Black Amazon employees, many working in warehouses, urge Jeff Bezos to match his rhetoric on racial justice with actions to address “systemic” racial bias
From racist graffiti to missed promotions, employees say a “systemic pattern of racial bias” permeates the company. Tweets: @kyweise , @kyweise , @kyweise , @kyweise , @teamcoworker , @kyweise , and @staceynycdc Tweets: Karen Weise / @kyweise : Amazon's 1 yr moratorium on selling facial recognition to police was “great start,” one employee wrote on an internal website, but the company shouldn't build products “perpetuating biases and injustices to black and brown communities.” 4/ Karen Weise / @kyweise : Some retailers made Juneteenth a holiday, & Bezos told staff to cancel their meetings. Amazon's warehouse employees were encouraged to wear black shirts to work. “What does a black shirt do for anybody in terms of social justice?” Adrienne Williams, a contract driver said 5/ Karen Weise / @kyweise : His complaint is part of rising employee pressure within Amazon's ranks to address its own inequities as a company with few black executives that depends on black labor 2/ Karen Weise / @kyweise : Weeks BEFORE George Floyd was killed, a group of corporate employees wrote to Jeff Bezos saying Amazon adopted the entrenched racism that plagued America, as seen in the “homogeneity” of leadership vs “the rich racial and ethic diversity amongst our hourly worker population” 3/ @teamcoworker : “Some of Amazon's employees said there was one big problem with [Bezos'] suggestion: For the vast majority of Amazon's Black workers, canceling a meeting is not an option. They work in Amazon's fulfillment operations.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Karen Weise / @kyweise : For months, Amazon didn't investigate who repeatedly drew racist graffiti in its bathrooms like “N— go back to Africa,” warehouse worker Johnnie Corina said. “To not do any interventions is really not a safe environment for a black person,” he told me. 1/ https://www.nytimes.com/... Stacey E. Singleton / @staceynycdc : “Amazon stands out bc it has a large percentage of black employees — more than a quarter of its 500K person domestic work force, most of them in hourly jobs at its sprawling logistics operations, where they earn far less than their corporate counterparts.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Expand More For Next Unexpand More For Next
Amazon's 1 yr moratorium on selling facial recognition to police was “great start,” one employee wrote on an internal website, but the company shouldn't build products “perpetuating biases and injustices to black and brown communities.” 4/
Some retailers made Juneteenth a holiday, & Bezos told staff to cancel their meetings. Amazon's warehouse employees were encouraged to wear black shirts to work. “What does a black shirt do for anybody in terms of social justice?” Adrienne Williams, a contract driver said 5/
His complaint is part of rising employee pressure within Amazon's ranks to address its own inequities as a company with few black executives that depends on black labor 2/
Weeks BEFORE George Floyd was killed, a group of corporate employees wrote to Jeff Bezos saying Amazon adopted the entrenched racism that plagued America, as seen in the “homogeneity” of leadership vs “the rich racial and ethic diversity amongst our hourly worker population” 3/
“Some of Amazon's employees said there was one big problem with [Bezos'] suggestion: For the vast majority of Amazon's Black workers, canceling a meeting is not an option. They work in Amazon's fulfillment operations.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
For months, Amazon didn't investigate who repeatedly drew racist graffiti in its bathrooms like “N— go back to Africa,” warehouse worker Johnnie Corina said. “To not do any interventions is really not a safe environment for a black person,” he told me. 1/ https://www.nytimes.com/…
“Amazon stands out bc it has a large percentage of black employees — more than a quarter of its 500K person domestic work force, most of them in hourly jobs at its sprawling logistics operations, where they earn far less than their corporate counterparts.” https://www.nytimes.com…
Microsoft just made a concrete pledge: double the # of Black managers, senior individual contributors & senior leaders in the U.S. by 2025 Why are so many orgs getting away with window dressing (let's make Juneteenth a holiday) instead of real commitments to redistribute power? h…
I'm proud of how Microsoft isn't just giving away money (which is important as well), but effectively working towards a more diverse environment to address the racial injustices https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
I hope no one is tired of me saying I'm proud of this company? Ok good. I'm proud of this company taking real, meaningful, lasting action to change outcomes for Black men and women who deal with systematic racism every day. https://twitter.com/...
Spurred by protests and calls to end systemic racism after George Floyd, Google & FB vowed to hire more Black people. If this sounds depressingly familiar, that's because it is. The industry has been making similar pledges for years, with little progress. https://www.bloomberg.co…
Microsoft's made the most substantial D&I announcements in big tech so far 1. Commitment to grow Black leaders by 100% in 5 years (other techs said 30%) 2. Program to get star mid-level Black employees to director level 3. VP/GM bonuses also depend on D&I https://blogs.microsoft.…