
Meanwhile, the historical impact of racist practices like redlining on home values has hurt black business owners’ ability to use homes for collateral, Cornelius suggests, which has translated into being denied loans.
Moreover, black-owned small businesses have historically been underserved by the Small Business Administration’s traditional 7(a) lending program. In 2019 and 2018 fiscal years, only 3% of loan volume went to black-owned small businesses, while roughly half went to white-owned businesses.
Yet research shows black-owned businesses are also more likely to hire people within their communities, CRL’s Harrington points out, “so all of these things are impacted, not just the individual business owner but the community itself.”
Government lending programs largely failed to provide relief
Despite the disproportionate impact of the shutdowns on black-owned businesses, government emergency aid programs appear to have been less helpful for black businesses based on early data. The biggest lifeline for small businesses in the crisis, the $670 billion Paycheck Protection Program (as part of the CARES Act), appears to have been inaccessible for a large portion of black-owned businesses from the outset.
While the SBA has not released demographic information for loans, a recent survey conducted by equal rights groups Color of Change and UnidosUS found that only 12% of black and Hispanic businesses polled from April 30 and May 12 received the emergency loans they asked for, while some 41% were denied.
Part of the problem, experts say, has been the historic lack of access to traditional banking institutions for black business owners—institutions programs like the PPP relied on, especially early on, to dole out funds. Without those established relationships, black-owned businesses faced a hurdle to getting funds. “It puts black businesses so far behind the starting line,” Jade Magnus Ogunnaike, senior campaign director at Color of Change, tells Fortune. Meanwhile, a large portion of black-owned businesses have fewer employees or are sole proprietors, making accessing programs like the PPP more challenging earlier.
While the administration has made several changes to the PPP to direct more funds to underserved communities (including allotting more funds to community development financial institutions, or CDFIs), “minority-owned small businesses…continue to struggle with accessing PPP loans, despite about $130 billion remaining in the program,” chairwoman Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday at a House Small Business Committee hearing on the implementation of the PPP.
Kevin Cohee, the CEO of OneUnited Bank, the largest black-owned bank in the U.S., says his bank approached lending through the program as “a war effort.” While the smaller loans many sole proprietors and black-owned businesses applied for were not as profitable for the bank, Cohee tells Fortune, “for us, it was really a matter of patriotism on one hand, and commitment to black America on the other.”
Despite changes to the program to address these issues, members of Congress acknowledge further efforts are needed to direct funds to minority-owned and underserved businesses.
‘Extremely resilient’
Across the board, it’s likely many small businesses won’t survive the pandemic. For one, Cornelius estimates that of those hundreds of thousands of black business owners who stopped operating, “I don’t see 70% of them coming back.”
But many businesses are fighting to stay alive, and of the 41% of black-owned businesses that had to shut down in the early stages of the crisis, Lendistry’s Sands says he would guess “that 100% don’t want to, maybe 99%.” He contends black business owners are strong: “They’ve been dealing with a racial wealth gap their whole life,” he says.
As businesses start to reopen, those like Cohee suggest one key way to help is to support and frequent black-owned businesses, while others like Harrington and Sands say more pure grants (not more PPP loans) and directing funds to CDFIs would better support black-owned businesses through the crisis.
Cohee, for one, is optimistic: “Black people are extremely resilient.”


fortune--2020-06-19--What exactly is Google doing to fight racism?

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Happy Juneteenth.
Yesterday in this space, my colleague Danielle Abril reviewed Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai’s pledge to increase black representation in the company’s senior ranks. Later in the day, Pichai spoke with another of my colleagues, Ellen McGirt, to elaborate on his views.
In a far-ranging interview, Pichai touches not just on the problems of hiring and diversity in Google’s executive ranks, but also how the company can make an impact in the wider world. Part of Pichai’s plan will direct $100 million to invest in black-led startups and capital firms. Part of Google’s response will be to rethink where it locates major offices, as well. Pichai mentions Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Chicago as places with more diverse populations and robust communities.
“It’s been a long journey,” Pichai says. “I’ve heard it before, but to hear stories, particularly in this context, it’s clear that there is systemic racism that permeates not just dealings with law enforcement, but be it housing, be it education, be it health care and in the workplace, right? And so I think the question is how can we capture the moment and translate it into attention and effort that sustains over time to create change.”
In other related coverage, please don’t miss our project “Working While Black: Stories from black corporate America,” which was developed by our brilliant newsletter editor Karen Yuan. These stories of real people’s experiences are equal parts moving and alarming. Hopefully they can also raise awareness and prompt changes in behavior and practices that have been too long in coming.
Much to think about, much work left to do.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
There is no bottom. Another of my colleagues, audience editor John Buysse, noticed something not quite right and rather horrifying in recent Trump ads: an upside-down red triangle symbol, the same symbol that was used by the Nazis to mark political prisoners in concentration camps. Facebook removed the ads, saying they violated its policy against organized hate groups.
