I Am Skeptical About All the Corporate Love; But I’ll Take It.
“Civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof” ~ John F. Kennedy
Over the last several weeks, organizations that had flooded our in-boxes and timelines with their Coronavirus strategies, have shifted to distributing notices about their reactions to systemic racism, George Floyd’s death and public outcries for changes to policing.
Of all the messages I received, my favorite is from Calm, the meditation and sleep app. I loved their very simple, yet powerful email message:
We are heartbroken.
We are weary.
We want change.
We stand with the Black community.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
Additionally, Calm shared links to mindfulness leaders, authors, movement teachers, and other resources from the Black community.
Although I see the solidarity behind all these positive messages, I also see the professional marketing and promotion folks hard at work in these well timed proclamations. To be totally honest, my initial reaction was skepticism. As I scrolled through the very comprehensive list of resources generously prepared and shared by Calm, I found myself asking - Is this authentic? What is believable here?
I found myself conflicted because as happy as I am to see these messages, is as skeptical I am to see them. That conflict hasn’t dissipated.
I’m thinking that if these messages are a new strategy on behalf of organizations to move towards genuineness, then I want to be grateful and accepting. If this vocalization is real empathy and not just a reaction to collective advocacy from the black community to really, this time, speak with our dollars, be that Buying Black or defunding policing systems - I want to appreciate it. On the other hand, I am thinking, these are just words? As Carl Sagan’s quote, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” plays on my mind, I find myself worried about follow through.
If I indulge my skeptical side, I end up thinking:
I hope these statements are not just the business community’s way of reengaging our consumerism after a recession that we now find out, started in February and had accelerated into a depression by April, because of the Coronavirus.
I hope this corporate positivity is not just a spring fever caused by cabin fever after the Coronavirus shut down. Will it go away when the fever breaks?
I hope it’s not just a way to placate Black Americans by jumping on the latest, newest Black tragedy.
I hope that no organization is seizing this moment to create just another taxable deduction on their balance sheets for helping “those people” who can’t seem to help themselves because right now we aren’t looking for gratuitous handouts or inauthentic gestures.
At the same time, I am overflowing with some positive I-hopes too.
I hope COVID has given all these organizations a new eye for those who bear the brunt of our social inequities be it lack of healthcare, educational resources or the Black man under a police officer’s knee. .
I hope that the Coronavirus pandemic is helping us understand more about our common humanity rising from our fearful, shared experiences with a common enemy.
I hope we are collectively seeing and understanding that it is time to make inclusion more real, more tangible, more foundational in our daily lives, our societal systems and of course, in our business practices.
Yes, I am skeptical and I am owning it, because I realize that skepticism is what happens when we dwell in circles of distrust. We question everything, even the well intended and well meaning gestures from old and new allies. Can you blame us?
So as I wrestle with the ambivalence, I am working hard to focus on the good, the willing and the able who have said with their voices, their signs, their feet and their corporate messages that our society stands a better chance for inclusive long term success and authentic renewal when Black Lives Matter.
I am willing to be hopeful that maybe this time, we couldn’t look away from police brutality because so many of our distractions had been taken away from us by the pandemic and therefore:
Maybe we are in a new era, where once and for all love, empathy and equality will kill and grind out the racism virus which has infected us for so long.
Maybe watching George Floyd’s life light being snuffed out on television at a time when we were all shut in, made us empathize more with what it means to be under the knee of a power over which we feel we have little control.
Maybe it’s that we realize finally, because we are paying attention, that we are the ones we have been waiting for, as we see clearly that where leadership matters, we all need to step up.
Maybe because George Floyd’s death came at a time when most of us were already in a problem solving mode, trying new things and doing old things in new ways as a response to the virus, we feel emboldened to take on new challenges. I am hoping racism is that challenge. I want to believe it is.
I am still skeptical, but right now, I’ll take it, because we need good news and because I think that there are more of us who want to live with love, peace and equality, than there are of those who want to “otherize” and marginalize. I think I understand why some organizations are stepping forward to say they prioritize people in a society that is inclusive, because like Bob Marley restates, we collectively, right now, need to believe in the victory of good over evil.
So, yes, I am skeptical but I’m inspired and hopeful. I am encouraged that words like mindfulness, empathy, brutality, civility, equality, reflection and racism are finding a way into CEO-level emails, executive boardrooms, workplace discussions and onto meeting agendas.
I look forward to the new breath being blown into mission and vision statements across these organizations that are putting themselves in the game. I am hoping that as Zig Ziegler says regarding these new commitments from corporations, “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”
We are watching for the follow through.