Avinash Kaushik - TMAI #216: "Defund The Police."

A silver lining in the recent Black Lives Matter protests, (here's our family), is that there has been an incredible collection of fast action in corporate America.

Facebook, JP Morgan Chase, Walmart, Estee Lauder, and so many more.

CEOs, SVPs, VPs are suddenly hyper-aware that they've been at the helm for a decade or a decade and a half and their entire direct reporting structure is white (with a high male to females ratio).

All of these leaders, for that same decade or decade and a half, had diversity initiatives in place - to varying degrees. It is disappointing that it took recent heartbreaking events to super-sharpen the lens, but I warmly welcome the wake-up call.

Senior leaders, and so many employees, are committing to reading anti-racists books.

This is great. Knowledge is power.

(If you are buying books, please consider buying them from Black-Owned bookstores.)

Companies are holding internal meetings to talk about diversity, specifically African-American diversity, how to create inclusive cultures, and how it is everyone's job.

This is wonderful.

So many companies are donating money to deserving organizations.

This is magnificent.

Here's a partial list, totaling $1.7 billion as of June 10... (compiled by Andrew Taber, Emory University)...

As an Earthling, I welcome these donations with gratitude.

There is so, so, so much work to be done, the money will help.

I sincerely hope that your company - big or small - is also taking some action, demonstrating a commitment to contribute to help solve America's original sin.

If you don't see any action at your company, I humbly request that you consider proposing something meaningful - and I thank you for your courage.

With the sincere generosity on display in the actions, you might consider this sentiment to be preposterous... I feel the companies are not contributing the most important thing they can: Their talent.

We are working against a 400-year history of structurally built-in white supremacy in America. (The 1619 project.)

Understanding that depth and breadth brings a strong appreciation for the fact that with #BLM we are not solving a tactical problem, and, despite the positive actions above, it is not a problem that can be solved in the short term.

Yes, increased self-awareness, internal company meetings on diversity, and the money being donated will bring change. However, given the magnitude of the problem, it will be just a little bit of change.

To give you just a few, random, examples:

.+ Mass incarceration is not going to be solved for decades.

.+ Removing the negative impacts of red-lining will not be solved for decades.

.+ Upgrading schools to ensure every child of color has an equal chance at high-quality education will not change for decades.

.+ Changing school texts so that all Americans learn about a more sophisticated - and complete - view of the Original Sin will take decades.

.+ Changes to Policing will take decades.

.+ And, on, and on, and on.

The list is long.

What we need is a massive change that will take a very long time. Hence, we need a sustained commitment by a lot of individuals and companies.

Since systematic change will take a long time, I strongly believe the number one problem we need to solve for the Black Lives Matter movement is to change the hearts and minds of Americans.

We will desperately need that to sustain change.

Hence, more than the actions mentioned above, for which I am sincerely and deeply grateful, the movement needs the human talent that is concentrated in these big companies.

The brilliant Marketing minds. The insightful Analysts. The savvy Sales people. The empathetic and solutions-oriented Customer Service people. The sharp Finance wizards.

We need all of them - and the non-profits - if we have to have any chance of winning.

Money is good. It is not even close to enough.

To bring this home to you, let me share just one example - a Marketing example of stepping in and contributing a solution.

The slogan Defund the Police sounds excellent on the surface.

With examples upon examples upon examples of police brutality, and African-American men and women being shot to death by police, Defund the Police is aiming to address a real problem.

Except, defund is an incredibly complex and nuanced word.

More than that, it is super duper easy to manipulate, negatively spin, even demonize (for those who have that intent).

Remember on the other side of this issue they have one of the world's greatest copywriter at their disposal.

Like him or dislike him, Make America Great Again (MAGA) is a simple non-nuanced slogan that worked magnificently for him.

Likewise, his ability to boil everything down to "WITCH HUNT!" or "HARASSMENT!" has been proven to be immensely effective with his tribe.

