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One year after #BlackoutTuesday, what have companies really done for racial justice?

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On May 25, 2020, footage of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis set the internet ablaze, igniting a fervor for justice among the attentive and then-quarantined online masses. In the now widely circulated video, George Floyd can be heard pleading, “I can’t breathe” — the same three words Eric Garner had yelled not six years prior — 28 times before he became unconscious and later died. What followed was nothing short of a wildfire.
Compounded by the killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery — and, later, the killing of activist Oluwatoyin Salau and the shooting of Jacob Blake — Floyd’s murder prompted an international wave of protests and a global dialogue surrounding anti-Blackness and racial injustice in the months following his death. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html">by far the largest of its kind</a>, would receive more than $90 million in donations while organizing <a href="https://acleddata.com/2020/09/03/demonstrations-political-violence-in-america-new-data-for-summer-2020/">over 7,750 demonstrations in the US alone</a> between May and August 2020. Online, social media users were quick to take advantage of their digital platforms, informing followers about racial injustice through the sharing of <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21359098/social-justice-slideshows-instagram-activism">infographics</a> and what artist and educator <a href="https://www.instagram.com/idealblackfemale/">Mandy Harris Williams</a> aptly titled “critical caption essays.”
Evidently, the posts were impactful, with <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/15/23-of-users-in-us-say-social-media-led-them-to-change-views-on-issue-some-cite-black-lives-matter/">23 percent of adult social media users in the US</a> saying they changed their views about a political or social issue in 2020 due to something they saw on those platforms, up from 15 percent in 2018. Corporate commitment to racial advocacy became a necessity rather than a consideration once social media users began to take aim at specific instances of racism and unfair treatment at many companies. Hundreds of businesses rushed to release pledges committing to upholding racial justice within their organization. But did any of these companies do more than commodify a movement? A year later, have any of these companies transformed themselves for the better?
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<aside><q>A year later, have any of these companies transformed themselves for the better?</q></aside>
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Beginning on June 2, 2020, <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/6/3/21279336/blackout-tuesday-black-lives-matter-instagram-performative-allyship">Blackout Tuesday</a> would merge these growing trends in online activism and calls for corporate accountability on social media. The online protest involved posting a single image of a black square to Instagram feeds, intended to quite literally black out users’ feeds and interrupt regular posting as a show of solidarity to Black victims of police violence. By the end of the day, the number of Instagram posts tagged with #BlackoutTuesday was in the tens of millions — and more than <a href="https://adage.com/article/datacenter/more-950-brands-participated-blackout-tuesday-instagram-plus-latest-jobs-numbers-context-datacenter/2260916">950 brands</a>, including ViacomCBS and Apple, had participated in some way. However, the social media protest quickly proved to do more harm than good.
What originally began as a hashtag (<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/blackout-tuesday-jamila-thomas-and-platoon-brianna-agyemang-future-25-1079717/">#TheShowMustBePaused</a>) created by music executives Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas to disrupt “<a href="https://www.theshowmustbepaused.com/about">the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard</a>” within the music industry, quickly became appropriated by users, divorced from its original creators and intentions, and made shallow and performative. As #BlackOutTuesday grew in popularity, <a href="https://www.insider.com/blackout-tuesday-criticism-posts-hide-resources-black-lives-matter-blm-2020-6">critiques</a> of the initiative noted how the posting of mostly wordless black squares drowned out Black voices central to movements and obscured valuable information and updates, such as video evidence of police brutality, protest details, and donation links — a far cry from the racial uplift the posts set out to achieve. Instead, a majority of Blackout Tuesday posts were effectively one-off statements functioning as a form of virtue signaling, a public expression of an opinion or backing of an idea intended to demonstrate one’s moral or political correctness, often without much substantive action.
Prior to the end of May 2020, racial advocacy and anti-racism were not a priority for “socially responsible” companies, with consumers struggling to identify businesses seen as “<a href="https://www.aaaa.org/index.php?checkfileaccess=/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BLM-for-Marketers_Volume-1_2020F.pdf">good allies to the Black Lives Matter movement</a>.” However, as the discussion of racial injustice and discrimination solidified the importance of anti-racism in corporate social responsibility, consumers expect more from where they shop — <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/6/3/21279292/blackouttuesday-brands-solidarity-donations">they want donations</a>. In a <a href="https://www.consulting.us/news/4350/most-americans-expect-brands-to-take-stand-on-racism">survey conducted by public relations firm Edelman</a> in 2020, 60 percent of American respondents said brands needed to use their marketing dollars to advocate for racial equality. The same percentage also said they would buy or boycott a brand based on its response to the ongoing protests. How companies reacted to the BLM movement became a litmus test for how consumers would interact with them in the months to come.
