Google pledges $37 million to fight racism
Pichai urges employees to stand together in silence to honour lost lives
Washington, June 4: Internet giant Google would give $37 million to fight racism, CEO Sunder Pichai has announced, in the wake of the nationwide protest in the US against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd.
In an email to his employees on Wednesday, the Indian-American CEO of Google and Alphabet, also urged them to stand together in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to honour the “memories of Black lives lost.” Pichai, 47, said the company would be giving $12 million in funding to organisations working to address racial inequities and $25 million in Ad Grants to help organisations fighting racial injustice provide critical information.
“Our first grants of $1 million each will go to our long-term partners at the Center for Policing Equity
and the Equal Justice Initiative. And we’ll be providing technical support through our Google.org Fellows program. This builds on the $32 million we have donated to racial justice over the past five years,” Pichai said.
“Our Black community is hurting, and many of us are searching for ways to stand up for what we believe, and reach out to people we love to show solidarity. “Yesterday, I met with a group of our Black leaders to talk about where we go from here and how we can contribute as Google. We discussed many ideas, and we are working through where to put our energy and resources in the weeks and months ahead,” the 47-year-old CEO said in the email.
The US is in the midst of the biggest civic unrest in the country’s history following the death of 46-year-old Floyd when a white police officer pinned him down and kneeled on his neck as he gasped for breath. The incident has triggered nationwide protests in the country. In some cases, peaceful protests turned violent resulting in large scale looting, damage to properties and monuments, and vehicles being set ablaze. Thousands of people have been arrested. Curfew was imposed in several cities, including New York and Washington DC, as most protests turned violent during the night.