I give him sincere props.

When defund the police started trending, it was quickly morphed by the opposition to imply that there will be no police, there will be murder everywhere, and society will quickly transition into anarchy.

Any positive intent and goals the slogan had? Hijacked.

What we have on our hands is a... Marketing problem!

How to explain something important in the simplest way possible so that most people who want to understand can understand (and not be scared)?

Defund the police is not going to eliminate police. Our society needs police to serve a core function. We have unfairly stretched job responsibilities of the police - listen to Chief David Brown of the Dallas Police Department.

Someone talented has to step in and help solve the Marketing problem.

Here was my attempt at trying to contribute to solving the Marketing problem...

Too many words.

Too much nuance.

Too much ambiguity.

Too much thinking required.

I failed.

I wished someone with better skills than me, a company with courage, with their incredible Marketing talent pool would ride to the rescue and solve this challenge.

No one did.

It is one thing to commit to buying books (good), holding internal meetings on diversity commitments (great), donate money to causes (awesome!), and an entirely different ball game to have the courage to wade into the middle of such an emotional, divisive, issue and take on financial/business risk.

I was feeling sad that driving systematic change is important, here were all these companies saying that, but not important enough for them to help solve hard problems.

: (

But, then someone came riding in from over the horizon to demonstrate that a company is willing to take a financial/business risk!

I saw this on Twitter...

Brilliant, right?

I love it so much!

So simple and easy to understand.

Some small scoops from $115 billion, devoted to resolving the deep-rooted issues that afflict the underprivileged AND, if unaddressed, cause an increase in the need for policing.

Affordable housing. Job training. Education. Mental-health counseling. Substance-abuse treatments.

Yes!

Can you guess the company, even though they were brave enough not to slap their logo on the graphic?

Of course, Ben & Jerry's.

They are a part of a giant company, Unilever - who in turn proved here that a giant company can look past business considerations.

Ben & Jerry's also wrote a fantastic blog post that was real, helpful, called for a specific action. Please read it.

Why don't more large companies, who've hired the best and the brightest humans in the world, step up to contribute to solving long-term massive challenges?

First, it is not easy. To say it requires courage is understating it times 50 million.

Second, the larger the company the more diverse the customer base, and you do this and you'll upset at least some of them (or a whole lot of them). That is scary - even if your morals are screwed in right.

Third, there is a clear financial risk. You can lose business.

Fourth, since you can't take direct credit for this work, for some companies it can be hard to justify.

Just check out the 209 comments on the Ben & Jerry's blog post above. Here's just one:

Michael Tomei: "You guys are a bunch of jerks anti American pig traitors. Never going to buy any of your products again."

Who wants this?

Almost no business.

That is what makes what Ben & Jerry's did so remarkable.

And, that is the type of courage we need from at least some of the forward-thinking large companies to walk their anti-racism talk.

We need the incredible talent, ideas, brilliance locked in companies working in Marketing, Analytics, Customer Service, Sales, Logistics, Finance and every other department.

We need them to work to change hearts and minds about mass incarceration, red-lining, school inequities, teaching the full American history, policing challenges, de-stigmatize mental health and substance abuse, and so many, many problems that fuel systematic racism in this country.

We need them to create visualizations, simple data info-snacks, videos to teach kids, a new curriculum for school, explain the relationships between police budgets and actual crime in America, show the deleterious impact of President Clinton's tough on crime policies, to tell stories about how seek help - and how to support - people with mental health challenges, to galvanize for change at the ballot box.. and so much more.

We need them because it is the only way to maintain a long-term focus required to change America.

Thank you Ben & Jerry's, and Unilever, for your courage, for filling me with hope.

Bottom line: What are your department's plans to sustain a commitment to Black Lives Matter? How will you demonstrate and help drive change for the next 25 years, publicly?

Carpe diem.

Avinash.

PS: Speaking of solving Marketing problems, I love this little girl's effort to simplify complexity!