Nike is no stranger to making political statements through its advertising campaigns, especially when it comes to Black Lives Matter. The multinational corporation has a long history of navigating issues pertaining to diversity and inclusion through both its sponsorship of Black athletes and its executive management: In 2018, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/four-more-nike-executives-exit-amid-probe-1525803730">the Wall Street Journal chronicled</a> Nike’s “boys-club culture” and the executive exits that followed a company-wide probe. Following a 2018 partnership with ousted American football player and activist Colin Kaepernick for the <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.espn.com%2Fnfl%2Fstory%2F_%2Fid%2F24568359%2Fcolin-kaepernick-face-nike-just-do-30th-anniversary-campaign&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22463723%2Fblackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24568359/colin-kaepernick-face-nike-just-do-30th-anniversary-campaign\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24568359/colin-kaepernick-face-nike-just-do-30th-anniversary-campaign","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier","xcust":"___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” ad campaign</a>, Nike’s response to the growing unrest was heavily awaited.
On May 29, 2020, prior to Blackout Tuesday, Nike released a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drcO2V2m7lw">video statement</a> on the Black Lives Matter movement in which it called on audiences to pay attention to the unrest unfolding before them. It was met with widespread support and acceptance, with many seeing the statement as a model for corporate social responsibility. Since then, Nike has continued to restructure its executive leadership team under the stewardship of CEO John Donahoe, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nike-replaces-its-diversity-chief-11595905726">promoting Felicia Mayo, a Black woman executive, to the role of diversity chief</a> in July 2020. And as part of the company’s internal goals, or <a href="https://purpose.nike.com/2025-targets">Purpose 2025 Targets</a>, Nike, with Converse, Jordan Brand, and Michael Jordan, <a href="https://purpose.nike.com/our-commitment-to-the-black-community">committed a combined $140 million over 10 years</a> in support of local and national organizations dedicated to addressing racial inequality for Black Americans, an initiative known as the <a href="https://purpose.nike.com/our-commitment-to-the-black-community">Black Community Commitment</a>. Though not a gold standard, Nike’s promise of holistic social responsibility has been matched by few companies.
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Millennial-pink beauty brand Glossier’s rather diverse word-of-mouth marketing strategy has helped maintain the company’s reputation as one of the industry’s more inclusive and progressive companies. On May 30, 2020, Glossier similarly posted a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1K4rLpQq9/">statement</a> on Instagram pledging to stand in solidarity with the Black community and the Black Lives Matter movement. It also committed to donating a total of $1 million to Black-owned beauty businesses and organizations addressing racial injustice through <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.glossier.com%2Fblog%2Fgrants&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22463723%2Fblackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://www.glossier.com/blog/grants\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.glossier.com/blog/grants","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier","xcust":"___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>an inaugural grant initiative</a>. A year later, Glossier <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.glossier.com%2Fblog%2Four-commitment&referrer=vox.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2Fthe-goods%2F22463723%2Fblackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516588\u0026xs=1\u0026url=https://www.glossier.com/blog/our-commitment\u0026referrer=vox.com\u0026sref=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier\u0026xcust=___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":50,"subtag_delim_length":3,"subtag_key":"xcust","subtag_data":{"id":"66960X1516588","xs":"1","url":"https://www.glossier.com/blog/our-commitment","referrer":"vox.com","sref":"https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier","xcust":"___vx__p_22227764__m_m-placeholder__s_s-placeholder__t_w__c_c-placeholder__r_r-placeholder__d_d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}'>announced</a> it would renew the grant program for 2021 “as part of a broader $10 million commitment to bolster equity, inclusion, and representation in the beauty industry over the next five years.”
Despite this, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/outtathegloss/">Outta The Gloss</a>, a collective of former retail employees of the company, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD2bph3Fkvy/">shared on Instagram</a> an <a href="https://medium.com/@outtathegloss/to-glossier-a-call-for-accountability-and-necessary-change-17954e34f6d1">open letter</a> to Glossier in August 2020. The letter detailed a sometimes racist and inequitable working environment and included a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD2bptSlo0j/">list of demands</a>, such as “standardized anti-racist training for management” and the hiring of an “on site HR Liaison working solely with retail.” Later, the group <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CFxYzZHFfb2/">launched a boycott</a> of Glossier at the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CFxE0pFlZ6q/">urging of its followers</a>. Other than an August blog post from Glossier CEO and founder Emily Weiss, Outta The Gloss maintains that its demands have yet to be meaningfully acknowledged by the company, leaving consumers to question Glossier’s commitment to anti-racism within its own workplace.
