CEOs decry racism in public, but profit from it in private
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, took a knee last week before cameras at a branch of his bank. Larry Fink, CEO of giant investment fund BlackRock, decried racial bias. Starbucks vowed on Twitter to “stand in solidarity with our Black partners, customers and communities.” Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon wrote on LinkedIn that he grieved “for the lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless other victims of racism.”
And so on across the highest reaches of corporate America, an outpouring of solidarity with those protesting brutal police killings of black Americans and systemic racism.
But most of this is for show.
JPMorgan has made it difficult for black people to get mortgage loans. In 2017, the bank paid
$55 million to settle a justice department lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against minority borrowers. Researchers have found banks routinely charge black mortgage borrowers higher interest rates than white borrowers and deny them mortgages white applicants would have received.
BlackRock is one of the biggest investors in private prisons, disproportionately incarcerating black and Latino men.
Last week, Frederick Baba, an executive at Goldman Sachs who is black, criticized managers for not supporting junior bankers from diverse backgrounds.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes — in the halls of Congress and the corridors of statehouses, in fundraisers and in private candidate briefings with political operatives — the CEOs who condemn racism lobby for and get giant tax cuts and fight off a wealth tax.
As a result, the nation can’t afford anything as ambitious as a massive Marshall Plan to provide poor communities worldclass schools, first-class health care, and affordable housing.
The CEOs resist a living wage and universal basic income. They oppose tighter regulations against red-lining or prohibitions on payday lending, both of which disproportionately burden black and brown people.
Perhaps, most revealingly, they remain silent in the face of Donald Trump’s bigotry. Indeed, many are quietly funding the reelection of a president whose political ascent began with a racist conspiracy theory and who continues to encourage white supremacists.
This goes beyond mere hypocrisy. America’s top CEOs have amassed more wealth and power than at any time since the “robber barons” of the late 19th century.
These new robber barons know that as long as racial animosity exists, white and black Americans are less likely to look upward and see where the wealth and power really has gone.
Racism reduces the odds they will join together to threaten that system. This is not a new strategy. Throughout history, the rich have used racism to divide people and thereby entrench themselves.
Trump is the best thing ever to have happened to the new American oligarchy, and not just because he has given them tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks.
He has also stoked division and racism so that most Americans don’t see CEOs getting exorbitant pay while slicing the pay of average workers and don’t pay attention to the bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign donations.
The only way systemic injustices can be remedied is if power is redistributed. Power will be redistributed only if the vast majority — white, black and brown — join together to secure it.
Which is what the oligarchy fears most.