Biff, splat, POW! The podcast economy remains hot, thanks to Spotify. The company on Thursday announced a partnership with WarnerMedia's DC Comics and Warner Bros. to produce and distribute an original slate of superhero-themed podcasts. I am here for "The Spiderman Experience," "Batman Needs a Friend," and "Making Sense of Kryptonite with the Man of Steel," but are you?
Takes one to know one. The annual Apple developer show, WWDC, starts on Monday with the company expected to unveil the next versions of all its various operating systems plus announce a transition away from Intel chips. At the same time, the controversy around Apple's treatment of developers like the email service Hey isn't quieting down. On Thursday, Microsoft president Brad Smith, who's had a run-in or two with antitrust regulators himself, called for stricter antitrust regulation of app stores. “The time has come–whether we are talking about D.C. or Brussels–for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created,” Smith said.
Switching horses in mid-pandemic. In better news for Apple and Google, the U.K.'s National Health Service says it will stop trying to develop its own contact-tracing software for mobile phones. Instead, the NHS may rely on the platform Google and Apple are integrating into their operating systems, which performed better at recording encounters.
I am once again asking for your financial support. The CEO of troubled German payments company Wirecard, Markus Braun, suddenly resigned on Friday. Wirecard, a former fintech darling, has plunged in value after auditors discovered $2 billion of cash missing. Two Asian banks that were thought to have held the cash in Wirecard's accounts say they don't even have accounts with the company.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Some excerpts from our Working While Black project:
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few long reads I came across this week:
Why TikTok’s Addison Rae Is More Than Just a “Pouty Face” (WSJ Magazine)
Seven months ago, she was shuffling to college classes. Now she’s one of TikTok’s biggest stars. Inside the wildest year ever for one 19-year-old dancer.
Jon Stewart Is Back to Weigh In (New York Times)
That pervasive sense of political and social conflict has only grown since Stewart left the air in 2015. It has also made Stewart’s post-‘‘Daily Show’’ silence — apart from a few guest spots on his old friend and colleague Stephen Colbert’s show, he has been mostly out of the spotlight — more intriguing. What has he been thinking about this country while he has been gone?
What Does It Take to Become a Wine Superpower? (The Walrus)
On British Columbia's bid to be the Napa Valley of the North.
Inside WNBA legend Maya Moore's extraordinary quest for justice (ESPN)
On a sunny October day in Jefferson City, Missouri, Maya Moore huddles with her family and friends outside the Cole County courthouse. They stand in a circle, holding hands. Moore prays with them before heading inside.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
IBM’s Ginni Rometty: The way we hire must change—and we must do it now By Michal Lev-Ram
The Coronavirus Economy: How a new coworking space designed to celebrate people of color is coping through the pandemic By Rachel King
E-book reading is booming during the coronavirus pandemic By Aaron Pressman
Peloton is having a moment. So are its competitors By Lucinda Shen
There is no shortage of black talent in corporate America By Crystal E. Ashby
Honeywell claims to have created the world’s most powerful quantum computer By Robert Hackett
Passengers are afraid to fly. The right tools could help airlines woo them back By David Ziegler
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a 50% discount for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Talk about your cultural appropriations. Hardline right-wing hawk John Bolton's new book is titled The Room Where It Happened. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who authored that particular lyric, took to Twitter to offer his resistance:


fortune--2020-06-19--How to move corporate Juneteenth holidays beyond virtue signaling

This is the web version of the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that the Supreme Court went too easy on President Trump in its decision upholding DACA, Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford writes about another Court decision, and we commemorate Juneteenth.
– Commemorating Juneteenth. Today, June 19, is Juneteenth, which celebrates the date in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas learned they were free—more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. As Emma reported earlier this week, Juneteenth is the oldest commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, but hasn’t been honored as a holiday or taught in history classes throughout much of the country.
That’s changing this year, as protests over police brutality and racial discrimination and injustice sweep the country.
Twitter and Square were first to announce they would make June 19 a paid holiday for employees last week and were soon followed by at least 200 other U.S. companies. Some said they would recognize the holiday this year, while others vowed to make it permanent.
Tamika Nunley, an assistant professor of American history at Oberlin College who studies slavery, gender, and the Civil War, told Emma that employers’ marking of the day is more than a show of solidarity, since the original Juneteenth proclamation, in part, sought to establish the employer-laborer relationship and warned former slaves against being idle. Employers’ signal that Juneteenth is meant for celebration, not work, is a powerful message, Nunley says.
Whether that message lasts beyond this 24-hour period, however, depends on whether companies make broader, earnest commitments to racial justice, she said.
Too many companies are engaged in performative allyship, as my colleague Karen Yuan reports in this story, which features insight from black employees who shared their workplace experience for Fortune’s Working While Black project.
“We have to advocate for ourselves, and we’re made to feel we’re asking for far too much. Real allyship is as rare as a desert oasis,” Racquel, 30, told Fortune. “Example: A new CRO hired a white woman to work under me for 30% more pay. My manager used a rote Google search to address my concerns until I went to the head of HR myself. Three weeks after I was given back pay and promoted, I was laid off.”