In contrast, beauty company Sephora set to make right <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/13/18677563/sephora-sza-ulta-racial-bias-shopping-while-black">a history of racist discrimination</a> in its retail stores. On May 30, 2020, Sephora CEO Jean-André Rougeot <a href="https://community.sephora.com/t5/Customer-Support/An-open-letter-to-our-Sephora-employees-and-community/td-p/5392215">issued a statement</a> committing to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement; a few days later, it published its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA8FXidlYD7/?hl=en">own #BlackoutTuesday post</a> and closed its retail stores for a two-hour company-wide training on racial bias. The company’s US business also became the first major retailer to sign the <a href="https://www.15percentpledge.org/">15 Percent Pledge</a>, a campaign founded by fashion designer Aurora James asking retailers to dedicate at least 15 percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses. (Retailers and brands such as Vogue, Bloomingdales, and Old Navy — among others — have since signed on, too.)
Sephora has also <a href="https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=nOD%2FrLJHOac&mid=2417&u1=vox&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sephora.com%2Fbeauty%2Fdiversity-and-inclusion" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank" has-subtag="true" data-cdata='{"rewritten_url":"https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=nOD/rLJHOac\u0026mid=2417\u0026u1=[]vx[p]22227764[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder\u0026murl=https://www.sephora.com/beauty/diversity-and-inclusion","subtag_max_length":72,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"u1","subtag_data":{"id":"nOD/rLJHOac","mid":"2417","u1":"[]vx[p]22227764[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder","murl":"https://www.sephora.com/beauty/diversity-and-inclusion"},"encode_subtag":false}'>pledged</a> to do the following in 2021: increase the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/13/sephora-race-bias-discrimination/">seven Black-owned brands it carries to 16</a>, focus on supporting BIPOC founders in beauty through its <a href="https://sephoraaccelerate.com/">Sephora Accelerate</a> program, and continue providing new training modules for in-store employees while reducing the presence of third-party security officers.
Meanwhile, the department store Nordstrom was quick to involve itself in the Black Lives Matter movement, despite the company’s <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/women-film-themselves-canceling-nordstrom-accounts-after-store-drops-ivanka_n_58a6102be4b037d17d261574">more conservative customer base</a>. It published a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA8BUtiF4qI/">#BlackoutTuesday post</a>, and later released a <a href="https://press.nordstrom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/black-lives-matter-what-weve-heard-what-were-doing">statement</a> committing to “increase representation of Black and Latinx populations” in management roles and “[deliver] $500M in retail sales from brands owned by, operated by, or designed by Black and/or Latinx individuals,” both by the end of 2025. It also promised to ensure that its training resources for customer-facing employees “include anti-racism and bias content.”
Both Sephora and Nordstrom have acknowledged that in their commitment to addressing anti-racism, the work begins internally.
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Other retail companies have failed to make any substantial long-term commitments.
E-commerce retailer Fashion Nova was criticized <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ikrd/black-influencers-are-calling-out-popular-brands-for">by users and influencers alike</a> for failing to acknowledge or respond to the Black Lives Matter movement prior to June 1, 2020, despite its large consumer base of Black women. The fast-fashion retailer — which has been called out a number of times for <a href="https://www.revelist.com/style-news/fashion-nova-knock-off-designers/15005/bleu-believes-that-fashion-nova-in-its-current-position-could-be-successful-without-dupes-if-the-brand-chose-to-ditch-them-entirely/9">stealing designs from small businesses and Black designers</a> and for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/business/fashion-nova-underpaid-workers.html">underpaying garment workers in its Los Angeles factory</a> — ultimately <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA7DaFIpY7C/">posted a black square</a> with no caption on June 2. It <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-YOj9p2i4/">issued a statement</a> the following day in which it remarked, “Our actions speak louder than our words,” and pledged to donate $1 million to various “community resources and activism, awareness campaigns, and other initiatives to help in the fight for racial equality and opportunity.”
Fashion Nova has not made any other statements pertaining to the Black Lives Matter movement since then, though it continues to partner with celebrities such as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion in its philanthropic initiative, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fashionnovacares/">Fashion Nova CARES</a>, which has provided financial support to the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/breonnataylorfoundation/">Breonna Taylor Foundation</a> and emerging Black designer <a href="https://www.tiaadeola.com/">Tia Adeola</a>, among others. Despite the company’s ubiquity in the Black community and its reliance on Black celebrity and culture for relevance, its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/fashionnova/">Instagram</a> page, which functions as its main form of advertising, is devoid of any mentions of anti-Black racism beyond donations, and lacks representation of Black models.
