"Is it right that whites have 10 times the wealth?" a former P&G executive asks. "We are dealing with systems that are making choices for everyone."
A regular installment about race and money in America, from the authors of "The Black Dollar"
Good morning. Many of you replied to us last week that you were moved by the information we shared about Kevin Strickland, the Missouri man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 42 years then released with no compensation.
One reader shared research about the compensation policies of other states. We have included that at the end of the newsletter. But first…
The Q&A.
Barron Witherspoon started his career at Procter & Gamble more than 36 years ago, after graduating from Tuskegee University, the school founded in the late 1800s by Booker T. Washington.
Barron worked in advertising at P&G, then ran the company’s paper products business then moved to Singapore and ran all of its Asian customer-facing operations. He has long had an interest in bringing up other Black leaders and has been active with organizations like The Executive Leadership Council and INROADS, two non-profits that are focused on bringing more diversity into corporate leadership
In 2019, he was tapped by the company’s CEO to lead the Corporate Race Initiative, to "define, declare and demonstrate the specific role corporations should play in improving racial equity in America." That initiative spanned beyond P&G to include leaders from more than 20 companies around the world.
Recently retired, Barron recently reconnected with Ebony to continue a conversation he, Louise and Ebony started months ago.
Ebony: You’ve been working at improving the picture for Black Americans for decades, where do you think we stand today?
Barron: Let’s be honest about the current state of play. Is it right that whites have 10 times the wealth? They go on with explanations about white people versus Black people and how white people deserve to have more wealth than Black people. It gets indefensible at some point. Every one of these disparities have the same kind of ending. That’s because we are dealing with systems that are making choices for everyone.
Ebony: What is the role of companies in addressing this public policy issue?
Barron: We believe areas like education, access to education, employment, wealth generation are areas where there is sound logic that corporations should get involved. The consumer is demanding change, yesterday. And the younger that customer base is, the least its tolerance is for inaction. We saw this change with sustainability. Ten years ago no one was talking about that. Now you can’t find a company in the world that doesn’t have a sustainability plan.
Ebony: So, what should companies do around racial inequity?
Barron: Companies have political action committees because they want to advocate for issues that they feel are relevant to their business. A lot of times it’s in tax policy. I think because there's already that precedent for those kinds of policy interventions and policy action, it's clearly an option for companies to think about doing that with respect to social policies.
Before I retired, I was involved in the CEO Action for Racial Equity. That is a great example of companies large and small, forming coalitions, working together with the specific objective of impacting public policy on race. There may have been a time when companies were nervous about that, but companies are clearly forming coalitions. They're sharing practices and they're looking to make an impact in these areas, primarily because their employees are demanding it and their consumers are demanding it.
Ebony: It certainly got many people’s attention last spring when dozens of CEO’s joined together to speak out about voting rights. Internally, how should a company think about improving the picture within its own walls?
Barron: With racial equity, one of the first things you should examine is what is the nature of the environment that has been created within a company for the attraction, retention and growth and development of people? What is the nature of that environment, does that environment produce an unbiased outcome? If we were to examine the recruiting, would we see that no matter your background, would we see you have equal opportunity for jobs and promotions?
Ebony: Lots of corporate diversity efforts focus on recent college graduates. Will that move the needle changing culture within companies?
Barron: Do we care about the young talent we are spending all this time recruiting, do we really care about them or is it purely transactional? We have jobs, and they need jobs. Be grateful you have a job, don’t come here asking about promotions.
The way to flip that is you diversify at the top, up front. You don’t wait for people just to go and get there in 20 years. The young recruit comes in and they can see themselves in the future fabric of the company. If they cannot see themselves in the future fabric, no amount of selling is going to square the circle.
By the way, a lot of companies know this, so what they do is they manage compensation rewards and recognition in order to drive retention despite the fact that people are never going to reach their career objectives. They just make it harder and harder for you to leave.
Ebony: Will the corporate awakening around racial diversity be short-lived?
Barron: It’s what you can do inside the walls of your company, and what you can do outside the walls. Outside walls, it’s about picking what areas of disparity you want to do something about.
It will not be resolved in a blink of an eye. We will have to be steadfast, clear and address on multiple fronts simultaneously. Be about remedies. It’s easy for anyone to cite conditions and come in and talk about what’s wrong, but be about remedies about what we can and should change.
The Latest Highlights.
Eminent Domain v. Atonement: As we’ve interviewed Black Americans for our book project, “The Black Dollar,” several recurring themes continue to emerge. One is the use of eminent domain to move Black neighborhoods for industry needs. The City of Athens used eminent domain to force 50 Black families out of Linnentown in Athens, Georgia. It was a once thriving Black neighborhood of trades workers, Char Adams of NBC News reports. Some who lived in Linnentown are now urging leaders in Athens to pay for destroying their community more than 50 years ago.
New Businesses tackle Black Health: Black entrepreneurs are launching startups that aim to close health care’s racial gap with technology — and create profitable businesses at the same time. Cara Anthony of Kaiser Health News reports, “In the same way Uber Eats and Grubhub revolutionized food delivery, Black tech health startups across the United States want to change how people exercise, how they eat and also how they communicate with doctors.”
Reparations for Black Bostonians?: Another topic that continuously comes into discussion in our reporting of “The Black Dollar,” is whether reparations are owed to Black Americans. In Boston, at-large City Councilor Julia Mejia is leading an effort to establish a commission that would examine the negative effects of slavery and racial discrimination on Boston’s Black residents. Part of her effort is to also examine how the city can repair the damage, Darryl Murphy of WBUR reports. Two other cities — Evanston, Illinois and Asheville, North Carolina - have established reparations programs in recent months.
Fighting for Jobs: People released from prison are fighting laws that keep punishing them. Keri Blakinger of The Marshall Project reports, “In many states, people with certain criminal records can’t serve on juries or become foster parents. Most of the more than 40,000 collateral consequences on the books, though, apply to employment.” And these post conviction bans put many on the road back to prison.
Compensating People Who Were Wrongfully Imprisoned: Last week, we wrote about Kevin Strickland in Missouri, who was wrongfully jailed for 42 years. We received a strong response from many of you seeking more information about how often this happens to people. To get a feel for the sorts of exonerations that have happened, explore this database from three universities.
In terms of the money, the federal government, 37 states and D.C. have compensation statutes, according to The Innocence Project, a group that advocates for the release of wrongfully imprisoned people. “The following 13 states do not have compensation laws: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming.”
That said, many compensation laws do not cover all cases. In Missouri, for instance, where Kevin Strickland was in jail, there is a compensation law, but it didn’t cover his case because he was not released due to DNA evidence. This is a topic that is of interest to us and we’ll keep watching it for you. Special thanks to a reader for sharing information on it with us.
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UPDATE: We have corrected a typo in Witherspoon’s remarks. A line midway through the interview has been corrected to read: “A lot of times it’s in tax policy.”
