{"id":21624,"date":"2020-06-08T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2586311"},"modified":"2020-06-08T15:44:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T15:44:00","slug":"big-tech-companies-are-responding-to-george-floyd-in-a-way-they-never-did-for-michael-brown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/06\/08\/big-tech-companies-are-responding-to-george-floyd-in-a-way-they-never-did-for-michael-brown-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Big tech companies are responding to George Floyd in a way they never did for Michael Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/span>Photo illustration by William Joel | Photography by Michael B. Thomas\/AFP via Getty Images,  Stephen Maturen\/Getty Images<\/small><\/p>\n

This week, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and their peers put out statements of solidarity against racial injustice. Let’s revisit their stunning silence six years ago.<\/p>\n

In the days since the death of George Floyd, technology’s biggest companies and their leaders have made public statements expressing solidarity with Black communities. The communications — which, really, are press releases — condemn racism and call for unity. Some at least name George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Some have said “Black Lives Matter” outright.<\/p>\n

More meaningfully, many companies have committed donations to causes fighting racial injustice in the millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

So some of the wealthiest businesses in the world are showing up in a moment when the national attention has turned to racial injustice. But surely, they must have shown up before? It hasn’t even been six years since the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown spurred the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Many of those companies’ CEOs found time to publicly participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money for ALS, so surely they spared a moment to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter in 2014, right?<\/p>\n

Let’s compare the corporate response today with what was said six years ago. We researched responses to the events of 2014 through online searches, checking company newsrooms, and sweeping social media accounts:<\/p>\n

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Amazon<\/h2>\n

2020<\/h3>\n

“We believe Black lives matter,” reads a blog post published on June 3rd. Amazon 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.” Amazon’s Black Employee Network will also be given a grant to “fund local organizations that support education and racial equality initiatives in communities across the country where our employees live and work.”<\/p>\n

Here is Amazon’s tweet committing to solidarity with the Black community.<\/p>\n

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