Starbucks, which also has a <a href="https://theoutline.com/post/4192/starbucks-racism-timeline">fraught history</a> navigating race, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBAy5uvnccf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">pledged</a> to stand in solidarity with its “Black partners, customers, and communities,” and to donate $1 million to organizations promoting racial equity — while simultaneously banning employees and baristas from wearing any pro-Black Lives Matter clothing or accessories. Ultimately, the company revised its decision on the dress code, making <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/starbucks-shares-update-on-standing-together-against-racial-injustice/">250,000 pro-BLM T-shirts</a> for employees in an attempt to show support for the movement, and continue to offer their elective online anti-bias classes. And in October, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson announced that the company would tie executive pay to the meeting of racial diversity targets set to boost diversity in Starbucks’ workforce — by 2025, the company aims to have “<a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/starbucks/starbucks-sets-ambitious-goals-for-corporate-diversity-and-ties-it-to-executive-pay/">people of color represented in at least 30% of roles in corporate operations and 40% of retail and manufacturing roles</a>,” though the company declined to share details of how exactly these goals would be tied to executive pay. Since then, the company has <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/starbucks-reaches-agreement-with-eeoc-over-alleged-bias-in-promotions/">reached a voluntary agreement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in light of 2007 allegations of racial bias in its promotions</a>, and has also started a $100 million <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2021/starbucks-expands-initiatives-to-advance-opportunity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-communities-it-serves/">Community Resilience Fund</a> that will “support small business growth and community development projects in BIPOC neighborhoods.”
In the music tech industry, companies such as SiriusXM, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music also made respective Blackout Tuesday posts. On June 2, Spotify shared a number of in-app features intended as a show of solidarity with Black creators and users, though <a href="https://junkee.com/spotify-black-lives-matter-silence/256088">artists were quick to criticize</a> the lack of money being donated. This initial offering <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2020-06-01/spotify-stands-with-the-black-community-in-the-fight-against-racism-and-injustice/">included</a> a rather out-of-touch 8-minute, 46-second track of silence meant to memorialize the length of time that George Floyd was suffocated by Derek Chauvin, a Black History Is Now hub, and a selection of Black Lives Matter playlists. Later that week, the company <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/spotify-music-labels-pledge-to-fight-racism-after-public-rebuke">committed to contributing up to $10 million</a> in an employee match allocated to organizations addressing anti-racism and racial justice, donating an additional $1 million in advertising inventory to social justice groups (though $345,000 worth of this advertising budget was used to promote the company’s own Black History Is Now hub).
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<aside><q>It pays to take a stand, even if performative</q></aside>
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Now, the question remains; have these companies’ pledges led to any real impact or change in the year since a national racial reckoning? Among the groups that received money from the aforementioned companies — including national organizations such as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and the Equal Justice Initiative — was the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). In a statement, LDF president Sherrilyn Ifill shared that “the most valuable gift over the past year has been the increase in pro bono support” which enabled them to “litigate and advocate with greater intensity, and to increase the pace of our work,” increasing the fund’s capacity to support Black communities.
Still, if anything is to be learned from how these companies have approached corporate accountability it is that it pays to take a stand, even if performative. As millennial and Gen Z consumers increasingly expect brands to be actively involved in social justice movements, publicly choosing a stance has rewarded companies with consumer loyalty.
Following Nike’s BLM statement video, the company moved <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/just-dont-nikes-statement-black-lives-matter-lesson-bandwagon-young/">up 22 places on Social Chain Data’s social media leaderboard in May 2020,</a> into the No. 31 spot. The ice cream company <a href="https://www.provokemedia.com/latest/article/how-brands-can-sustain-black-lives-matter-in-2021">Ben & Jerry’s saw its social media reach grow</a> by 35 percent on Twitter and 27 percent on Facebook, after declaring, “We must dismantle white supremacy” last June. However, #<a href="https://twitter.com/writtenbyhanna/status/1399519550132178945?s=21">HasBenAndJerrysTweetedYet</a>, a hashtag started by Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/telushk?s=21">@telushk</a>, has been gaining traction this month in light of the company’s refusal to acknowledge <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/progressive-ice-cream-ben-jerry-freezes-when-it-comes-palestine">its own investments in Israel’s illegal settlements</a>. If these predominantly white and men-owned companies ultimately reap the benefits of committing to anti-racism and the fight against white supremacy, is this change really a transformation? And is it substantively supporting Black Americans who confront the burden of racism and racial injustice in their everyday lives?
The range of company pledges, commitments, and statements we’ve seen indicate an ever-present truth: that no matter how impactful or effective corporate activism is, it will also always be inherently performative. Companies cannot be entrusted to be the leaders of the people’s social justice movements.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22463723/blackout-tuesday-blm-sephora-starbucks-nike-glossier</a>

