Like many Black leaders, Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work, worried there’d be violence after the release of a video last week showing Memphis police brutally beating Tyre Nichols.
“I have been to City Hall in my city yesterday and today to [ensure] out-of-towners don’t create foolishness tonight,” he wrote in a candid email exchange. “Tyre Nichols and his compassionate and peaceful family have once again paid the ultimate price to create the world we seek.”
Police reform, top of mind for Bush, is also on the agenda for tonight’s State of the Union address. The Congressional Black Caucus had pushed President Joe Biden to support new police reform legislation publicly, specifically the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last March. The legislation introduces several new measures to increase police accountability, including a registry of officers with records of violence.
Nichols’ parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, will attend the address and sit in the first lady’s box tonight.
“We need to get that bill passed,” RowVaughn Wells told mourners at her son’s funeral. “Because if we don’t, that blood, that next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands.”
Critics fall along predictable lines.
The conservative Heritage Foundation argues that the bill, which also bans no-knock warrants and prevents state and local police departments from receiving surplus military equipment, would make police officers less safe. Many progressive groups, like the Movement for Black Lives, argue that the proposed reforms simply rehash old strategies that have never worked and don’t prioritize the needs of marginalized communities.
Bush, along with Nichols’ parents, finds hope in the swift action of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, who abandoned the typical investigative delay tactics and immediately fired the officers involved and disbanded the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods (SCORPION) unit, which she created in 2021 to address the high levels of violence in certain neighborhoods. (Davis had led a similar and similarly unpopular specialized policing unit she inherited as a commander in Atlanta in the 2000s.)
Five officers have since been charged with murder.
“She has done what has never been done before, or rarely done before,” Bush told me, saying her lived experience as a Black woman, combined with actual position power, is a win for diversity. “Cerelyn innovated. I believe she has set a standard of leadership that will give us a new standard for what is possible in law enforcement. The result is a tectonic change in law enforcement and safer communities.”
While change is slow and often messy, representation matters.
“This is needed in corporations as well. The same benefits await us if we have the courage to make decisions that have not been made before,” Bush says. “Every CEO loves ‘diversity of thought.’ While people debate the need for other dimensions, they somehow don’t debate this one. To apply diversity of thought to history means we need people who think differently to ask questions, think critically, analyze data, and test all assumptions.”
And it’s why leaving police reform in the hands of a polarized Congress feels like a performative exercise, a dereliction of duty that forces ordinary people, as Bush says, to create the world we seek.
Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn, says the assignment has now been passed to others.
“The only thing that’s keeping me going is that I truly believe that my son was sent here on assignment from God,” she said tearfully at her son’s funeral. “And I guess now his assignment is done. He’s gone home.”
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Ruth Umoh.
On point
Students in Central Falls, R.I., are reshaping local democracy
It turns out education does matter. Students in Central Fall High School, in the state’s poorest city, have instituted a new budgeting model that gives them a say in how their school allocates $10,000. The model, known as participatory budgeting, offers stakeholders a direct say in how public funds are spent. The students who participated in the elective class have inspired lawmakers, says City Council President Jessica Vega, who helped launch the elective.
Boston Globe
Beyoncé was robbed, again
Well, sort of. The 2023 Grammy Awards, held last Sunday, were resplendent in their boldness and star power, and while the queen did not win (again) album of the year, she did win for Best Electronic/Dance Album for Renaissance, making her the most Grammied artist of all time. (She went on to win Best Dance/Electronic Recording for “Break My Soul.”) In her acceptance speech, she acknowledged the LGBTQ community's contributions to the album. “I’d like to thank the queer community for your love and for inventing the genre,” she said. Lizzo won! Bonnie Raitt won! Bad Bunny won! Kendrick Lamar won! Oh, Harry Styles was there, too.
CNN
The LGBTQ community was also robbed, again
Despite the significant outcry, Dave Chappelle won the Best Comedy Album Grammy for The Closer, the controversial set that centered transphobic material, further amplified as a Netflix special. “Dave Chappelle’s brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities,” GLAAD tweeted when the show based on the album aired last year. “Negative reviews and viewers loudly condemning his latest special is a message to the industry that audiences don’t support platforming anti-LGBTQ diatribes.”
Paste Magazine
Do you work for one of the World’s Most Admired Companies?
Now in its 25th year, Fortune's annual list is a peer-ranked grouping of some of the world’s largest global companies. Only 50 companies made the cut, and there were some interesting changes this year. At No. 7, Costco bested supply chain woes and reached its highest spot ever; while streaming giant Netflix fell 20 spots amid, well, you know. The same company has been in the top spot for 16 years. Click through for more surprises.
Fortune
On Background
Who would raise the alarm you if you went missing?
Speaking of criminal justice reform, a fascinating graphic project from Columbia Journalism Review asks, “How much press are you worth?” It’s a look at “missing white woman syndrome,” or the practice of mainstream media to focus attention on young, white women who have been abducted or disappeared. Enter your race, sex, and location, and you get a number that signifies where you sit on a scale of media coverage. Your fearless correspondent would only rate 14 articles, whereas white women in urban areas would get 128. (Hat tip to longtime raceAhead reader Jonathan Dunnett.)
Are You Press-worthy?
Parting words
"My vision is to bring viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and through my lens."
—A quote from Tyre Nichols, used to launch his celebration of life tribute, which included his photo and video work
