Two big league CEOs have inspired me this week, both of whom were addressing issues of race in distinct — but personal — ways.
The first was Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who showed up at tiny Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens this week to support a get-out-the-vote effort co-hosted by his friend the activist, actor and songman Common.
“For the past year or so, Starbucks Coffee company has tried to use its platform and scale to start a national conversation,” Schultz began. “We’ve been to Ferguson, we’ve been to Oakland, we’ve been to Milwaukee, Houston, Chicago all the places around the country where there has been significant racial tension.”
Schultz has increasingly dedicated himself to the transformation of urban communities through jobs and leadership training, by opening stores in places like Queens, Ferguson, and Chicago. “We really think of Starbucks as a platform,” he tells me later. “I’m very worried about the state of leadership today, particularly around race.”
And the community loves him for it. Nishon Rivers, a Jamaica native — who hilariously framed the preternaturally photogenic Common out of a picture to get a better shot of Schultz — told me that Schultz is nothing less than a local hero. “What Howard is doing, is giving the black youth a chance,” she said, trailing the CEO as he walked the park shaking hands with future voters and baristas.
I’ve got the whole story here.
The second was AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. Check out this clip of his recent remarks at a gathering of the company’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). It’s really worth your time.
He started out saying all the right things about race in a complex world, but then he got personal. Turns out, Stephenson has a black friend. A real one, whom he clearly loves.
The thing was, he had no idea that his highly accomplished friend — a doctor and veteran, to boot — had a long and painful history of race-based mistreatment. Stephenson learned about it when someone had forwarded him a video of his friend discussing race and reconciliation at his predominantly white church. “I was really ashamed that this was new information for me about Chris,” he began, ticking through a list of evidence that the men were, in fact, very close. “How could I not understand the very core that informed his world view about race?”
His point: If two very good friends of different races aren’t talking about it, then what is the hope for the rest of us? Stephenson was humble, vulnerable and turned himself into an ally right on stage.
“We have to start communicating,” he said. Work hard, move into uncomfortable territory and listen to each other. “If this is a dialog that is going to start at AT&T, I feel like it probably ought to start with me.”
Have an inspiring weekend, everyone. You’re working hard, and we see you.
NOTE! We’re switching to a new email provider soon. To ensure delivery of this newsletter, please whitelist or add fortune@email.fortune.com to your address book.
On Point
| Workers, some documented, some not, are responsible for reviving once-dead communities |
| So, what if they’re all deported? DW Gibson, author and gentrification researcher, digs into the lives of some of the thousands of migrants and refugees who are revitalizing flagging local economies with their hard work and taxes. "Even if you could deport mass numbers of people…doing so would erase years’ worth of slow, steady revitalization that immigrants have brought to America’s post-manufacturing towns." |
| The Nation |
| Marvel’s Luke Cage is the superhero we need right about now |
| He’s black, he’s got super-strength, he fights crime, wears a hoodie, and he’s bulletproof. Netflix released the trailer for its new series, Luke Cage, just two weeks after the shooting deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, which brings an undercurrent of poignant commentary to the new show. And series star, Mike Colter, is the right man for the job. “I was acutely aware of what it meant to be black in a society where other people prejudged you.” |
| The Undefeated |
| Tim Burton’s latest movie has a mostly white cast. Here’s why |
| The movie in question is Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculier Children, and what is turning out to be most peculiar for the director is why people keep asking why everyone in the film but Samuel Jackson is white. "Things either call for things, or they don’t. I remember back when I was a child watching The Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct. Like, OK, let’s have an Asian child and a black,” he says. Things go downhill from there. |
| Bustle |
| The National Museum of African American History and Culture is hiring |
| Here’s a dream job for you: Develop social media strategies that help the museum share its content and vision with the world. Even if you’re not qualified, imagine what comes next. A museum that’s designed entirely for the modern age, using digital tools amplify the lessons of the past to heal a stumbling nation. Blessed are the curators, for they shall change minds. |
| USA Jobs |
| A special report from Standing Rock Sioux Nation |
| The Laura Flanders show put together a 25-minute segment on site of the North Dakota pipeline protest, a fight that has focused increasingly on broader issues of environmental stewardship and climate change. The only thing that’s missing? Laura Flanders. The report focuses entire on the voices of the protesters, and is the best exploration yet of both the land and the people. |
| YouTube |
The Woke Leader
| Talking race and empathy with Jeff Chang, David Kyuman Kim and Rebecca Solnit |
| Imagine three of your smartest friends — people who think about politics, current events, race, empathy and love all day, every day — got together to talk about how to change the world by changing ourselves. “It’s not just moral courage, “it’s a willingness to be generous with each other,” begins Kim. The smartest podcast on race I’ve found in ages. Listen and grow. |
| Democracy in Color |
| A video game for an Alaskan native tribe preserves stories and culture |
| Check out episode eleven of this terrific video series from The New Yorker. At the 8:20 mark is “Never Alone” a beautiful video about the creation of an even more beautiful video game that was designed to preserve the language and stories of the Alaska native Iñupiat tribe. Until recently, the tribe had no written form of expression. “One of our biggest struggles has been — how do we remain as a people in this modern world,” says the tribal council president. |
| The New Yorker on Amazon |
| Lyndon Johnson was both a civil rights hero and a racist |
| Hey, you actually can be both! And that’s the message of this terrific analysis by Adam Serwer: That people are complex beings, products of their time, and it makes no sense to gloss over uncomfortable truths in the service of just getting along. The civil rights legislation Johnson was so famous for? He referred to it ‘the nigger bill’ to southern lawmakers, and didn’t particularly care who heard him. |
| MSNBC |
Quote
|
|
|---|