vox One year after #BlackoutTuesday, what have companies really done for racial justice?

On May 25, 2020, footage of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis set the internet ablaze, igniting a fervor for justice among ...

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Science, that is done with good ethics, for the purpose of fighting disease, is a most admirable thing and should not be rejected nor eschewed. But, what happens when scientists become elevated to a dangerous level, and an ideology of scientism becomes a new religion? With the belief in evolutionism being seen as an obligation in the scientific establishment, it is not far-fetched to have a fear that Darwinism — really, eugenics — would be applied by this cult of scientism. With the rise of coronavirus came a societal reliance on scientists, specifically in the medical sphere. Now, we are not arguing that these scientists are necessarily evil or have malicious intent. We are merely pointing to the atmosphere that the covid crisis brought about, specifically the reliance on scientific experts on making policy decisions. We must specify here that it was completely acceptable and morally right to go to medical experts in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, since it is them who have the knowledge on viruses. But — and this is what we are stressing here — could the reliance on scientific experts be exploited          to advance an evil agenda, like eugenics? It has happened in the past.
In the first half of the 20th century, eugenics was justified because it was what the scientific establishment  said was the right thing to do. The mass murder committed by the Nazi regime had the underpinnings of scientism, and even the the Young Turks — who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century and orchestrated the Armenian Genocide — looked to Darwinist elitism. Scientific evils still exist and are even accepted as proper procedure. For example, in 2017 <a href="https://shoebat.com/">shoebat.com</a> did a series of articles on the Max Planck Institute, the most prestigious scientific establishing within the European Union, and showed how common it is for their scientists to use aborted embryos for experiments. The Max Planck Institute even has thousands of brain samples which were taken by Nazi scientists during the Holocaust, and this was revealed after the institute swore that they had buried the brain remnants in a burial.
In Seattle there is the  “Birth Defects Research Laboratory” where the corpses of aborted fetuses (whose lives were terminated because they had handicaps) are collected and which is heavily acclaimed by scientists. The largest collection of aborted embryos is in Kyoto, Japan, known as the “Kyoto Collection” or the “Congenital Anomaly Research Center,” directed by Shigehito Yamada. In Croatia there is the “Zagreb Collection of human brains” which is the Croatian Institute for Brain Research where the brains of aborted babies are kept for research. Scientific evil still exists and it is both praised and accepted by the scientific establishments.
Thus, to have concern that the reliance on scientists would be abused for evil is not without warrant. The Western world has already seen glimpses of the elevation of medical experts above ethics. For example, in 2018 a British judge ruled in favor that 11-month old Isaiah Haastrup’s life be terminated because medical experts concluded that he should not be allowed to live with severe brain damage. In the words of one <a href="https://shoebat.com/2018/01/29/doctors-in-britain-declare-that-a-sick-baby-must-be-killed-the-parents-protest-and-say-that-the-child-is-still-responsive-and-has-emotions-the-doctors-say-that-the-child-must-be-put-to-death/">article</a>, “a British judge ruled Monday in favor of doctors arguing to terminate his care and against the boy’s parents.” In <a href="https://shoebat.com/2017/07/24/british-parents-whose-baby-the-british-government-wanted-to-murder-have-now-decided-to-kill-their-own-child/">2017</a>, “Britain’s courts, backed by the European Court of Human Rights, refused permission” to prolong the life of 11-month old Charlie Yates who suffered from a rare genetic condition causing progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
In both of these stories, one can see how the courts based their decisions to end a life on the opinions of medical experts. One can see how such power could be wielded by the scientific establishment in order to go beyond, from pulling the life support of children to orchestrating more eugenic policies. In the words of Richard Horton, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who has served various roles for the World Health Organization: “Danger comes when political choices are equated with scientific deductions, when good is only derived from truth. At that moment, a society comes to believe that the world is completely knowable. Experts are sought not only to set political objectives, but also to formulate moral norms. At that moment, democracy is in jeopardy.”
Horton’s warning of “good is only derived from truth” may confuse some people. Is not truth good? What he is emphasizing here is not moral truth, but a callous fixation on “facts” that are deduced by “experts.” For example, if certain people are physically handicapped to the point that they need government assistance, scientific experts could affirm that such people are ‘draining’ the system and are a burden for the healthy members of the society.
Now, it would be a fact that these handicap people are indeed costing tax payer money, but even if this is a fact it should not dictate moral decisions or ethics. In other words, ‘cold facts’ should not justify a cold view of humanity, and thus such facts should not be elevated above human dignity or the innate value of human life. GK Chesterton once wrote:
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“It is typical of our time that it has to look for its god through a microscope; and our time has marked a definite adoration of the insect. Like most things we call new, of course, it is not at all new as an idea; it is only new as an idolatry. …But in our own time has appeared a very different tone, and more than one great man, as well as numberless intelligent men, have in our time seriously suggested that we should study the insect because we are his inferiors.”
