‘Consequences Culture’: Corporate Accountability For Failing To Defend Voting Rights

Among Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s many compelling words are these, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

The John Roberts Supreme Court, and then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have pointedly asserted that “corporations are people, my friend.” If so, corporations cannot be allowed to hide behind the corporate veil when it comes to corporate accountability for failing to defend voting rights, when so much corporate money flows to politicians and is spent on behalf of politicians who have engaged in Jim Crow voter suppression.

There  must be corporate accountability for these awful politicians and the un-American policies that corporate money funded.

This is not a time for corporations to be silent. Silence is complicity. Silence is consent.

The New York Times reports, Corporations, Vocal About Racial Justice, Go Quiet on Voting Rights:

As Black Lives Matter protesters filled the streets last summer, many of the country’s largest corporations expressed solidarity and pledged support for racial justice. But now, with lawmakers around the country advancing restrictive Jim Crow voting bills that would have a disproportionate impact on Black voters, corporate America has gone quiet.

Silence is complicity. Silence is consent.

Last week, as Georgia Republicans rushed to pass a sweeping law restricting voter access, Atlanta’s biggest corporations, including Delta, Coca-Cola and Home Depot, declined to weigh in, offering only broad support for voting rights. The muted response — coming from companies that last year promised to support social justice — infuriated activists, who are now calling for boycotts.

“We are all frustrated with these companies that claim that they are standing with the Black community around racial justice and racial equality,” said LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “This shows that they lack a real commitment to racial equity. They are complicit in their silence.”

On Thursday, hours after the Georgia voting restrictions were signed into law, Ms. Brown joined protesters at the Atlanta airport calling for a boycott of Delta, Georgia’s largest employer. In front of the Delta terminal, they lobbied for employees to pressure their employer and urged the airline’s chief executive, Ed Bastian, to use his clout to sway the debate.

Delta is a major corporate supporter of the gay community, and was among the many major companies that last year said it stood with the Black community after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. At the time, Delta said it would look for ways to “make an impact and take a stand against racism and injustice, from programs to policy changes.”

The right to vote is the most fundamental constitutional right, which makes all other rights possible.

But last week, Delta declined to comment on the Georgia legislation specifically, instead issuing a statement about the need for broad voter participation and equal access to the polls.

“It’s a double standard,” Ms. Brown said.

Coca-Cola, another major Atlanta employer, faced similar pressure as the new law took shape. Last summer, Coca-Cola’s chief executive, James Quincey, said the company would “invest our resources to advance social justice causes” and “use the voices of our brands to weigh in on important social conversations.”

In the face of Jim Crow voter suppression – the sound of crickets chirping. Coca-Cola remained silent. Coca-Cola was complicit.

[L]ast week, rather than take a position on the then-pending legislation, Coca-Cola said it was aligned with local chambers of commerce, which were diplomatically calling on legislators to maximize voter participation while avoiding any pointed criticisms.

Offering only empty platitudes, while not actually doing anything to live up to its supposed commitment. It was a betrayal.

That smacked of hypocrisy to Bishop Reginald Jackson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who spoke at a rally outside the Georgia Capitol on Thursday. Speaking into a bullhorn, Mr. Jackson quoted Mr. Quincey’s statements from last summer as a point of contrast to the company’s tepid engagement with the legislation.

“We took him at his word,” Mr. Jackson said. “Now, when they try to pass this racist legislation, we can’t get him to say anything. And our position is, if you can’t stand with us now, you don’t need our money, you don’t need our support.”

Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a Black pastor who was elected in January, called out companies for their muted responses in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

“I’ve seen these corporations falling over themselves every year around the time of the King holiday, celebrating Dr. King,” Senator Warnock said. “The way to celebrate Dr. King is to stand up for what he represented: voting rights.”

Corporate America’s guarded approach to the partisan issue of voting rights stands in stark contrast to its engagement with other social and political issues in recent years. When legislatures advanced “bathroom bills” that would have discriminated against people who are transgender, many big companies threatened to pull out of states like Indiana, Georgia and Texas [and Arizona].

And over the past four years, many big companies spoke out against President Donald J. Trump on issues including climate change, immigration and white supremacy.

“It’s not as though corporations are unwilling to speak powerfully about social justice issues,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. “It seems to me perfectly legitimate for Black voters in Georgia [and elsewhere] to expect them to speak just as powerfully and directly about what is an unwarranted attack on the ability of Black voters to participate in the political process.”

In recent weeks, only a few consistently progressive corporations publicly addressed the new laws head on.

“A person’s right to cast their ballot is the foundation of our democracy,” Salesforce said on Twitter. Criticizing an early version of the Georgia bill, it added: “Georgia H.B. 531 would limit trustworthy, safe & equal access to voting by restricting early voting & eliminating provisional ballots. That’s why Salesforce opposes H.B. 531 as it stands.”

