The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Floyd protests inspire CT businesses to speak out in opposition to racism
Over the past 10 days, Shannon Malkin Daniels and Matt Daniels have watched and read about the protests that have erupted across the U.S. in response to the May 25 killing of George Floyd while he was detained by Minneapolis police.
After soliciting the input of their colleagues, the Stamford-based couple and business partners made the decision for their company to stake a position, which appeared Monday on the homepage and Instagram and Twitter accounts of Encaptiv, the presentation software firm they co-founded.
“We stand with Black Lives Matter. Put an end to racism, hate and injustice,” reads the message, in a white font against a black backdrop.
“Our purpose, our mission and values is all about being collaborative and inclusive and optimistic,” Shannon Malkin Daniels, Encaptiv’s CEO, said in an interview, explaining the decision to post a statement. “Those are some of our core values. We have to live out our mission and values.”
Commercial enterprises aren’t necessarily known for taking positions on political or social issues. Not when there are client and customer bases to potentially alienate — and the risk of appearing opportunistic, even if positions are expressed with good intentions.
But the demonstrations roiling the country, and the tragedy that sparked them, have prodded several businesses, big and small, across the state to shed whatever inhibitions they might have and speak out, on the death of George Floyd, on systemic and historic racism and on the shared responsibility to bring about change.
Speaking out
For many entrepreneurs like the Danielses, a large part of their desire to publicly respond to the protests stems from personal experiences.
“We are a woman- and minority-founded company, and that’s a big part of it,” Shannon Malkin Daniels said. “My husband is my co-founder and he is a black male. And part of our founding team is also African
Americans and Dominicans.”
Among other businesses in southwestern Connecticut that have used social media to speak is Source Coffeehouse in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. On Monday it posted on its Instagram account a quote from Desmond Tutu, the South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
“I feel a responsibility as a white business owner to use my platform and voice and access to fight for (equality and justice) alongside people of color — specifically the black community,” said Source owner Courtney Hartl. “It feels like the bare minimum of what I should be doing right now. That’s really important to us in terms of living our values. I think our values as a company reflect our personal values as well.”
While businesses such as Encaptiv and Source said clients and customers had largely encouraged their expression, they said they would not self-censor if anyone were to criticize their positions.
“I think everybody is just feeling the injustice right now, and that’s what is driving all the unrest,” said Matt Daniels, who contributes to Encaptiv part-time, in addition to a full-time position he has with another company. “Hopefully we can come together as a country and address this issue. We want to do our part in our little corner of the world to shine a light on the injustice and try to advance the nation.”
Shannon Malkin Daniels amplified the Encaptiv messages with posts to her personal social media accounts. In a Facebook post, she reflected on her position as a “privileged white woman” in America.
“We cannot and must not remain silent,” she said in the post. “We must stand up for what is right. All men and women were created equal. We are all children of God. We all deserve the right to go for a walk in the park, enter a store, go for a run, walk home with our hoods up, without being attacked, violated or killed.”
Some of Connecticut’s largest companies have weighed in on the causes of the unrest.
“Like many of you, our family has spent much of the past week watching and absorbing news of the protests over the death of George Floyd,” Chris Hyams, CEO of Stamford-based job-search giant Indeed, said in an open letter Monday to employees.
“This is all taking place in the middle of a terrible global pandemic which has exposed the already significant inequality in the U.S. with disproportionate impact on the black community,” he wrote. “And these are just the most recent examples in a long line of systemic trauma and tragedy that is both mind-numbing and incomprehensible.”
Marc Lautenbach, CEO and president of Stamford-based mailing and shipping firm Pitney Bowes, was another of the Connecticut-based chief executives who spoke out this week.
“We have to do better as a society, a business and as individuals. I’m not sure it does a lot of good to point to progress or trajectory,” Lautenbach said in a blog post Monday addressed to employees. “The plain fact is that we need to have a more inclusive society and a more inclusive business. It’s right for our country and right for our business.”
Among other corporate mainstays in the state, Bristol-based ESPN posted Monday a message on Instagram that it “stands on the side of diversity, inclusion and equity for all. We are one #oneteam.”
Socially conscious social media posts and advertising hardly assure companies of winning over the public. In recent years, companies such as Starbucks and McDonalds produced ads in support of social-justice causes — only for those campaigns to fall flat and elicit widespread criticism from the stakeholders they were trying to back, according to Fred McKinney, a professor of entrepreneurship and strategy in Quinnipiac University’s business school.
“Companies do have an opportunity to provide positive messaging about current societal problems today from unemployment, to the COVID-19 pandemic, to Black Lives Matter,” McKinney said. “But companies need to be careful to strike a tone that is supportive and one that can be backed up with examples of company policy.”