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For society to look for “its god” in a microscope is to search for moral truth that springs from faith in science, and in such a paradigm the human becomes lower than the animals that science studies (hence why the Nazis were for animal rights while deeming certain people as inferior). Another current example of scientists dictating government policy that leads to death is what occurred in Sweden where its head epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, affirmed that no lockdown should be made at all. Because of this, Sweden had the highest death rate from covid in Scandinavia. Since covid is most dangerous against the elderly and those of diminished immune systems, Tegnell’s policy was essentially “let the weak die”. This “let the weak die” mentality was exhibited in New York City where thousands of covid patients were put into elderly care centers, setting off explosions of covid outbreaks amongst those most vulnerable to the contagion. Elderly care centers were even prohibited from testing new or returning residents for covid. As Laura L. Appleman <a href="https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=207103102008007112082028002094082077015002001000090086121026070112086092029102095091030096049125038001052021095100025103119005046002046043009070003117073096127099049080048111067091110093115103109110103114124125103124070118074028065102118116112110007&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE">notes</a>:
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“Compounding the problem, several states allowed hospitals to send COVID-19 patients into nursing homes and long-term care facilities, thus seeding the virus there and ultimately increasing infections and deaths. New York, for example, issued a state directive in March 2020 permitting COVID-19 patients to be placed in nursing homes in order to free up hospital beds. The order required nursing homes to readmit former residents with COVID-19 who were released from hospitals, as well as accept new “medically stable” residents, whether or not they were infected with COVID-19.232 The nursing homes were also explicitly barred from testing new or returning residents for the coronavirus.  Minnesota did likewise, and then faced a similar explosion of nursing home COVID infections and deaths.”
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Who came up with this policy? It was the New York City health department, as we read in the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-andrew-cuomo-us-news-coronavirus-pandemic-nursing-homes-512cae0abb55a55f375b3192f2cdd6b5">AP</a>:
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“More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic under a controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it accelerated outbreaks, according to new records obtained by The Associated Press. …New York’s health department in July released a 33-page report, heavily criticized by health experts and resident advocates, that said patients sent to homes posed little danger to residents because they had spent an average nine days at the hospitals — consistent with federal guidance at the time about how long it took for people to stop being contagious.”
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If governments want to enact a darwinistic policy, they can simply commission the scientists willing to provide their blessing. Alex Stevens, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent, warned about the use of scientists to justify state policy: “My previous research on the use of evidence in policy-making showed that ministers can trawl for evidence that suits their purposes or invest selectively in the types of research that are likely to show them in a favourable light. What results is the ‘survival of the ideas that fit’ … In working alongside senior civil servants, I learned how skilled they can be in selecting evidence that will tell the story that ministers want to be told.” (Ellipses mine). 
In addition to the reality of the exploitation of society’s reliance on science to justify destructive scientism, there is also the reality of how with the spread of covid came the acceleration towards technocracy, since people plunged into a deeper reliance on technology due to the pandemic. The rise of automation means more economic disparities as those with more tech knowledge will get far more ahead than those without it. When Pew Research <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/02/18/experts-say-the-new-normal-in-2025-will-be-far-more-tech-driven-presenting-more-big-challenges/">asked</a> 915 innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and activists about what to expect for 2025, they responded that they expect that “those who are highly connected and the tech-savvy” will “pull further ahead of those who have less access to digital tools”. And since social media is becoming more advanced and our use of these platforms is only deepening, the use of the internet to spread political propaganda that would incite populist rage will only intensify. Many of the respondents to the Pew survey stated that “their deepest worry is over the seemingly unstoppable manipulation of public perception, emotion and action via online disinformation – lies and hate speech deliberately weaponized in order to propagate destructive biases and fears.” With economic disparities widening due to automation, and the utilization of social media for propaganda purposes and misinformation becoming more and more expedient, political turbulency is to be expected as class tensions will be manipulated and exploited. Socialist ideologies will grow in strength, and class war will only be increasingly stoked. So with the atmosphere that the covid situation facilitated, there has been exposed a heavy reliance on science, and there has been accelerated a deeper reliance on technology and automation. With this, we have a reliance on scientists which could be capitalized upon for scientism; an acceleration towards automation which will make it more difficult to find low-skilled jobs, and the existence of social media which will make it easier to rile up those embittered against the system for economic reasons and unemployment. What we have here are accumulating trends towards a vicious populism. 
 
