Tech Giants responding to fight against racism in the wake of George Floyd protests

The brutal killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis is one of the most unfortunate incidents that happened this year. Thousands of people all over the nation are showing their support for the Black community in fight against racism.

George Floyd’s death has brought forth the issue of racism once again, and like everybody else, the tech community is deeply saddened by this event. Tech leaders from all over the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and how they are against racism.

All tech leaders have been releasing their statements after the unfortunate event of George Floyd’s death. The big question is if the big tech companies will walk the talk? Only statements will not work here, but we need strong anti-racism policies to be implemented and followed by all tech companies.

Otherwise, these statements which are publicized on Social Media will earn tech leaders good PR, but nothing will ever change. We will all forget about George Floyd and racism in our day-to-day activities, and all these words of anti-racism will be forgotten.

Leaders from the Tech Industry have released similar statements before as well about racism and police killings of unarmed Black people, and this is not a one-off incident. If we are not careful enough or sincere enough in our approach, these incidents might become a norm.

When Michael Brown’s died due to racism way back in 2014, only a few tech leaders shared their thoughts, and most of the big tech giants then did not release any statement. Here are some tweets posted by tech leaders tweeted previously for Michael Brown’s death.

CEO Tim Cook shared a tweet posted on the day of Michael Brown’s death in 2014.

In 2014, Jack Dorsey, the then Twitter’s executive chairman and not yet its CEO, also participated in the protest and tweeted at that time.

Now hundreds of eminent personalities in the tech industry around the world are talking about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism. This shows that the tech industry has changed a lot in the past few years. All tech leaders are talking about changing policies in their companies to eliminate racism. They will be implementing stricter policies to eradicate racism.

Over the years, tech companies are making progress, but this is not enough. Today if you see the board of directors of any major tech company, they are all lacking racial diversity. We need more racial diversity in senior management.

Since the death of George Floyd, many leaders from the biggest tech companies have made public statements expressing solidarity with Black communities. Many tech companies have also donated millions of dollars to fight racial injustice.

This is not the first time the tech industry has responded to racism and the brutal killing of a black person. But, this time, more and more tech leaders are coming to the forefront and supporting the fight against racism.

Here we have listed some tweets by big tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, etc. which are being publicized on social media.

TWITTER

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a tweet “police policy reform now” on twitter.

“Amid the already growing fear and uncertainty around the pandemic, this week has again brought attention to something perhaps more pervasive: the long-standing racism and injustices faced by Black and Brown people on a daily basis.” posted by Twitter’s @TwitterTogether account.

On June 13th, @TwitterForGood posted, “We’re committed to continuing our support for #BlackLivesMatter and organizations fighting for racial equality and justice. We’re donating directly to organizations and maximizing the many contributions of our employees in order to more concretely support the movement.”

APPLE

Tim Cook, the Apple CEO, has announced $100 million for Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. "The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account. Things must change, and Apple's committed to being a force for that change. Today, I'm proud to announce Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment.” Tim Cook said on Twitter.

Cook also published an open letter on the Apple website. In this open letter “Speaking upon racism,” published on June 4th, Tim Cook made several promises:

“We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.”

AMAZON

Amazon published a blog post on June 3rd. In this post, Amazon has also committed to donating “a total of $10 million to organizations that are working to bring about social justice and improve the lives of Black and African Americans.”

“Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and partners, and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live with dignity and free from fear.” reads a blog post published by Amazon on June 3rd.

Here is Amazon’s tweet supporting the Black community.

FACEBOOK

Mark Zuckerberg pledged his support to the Black Lives Matter movement in his note published on his Facebook page. “To members of our Black community: I stand with you. Your lives matter. Black lives matter,” he said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also committed to giving “additional $10 million to groups working on racial justice,” said Mark Zuckerberg in his Facebook post on May 31st.

He also mentioned in his post that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has invested “$40 million annually for several years in organizations working to overcome racial injustice.”

GOOGLE

Sundar Pichai, the Google CEO, also tweeted on May 31st, “Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don’t have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to all Google employees titled “Standing with the Black community,”

Quoting from email

“We’ll be giving $12 million in funding to organizations working to address racial inequities. Our first grants of $1 million each will go to our long-term partners at the Center for Policing Equity and the Equal Justice Initiative. And we’ll be providing technical support through our Google.org Fellows program. This builds on the $32 million we have donated to racial justice over the past five years. We’ll also offer $25 million in Ad Grants to help organizations fighting racial injustice provide critical information.”

“As a result of last week’s internal giving campaign, I‘m pleased to share that you all have contributed an additional $2.5 million in donations that we’re matching. This represents the largest Googler giving campaign in our company’s history, with both the largest amount raised by employees and the broadest participation.”

YouTube will also launch a $100 million fund “dedicated to amplifying and developing the voices of Black creators and artists and their stories,” was announced in an official youtube blog on June 11th.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted for the support of the Black and African American community. He has also retweeted many tweets from Black Microsoft employees shared on Microsoft’s official Twitter account.

Microsoft has also donated $250,000 each to six organizations- Black Lives Matter Foundation, Minnesota Freedom Fund, Equal Justice Initiative, Innocence Project, NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and The Leadership Conference.

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