See, was that so hard? And it didn’t cost Salesforce anything to say it. It’s not like they paid their corporate lobbyists to actively lobby the Georgia legislature against this voter suppression bill. Salesforce got some “good will” without expending any capital on actively working to defeat this bill. Isn’t that how most corporations operate?

Patagonia, which has worked to increase voter participation, condemned the new bills and called on other companies to get more involved.

“Our democracy is under attack by a new wave of Jim Crow bills that seek to restrict the right to vote,” Ryan Gellert, the chief executive of Patagonia, said in a statement. “It is urgent that businesses across the country take a stand — and use their brands as a force for good in support of our democracy.”

At least Patagonia made a good faith effort.

“The voice of individual leaders is oddly muted,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management who regularly gathers chief executives to talk about controversial issues. “For the most part, they are not yet taking the same courageous stands they have taken on election ballot counting and the election results this fall, let alone on immigration, gun safety and the infamous bathroom bills.”

After four years of responding to the often extreme policies of the Trump administration, many companies are seeking to stay out of political fights.

And the voting bills are being driven by mainstream Republican lawmakers, rather than lesser-known right-wing figures. Companies that take a stand might have a harder time currying favor with those lawmakers on other issues down the line [- like corporate welfare tax cuts?]

“This is not the fringe members trying to push bathroom bills,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, the chief executive of Fair Fight, a voter-rights group founded by Stacey Abrams. “This is a priority for the party at the national level. For companies to speak out and work against these bills is very different.”

Ms. Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said there was another factor at play as well: race. “Why is it that corporations that could speak so powerfully and unequivocally in opposition to discrimination against the L.G.B.T.Q. community and immigrants are not speaking as clearly about the disenfranchisement of Black people?” she said. “It’s the same thing. This is a race issue.”

Companies have effectively squashed bills at the state level before. In 2016, when lawmakers were advancing the bathroom bills, major corporations said they would move jobs out of states that adopted such measures. Responding to one such bill in Georgia in 2016, the Walt Disney Company said, “We will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law.”

The tactic was effective. Many of those bills were tabled as lawmakers responded to the threats of lost business. [See, The ‘show me your papers before you pee’ bill is dead, for now (2013), and again in 2014, sponsored by “fringe” Rep. John Kavanagh.]

This time around, however, the entertainment industry has taken a more guarded approach.

When asked for comment, Disney, Netflix, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and ViacomCBS either said they had no public comment or did not respond to queries. The Motion Picture Association, Hollywood’s lobbying organization, declined to comment, as did Amazon Studios, which six months ago released “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” a documentary about efforts by Ms. Abrams and other activists to tear down voting barriers in Georgia and elsewhere. WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T, said its corporate parent was working with local chambers of commerce to promote “accessible and secure voting.”

The fight in Georgia is likely a preview of things to come. Lawmakers in dozens of states have proposed similar voting bills, and activists are planning to ramp up the pressure on corporate America as the battle over voting rights goes national.

Corporate platitudes “were cold comfort to activists who had worked against the efforts to curb voter rights.”

“They have made soft statements rather than stepping out,” Ms. Groh-Wargo of Fair Fight said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post makes a salient point, Corporations will oppose voting rights unless they pay a price – make them pay a price:

[C]orporate America, which made a public show of support during Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer and has in the past boycotted states over harsh immigration laws and laws discriminating against transgender people, has at best been silent and at worst supportive of the Jim Crow-style legislation.

The Post reports, “Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines . . . put out a statement on Friday saying the bill — which was signed into law Thursday night — had ‘improved considerably during the legislative process’ and noted some elements for praise.” Soon, the hashtag #BoycottDelta was trending.

Coca-Cola issued a mealy-mouthed statement: “We will continue to identify opportunities for engagement and strive for improvements aimed at promoting and protecting the right to vote in our home state and elsewhere.” It sounded as though a team of executives worked long and hard to make certain their comments were indecipherable.

Their utter indifference to this assault on democracy — unlike their vow to deny donations to those who tried to overthrow the election — has not gone unnoticed:

Yes, I’m saying it. Corporations took bold action against state anti-LGBTQ bills, against gun violence and to stop climate change. But Georgia passes a law striking at the heart of Black citizenship and we get silence & timidity. It’s a disgrace. https://t.co/uIwXeYHxSF pic.twitter.com/iNwNgixswt

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) March 29, 2021

Broken Promises: corporations that vowed to deny donations to those who tried to overthrow the election are giving money again to the insurrectionists. These Mega-Businesses Are Already Back to Bankrolling Insurrectionists: The Daily Beast identified four companies that appear to have gone back on their suspension of donations to GOP election objectors: AT&T, Cigna Health, Ford Motors, and Pfizer.