 
source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/06/02/covid-and-the-rise-of-scientism/">https://shoebat.com/2021/06/02/covid-and-the-rise-of-scientism/</a>

armageddon Covid And The Rise Of Scientism

Science, that is done with good ethics, for the purpose of fighting disease, is a most admirable thing and should not be rejected nor esche...

Four Men Scream “Die Jew” At Jewish Family In Florida And Tell Him That They Will Rape His Wife And Daughter

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Hatred towards Jews is ever increasing, and is only being promoted by evil people who justify their hatred by pointing to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In one recent event, four men screamed “Die Jew” at a Jewish family and threatened to rape the wife and daughter. As we read in <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/24/999790233/officials-say-hate-crimes-against-jews-are-growing-in-the-aftermath-of-gaza-viol">NPR</a>, which did an article on a new wave of anti-Jewish rage:
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In Skokie, Ill., it was a shattered window at a synagogue. In Bal Harbour, Fla., it was four men yelling, “Die Jew,” at a man in a skullcap, then threatening to rape his wife and daughter. And in Midtown Manhattan, it was a group of people attacking a Jewish man in the middle of the street in broad daylight.
From California to New York, a wave of antisemitic attacks has broken out in communities over the last two weeks, leaving officials in law enforcement and government scrambling to confront the domestic ripple effects of the recent outbreak in violence between Israel and Hamas.
The violence and abhorrent rhetoric has come both in person and online. The Anti-Defamation League said that in the week after the fighting erupted, it received <a href="https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/preliminary-adl-data-reveals-uptick-in-antisemitic-incidents-linked-to-recent">193 reports</a> of possible antisemitic violence, up from 131 a week earlier. On Twitter, the group said, it found more than 17,000 tweets using variations of the phrase “Hitler was right” between May 7 and 14.
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source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/06/01/four-men-scream-die-jew-at-jewish-family-in-florida-and-tell-him-that-they-will-rape-his-wife-and-daughter/">https://shoebat.com/2021/06/01/four-men-scream-die-jew-at-jewish-family-in-florida-and-tell-him-that-they-will-rape-his-wife-and-daughter/</a>

armageddon Four Men Scream “Die Jew” At Jewish Family In Florida And Tell Him That They Will Rape His Wife And Daughter

Hatred towards Jews is ever increasing, and is only being promoted by evil people who justify their hatred by pointing to the Israeli-Pales...

