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CEOs Need to Treat Racism Like the Pandemic It Is
How to reimagine companies in the era of Black Lives Matter
The coronavirus has forced businesses to uncomfortably rethink the nature of work for the perceivable future. Employers and CEOs are having to retool the idea of what a job looks like from every conceivable angle. Companies that bowed to the sanctity of offices are now considering permanent work-from-home policies. Offices that stay open are figuring out how to make sure employees are safe with measures like tracing and temperature checks without being too invasive of privacy.
Eventually, we will return to offices that look and feel vastly different than the places we left in March. While employers may have gone to great lengths to develop plans that keep everyone safe from Covid-19, their work is not done. Because there’s another American crisis that requires businesses to wholly reshape their practices from the ground up.
On May 25, a video emerged of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, killing him. Since then, the country has erupted in protests and riots. We have seen innumerable videos of police assaulting Black people every single night. We’ve been inundated with the news of more killings like those of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. The president essentially declared war on protesters and called them thugs. It feels like war. There isn’t a single Black person in America who is okay right now. We are mentally and physically drained. We are hurt. We are scared. We are being torn apart.
Black Americans have been protesting for centuries, but this feels different. This feels like a national uprising and that America has gone to a place it’s never gone before. The country will come out of this catastrophe a vastly different nation than it was a month ago. So, just like businesses have to change their realities following Covid-19, they have to do the very same in the era of Black Lives Matter. It’s time for CEOs to reimagine every facet…
