CIVIL RIGHTS

U.S. Cities Overcome With Outrage

Over the weekend, U.S. cities large and small were engulfed in conflict over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, last Monday. 

• Floyd, who was black, died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee down on Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes while Floyd cried out he couldn't breathe. On Friday, Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder.

Protests broke out in at least 75 U.S. cities

The National Guard was mobilized in 15 states and Washington, D.C. Police cars were set ablaze. Last night, mayors imposed curfews in at least 40 cities, the most since the 1968 protests of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. 

• Some police officers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters, and in cities from New York to Los Angeles looters ransacked stores. 
• Business owners in NYC and elsewhere boarded up their stores to protect against trouble. 

Big picture

Floyd’s death represents another episode in centuries of police violence and systemic racism directed against black Americans. In February, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed as he was jogging in a Georgia neighborhood. In March, EMT Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police. 

This weekend's protests also took place amid the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has leveled a massive toll on public health and the economy. The virus has killed over 100,000 people in the U.S. and more than 40 million have filed for unemployment since mid-March. 

Those hardships have disproportionately harmed the black community. COVID-19 is killing black Americans at a higher rate than any other race, and surveys show about one-quarter of black Americans couldn’t pay rent on time last month with shutdowns in effect, writes Axios. That's resulted in a compounding set of crises fueling anger over persistent inequality.  

COMMS

Corporate America Speaks Up

This weekend, companies across the country expressed anti-racism messages in tweets, official statements, and advertisements. A sampling:  

Target, perhaps Minneapolis’s most prominent company, acknowledged “We are a community in pain.”

• “That pain is not unique to the Twin Cities—it extends across America. The murder of George Floyd has unleashed the pent-up pain of years, as have the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We say their names and hold a too-long list of others in our hearts.” 

Twitter changed its bio to read “#BlackLivesMatter,” and Google added a line supporting racial equality to its home page.

The NFL also released a statement calling for action. But critics slammed the league, saying it shunned Colin Kaepernick after the former QB's protests in 2016. 

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote in a letter to colleagues, “These events are symptoms of a deep and longstanding problem in our society and must be addressed on both a personal and systemic level.”   

Nike released an ad, “For Once, Don't Do It,” calling on Americans to confront the problem of racism in the country.  

Bottom line: Activists say speaking up is a first step. However, meaningful change will require companies to take action, such as by hiring and promoting people of color within their ranks.

SPACE

It Actually Happened

Amid all the pain on Earth, a remarkable sight: a needle streaking through the air, leaving the planet behind.

Elon Musk did it. On Saturday afternoon, SpaceX launched U.S. astronauts from American soil for the first time in nine years. It also became the first private company to send humans into orbit. 

• "I'm really quite overcome with emotion on this day, so it's kind of hard to talk, frankly," said Musk at a post-launch press conference.
• "It's been 18 years working towards this goal, so it's hard to believe that it's happened."

The astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, docked with the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday morning. The journey took 19 hours, which means they got to the ISS quicker than it takes to drive from Boston to Miami. 

What it all means: The launch represents a new era for public-private partnerships in space travel. By allowing SpaceX, Boeing, and others to take the lead, NASA is confident there are enough profit-making opportunities in space to transition from launch operator to customer. 

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LOGISTICS

A Beacon of Disruption in the Supply Chain World

Yesterday, Amazon CEO/successor to Bill Gates as “guy whose name means rich guy” Jeff Bezos became one of the latest investors in U.K. startup Beacon. The logistics tech company raised a total of $15 million in its latest round, which was led by U.S. venture capital firm 8VC and included other Silicon Valley heavy-hitters like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Uber founder Travis Kalanick. 

Beacon’s pitch: Dip chips in two industries—supply chain and tech—with a product that both identifies the best shipping routes and allows manufacturers to finance their payments. 

• Currently, ironfisted demands for upfront distribution payments bog down manufacturers and hurt cash flow.
• By incorporating financing options with 1) real-time data 2) a “marketplace” of prices and shipping costs and 3) an algorithm that calculates the best routes, Beacon hopes to become an attractive alternative to freight forwarding incumbents like DHL. 

You should know, the Beacon folks graduated magna cum laude from the University of Logistics. One of Beacon’s founders helmed Uber's operations in Europe, while its CTO used to head engineering for Amazon’s logistics division. But bringing Bezos on board is the ultimate stamp of approval. 

CALENDAR

The Week Ahead

Happy Pride!

Monday: ISM manufacturing index; Amtrak’s Acela service will resume

Tuesday: Monthly vehicle sales; Zoom earnings

Wednesday: ADP employment report; earnings (Campbell Soup, Cinemark) 

Thursday: Jobless claims; international trade; earnings (Slack, DocuSign, Gap Inc.)

Friday: May jobs report (unemployment could hit almost 20%); National Donut Day

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Target, Apple, Whole Foods, and other retailers scaled back their business operations due to protests.
• Google postponed the unveiling of its Android 11 beta this week due to current unrest in the U.S.
• NYC’s finance industry won’t recover from the coronavirus hit until 2026, a ThinkIQ analysis projects.
• A tracker of where people are actually going once state economies reopen.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a phone call with President Trump on Friday, one day after Trump signed an executive order loosening legal protections for social media companies, Axios reports.

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BREW'S BETS

Ways to take action after the death of George Floyd: Other than the Equal Justice Initiative, here's another list of options, including a GoFundMe set up by George's brother. 

Things we found powerful this weekend:

1. Rapper Killer Mike addressing Atlanta protesters in an emotional speech on Friday night
2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's op-ed in the LA Times
3. A photo gallery from protests around the country
4. Learning about the Tulsa race massacre, which marks its 99th anniversary today. Read more about the community once known as "Black Wall Street."

CROSSWORD

Sample clue: Like some toothpaste (five letters).

Find out what it is by playing the crossword .