#Blacklivesmatter (BLM) matters. If this does not please you - LOG OFF. Black people and their allies are TIRED from Minneapolis to London and Germany to Liberia. Even the NFL made a statement, donated funds and issued a pretend apology. For now let's call it what it is -  " Symbolism over substance since 1964" - LK Spencer

For corporate awards, a round of applause to Ben & Jerry's for "pulling up". They are the only company whose employees have the one time exception to post on LinkedIn about being proud of their company and company leadership. Anybody else should please sit down.  The riots have calmed now but make no mistake the fundamental issues remain. Now what? We have to hold corporations accountable for their words and promises. No more asking to be "Civil" or to "Matter". Did you get that? That was my weak attempt at saying that "Civil" rights and Black Lives "Matter" are very basic requests. Equality would be nice but equality will not bring about equity from the many years of intentional subjugation.

Before Joe Biden names his Vice President and takes up the next 5 minutes of our attention here are 5 things you should request of your corporation.

1. Workforce/Workplace Audit - Don't allow your corporation to be righteous. This is their problem as well and donating or supporting external initiatives does not "listen" to their Black employees. Demand a thorough audit (external preferably) of workforce and workplace practices. The audit should include hiring, retention, compensation, promotion, workplace culture and attrition of Black employees.  If you want trust start from the inside.  
   1. Establish a baseline - use audit to understand the gaps.
   2. Set strategy to close gap and outline tactics and metrics
   3. Establish ownership of metrics and link to management compensation
   4. Measure, report, adjust and measure again
2. Marketplace Review: Your Company sells a product or a service. Your company taps into the $1.3T spending power (Nielsen 2019 Report) of Black America. Your company appropriates black culture in music, dance, fashion, storytelling, and in media/entertainment. What has your company done for the Black consumer? Or, does your company only benefit from and perpetuate the degenerative cycle of implicit stereotypes against Black Americans? Paramount Network has officially canceled “Cops”. That was a bold action by Paramount and you should ask no less from your company.  
   1. Baseline - request a review of your company's marketplace presence. Replace Blackface campaigns with Black Panther movies. Wal-Mart and Disney will have totally different strategies.
   2. Strategies - require "Equality". Disney celebrated Pride week with a Product line and so should your company. Support with tactics and metrics
   3. Require executive leadership and truly diverse/inclusive teams to work on consumer facing initiatives. Black employees are not destined only for multicultural teams.
   4. Measure, report, adjust and measure again
3. Supplier Diversity: Fundamentally the problem of the black community is an economic problem - my opinion. Economics leads to jobs, disposable income, influence and political power. FOX News apologized for the graphic below (Source: Business Insider) but the point they made was that the American economy is indifferent to the Black consumer. I think the implication was that the economy performs better.