“There are too many missed opportunities by white people to become allies,” says Tonja, 49, who wrote in. “It’s great if you want to be an ally, but we need to know that you have our back when we need it most and will not back down or shy away from the difficult conversations that take place when it comes to promoting black people. At my age, I should not have to wonder if I will be able to retire in less than 20 years, but it is a constant struggle just to be seen.”
Nia, 25, told Fortune: “One white woman has directly advocated for me to managers. She has facilitated wider conversations about race because she knows people will listen to her. She takes the stage and gives it to me and the two other black people in our office. She has given me advice. She has bought me coffee on rough days recently. She realizes she can’t solve everything, but she tries and does what she can and is open to critique on herself. But this is one person. No one else has been like this.”
This is just a sampling of the stories Fortune has gathered as part of this project. You can read more here. Understanding the workplace experience of black employees is vital to ensuring this moment moves beyond one-off commemorations and virtue signaling press releases. Fortune is still collecting these first-person accounts; if you have one to share, you’re welcome to do so here.
On that note, have a meaningful Juneteenth.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Editor’s note: FORTUNE Brainstorm Health, our virtual health-care conference is taking place on July 7-8. Speakers include the CEOs and presidents of healthcare giants Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis, Aetna; co-discoverer of CRISPR-Cas9, Dr. Jennifer Doudna; healthcare venture capitalists like Sue Siegel; chief medical officers from IBM, Verily, Google Health; Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington; NBA Commissioner Adam Silver; and more. As a newsletter subscriber, you’re invited to use this code—BSH20HALF—when you register.
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Time for change. Ginni Rometty spoke to Fortune's Most Powerful Women community via video call yesterday. The former CEO and current executive chairman of IBM had a rousing message and essential set of to-dos for the attendees: it's time to create more opportunities by changing how we hire, she said. You can read more about her plan to do just that—and the ways she was "forever changed" by holding listening sessions where black employees spoke about their experiences—here: Fortune
- A win, with a caveat. The Supreme Court yesterday declared that the Trump administration's attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was unconstitutional. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a concurrence arguing that Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion, went too easy on President Trump. Roberts, she says, ignored necessary context of Trump's history of racist comments about immigrants. Mother Jones
- Making history. In more Supreme Court news, Beth Ford, CEO of Land O'Lakes, writes for Fortune about the Court's recent decision that LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination under federal law. Ford is the first openly gay woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, and she shares the reflections of some of her fellow LGBTQ business leaders here: Fortune
- Two historic campaigns. Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McClellan launched her bid for governor yesterday, officially starting a campaign that would make her the first black woman to ever lead a U.S. state. McClellan joins a race that includes Del. Jennifer Carroll-Foy, also a black woman fighting for that same milestone win. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Kerry Cooper, Jessica Denecour, and Dara Treseder have been named to the board of PG&E. Estée Lauder named Jane Lauder EVP, enterprise marketing and chief data officer. Lauder had been global brand president of Clinique; she will be succeeded by Michelle Freyre, whose title will be SVP, global general manager, Clinique. American Express named Glenda McNeal, president of enterprise strategic partnerships, to its executive committee; she is the first black woman to serve on the committee. Intercom promoted COO Karen Peacock to CEO. Kellyn Smith Kenny resigned as CMO of Hilton. Signet Jewelers hired Citi's Rebecca Wooters as chief data officer.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Seven sisters. Seven women who all lost siblings to police violence appeared together on the Today show yesterday. The "Sisters of the Movement"—like the "Mothers of the Movement" who lost their sons to police brutality—are fighting for change. Among them: the sisters of Sandra Bland, Botham Jean, and Terence Crutcher. Today
- Tackling tough subjects. Middle-grade books—like young adult books before them—are starting to address issues of sexual assault and child abuse. By telling stories that show behaviors like "grooming" a child, authors hope they'll give young readers tools they need in case something like what's described in these books ever happens to them. New York Times
- Athlete for a cause. WNBA star Maya Moore left basketball to fight for the exoneration of Jonathan Irons, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for assault and battery in 1998, when he was 16. This in-depth feature follows Moore's quest for justice in Jefferson City, Missouri. ESPN
- Campaign funds. Wall Street donors including Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs are backing Michelle Caruso-Cabrera in her Democratic primary bid against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Financial Times
- Kennedy clan. Jean Kennedy Smith, the former ambassador to Ireland and the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy, died at 92 on Wednesday. Smith helped broker peace in Northern Ireland in the 1990s and was "the first Kennedy woman of her generation to take on a serious political role." New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Walmart and CVS made splashy pledges to stop locking up black beauty products. Why did they do it in the first place? The Lily
There are many man-made objects. The rape kit is not one of them New York Times
Kim Kardashian West lands podcast deal with Spotify Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
"Our community is meant to inspire, heal, and empower."
-Naj Austin, founder and CEO of Ethel's Club, the co-working space that centers people of color