Georgia voting-rights leader Stacey Abrams denounced the corporations’ spinelessness, as well. She recently said during a teleconference that “there should be no silence from the business community when anyone in power is trying to strip away the right to vote from the people.”

Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) stopped short of calling for boycotts [for now], but he expressed his extreme displeasure on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I think we all have to use our voices. And I have to tell you, as the pastor of Ebenezer Church, I have seen these corporations falling over themselves every year around the time of the King holiday celebrating Dr. King,” he said. “I think that the way to celebrate Dr. King is to stand up for what he represented, voting rights. And so we will see how all of that plays out.”

One can only speculate as to why these companies are refusing to act as decent corporate citizens. Perhaps Republicans are so determined to suppress voting that they have exercised substantial pressure on corporations. Perhaps these companies think Congress will step in and absolve them of the need to voice stronger criticism. Certainly, these corporations know it is difficult for politicians to champion a boycott of their own state, which threatens the livelihoods of the people these laws target.

What can be done? It should not fall to just Black politicians or civic leaders to do the heavy lifting. Americans who value their democracy can and should voice their displeasure so as to inflict public embarrassment or pain on corporations that think there is no downside to cuddling up to voter suppressors.

Employees can protest or take collective action. Shareholders can voice their condemnation. Consumers can find another airline to fly or another soda to drink [voting with your feet]. Ordinary citizens can protest at corporate headquarters.

Note: The 50 biggest companies in Arizona. Start with their public statements, and reviewing their social media accounts: have they said anything at all about the raft of Jim Crow voter suppression bills being pushed by authoritarian anti-democratic Republicans in the Arizona legislature? Or are they complicit, by remaining silent because they want that corporate welfare tax cut that Governor Doug Ducey promised them? Are they betraying our American democracy for “40 pieces of silver”?

If Black Lives Matter protests got corporations’ attention, a similar multiracial, multigenerational peaceful uprising may be needed once more. In any event, these corporations reveal their own spinelessness and arrogance in attempting to skirt the single-most important civil rights issue of our time. They have chosen to side with the opponents of democracy, and millions of Georgians are unlikely to forget it.

The Arizona legislature usually wraps up by early June, if not sooner. Summer in Arizona comes early. The time has come for a new Freedom Summer, some 57 years after the original Mississippi Summer Project to register voters in Mississippi.

The Arizona  Summer Project should attempt to register every eligible voter who is not currently registered to vote. Estimated voting age population as of July 1, 2019: 5,638,481 (2020 Census data not yet available). Registered voters as of January 2021: 4,300,058 (AZ Secretary of State). That is over 1.3 million eligible voters to be registered.

There also needs to be a public pressure campaign brought to bear against the corporations that have financially supported these Jim Crow Republicans in the Arizona Legislature, and who have remained silent during this un-American assault on our American democracy. Silence is complicity. Silence is consent. Review office holders’ campaign finance disclosure statements to identify their contributors. These corporations need to be called out and publicly shamed for supporting Jim Crow voter suppression.

These corporations need to hear from you directly. Send a letter or email. You can vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere. There should be employee and shareholder protests. Protest at their corporate headquarters. (Authoritarian anti-democratic Republicans in the Arizona Legislature will no doubt attempt to pass a law to classify this as a felony, to suppress your First Amendment rights to free speech, assembly, and to petition government, as well. Arizona Senate Panel Approves Bill Centered Around Protests).

If Governor Ducey signs the raft of Jim Crow voter suppression bills moving through the Arizona legislature, there needs to be a nationwide boycott of the state of Arizona in response. Governor Ducey could do the morally righteous thing and veto these anti-democratic Jim Crow voter suppression bills. Contact his office and demand that he not sign these bills. It will be on his head if a boycott occurs. Authoritarian anti-democratic Jim Crow Republicans will own it, lock, stock and barrel.

The NFL and NFL Players Association need to begin discussion now about moving Super Bowl LVII, scheduled for State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, on February 5, 2023. An Arizona Super Bowl was moved once before, and was threatened on a second occasion, over the racism of Arizona Republicans.

Major league sports players associations from MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, etc., who took a social justice stand for Black Lives Matter last summer need to step up and take a stand for fundamental voting rights in Arizona. That goes for the NCAA as well. You need to do more than take a knee or wear a “voting rights” T-shirt.

There needs to be a new “consequences culture” in Arizona. The complicity between corporate money and authoritarian anti-democratic Jim Crow Republicans has been allowed to fester in this state for far too long.