Amazon Changes Controversial Employee Monitoring System

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Amazon Changes Controversial Employee Monitoring System" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/kitns8kc_amazon-logo-reuters_625x300_02_June_21.jpg" title="Amazon Changes Controversial Employee Monitoring System" /></div>
Amazon's insistence on speed led to record workplace injuries last year
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San Francisco:
Amazon shifted policy on a controversial employee productivity monitoring system Tuesday as a coalition of US labor unions took aim at the firm, saying a need for speed in warehouses led to injuries.
Workers at Amazon warehouses are hurt more often and more severely than peers employed at retail rivals such as Walmart, the Strategic Organizing Center said in a report based on data provided to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
"The company's obsession with speed has come at a huge cost for Amazon's workforce," the center formed by labor unions said.
Late Tuesday the firm announced a shift in its Time Off Task policy -- a heavily criticized system that uses algorithms to monitor workers' productivity, with employees made to explain their breaks.
If they cross a certain threshold, Bloomberg reported, they often face dismissal.
"Starting today, we're now averaging Time off Task over a longer period," Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon's global retail and logistics business, said in a blog post.
Amazon has invested heavily in workplace health and safety, implementing new technologies, processes and precautions to reduce the risk of injuries, spokesperson Kelly Nantel said earlier in reply to an AFP inquiry.
"While any incident is one too many, we are continuously learning and seeing improvements through ergonomics programs, guided exercises at employees' workstations, mechanical assistance equipment, workstation setup and design, and forklift telematics and guardrails -- to name a few," Nantel said.
There were about six serious injuries per 100 Amazon workers last year requiring the employees to take time off or be shifted to light duties, according to OSHA data cited in the center's report.
That compares to a warehouse industry serious injury average of slightly more than three per 100 workers, the report indicated.
Founder Jeff Bezos told investors in April that the e-commerce giant needs a better "vision" for its workers, after an effort to create the company's first labor union was defeated.
Unions and political leaders have argued that Amazon employees face constant pressure and monitoring, with little job protection, highlighting the need for collective bargaining.
The news comes as the firm is poised to conduct Prime Day sales in late June that have become huge online shopping days due to deep discounts.
Online shopping has soared during the pandemic, with Amazon making a priority of getting orders to customers in just one or two days.
The Seattle-based tech and e-commerce powerhouse hired 500,000 people last year and now directly employs some 1.3 million people globally, according to Bezos.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/amazon-changes-controversial-employee-monitoring-system-after-protests-2454526">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/amazon-changes-controversial-employee-monitoring-system-after-protests-2454526</a>

news world Amazon Changes Controversial Employee Monitoring System

Amazon's insistence on speed led to record workplace injuries last year San Francisco: Amazon shifted policy on a controversial emp...

Iran Ship Sinks In Gulf Of Oman As Firefighting Efforts Fail, Crew Safe

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Iran Ship Sinks In Gulf Of Oman As Firefighting Efforts Fail, Crew Safe" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/1bagndhc_iranshipafp650_625x300_02_June_21.jpg" title="Iran Ship Sinks In Gulf Of Oman As Firefighting Efforts Fail, Crew Safe" /></div>
Firefighting efforts continued "for 20 hours" before the "Iranian Kharg" went down (File).
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Tehran:
An Iranian naval vessel sank in the Gulf of Oman Wednesday after efforts to put out a fire failed, but the crew safely disembarked, the navy said.
The fleet replenishment tanker 'Kharg' had caught fire on Tuesday near the port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman.
The fire broke out in "one of the systems" of the vessel, a navy statement said without elaborating.
Firefighting efforts continued "for 20 hours" before the ship went down, it said.
"Considering the spread of the fire, the mission to save the Kharg failed and it sank in waters off Jask."
It added that the vessel had left for a "training mission" in international waters days ago.
Last year, an Iranian warship was hit by friendly fire during a naval exercise off Jask, killing the 19 sailors onboard.
The port lies close to the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint at the head of the Gulf through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Jask is also important to Iran's economy as the site where the government plans to build the country's second-largest oil export terminal.
A 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) pipeline from Bushehr province on the Gulf to Jask was put into service just days ago, the government said.
It will provide a new bypass route for oil exports avoiding the Strait of Hormuz.
In recent months, there have also been reported attacks on Iranian shipping linked to its arch foe Israel.
In April, Iran said its freighter Saviz was hit by an "explosion" in the Red Sea, after media reports said Israel had struck the ship.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-naval-ship-kharg-sinks-in-gulf-of-oman-as-firefighting-efforts-fail-crew-safe-2454525">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-naval-ship-kharg-sinks-in-gulf-of-oman-as-firefighting-efforts-fail-crew-safe-2454525</a>

news world Iran Ship Sinks In Gulf Of Oman As Firefighting Efforts Fail, Crew Safe

Firefighting efforts continued "for 20 hours" before the "Iranian Kharg" went down (File). Tehran: An Iranian naval...

China Says Military Flight Off Malaysia Was "Routine Training"

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="China Says Military Flight Off Malaysia Was 'Routine Training'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-03/6b4psh9_fighter-jet-generic_625x300_12_March_19.jpg" title="China Says Military Flight Off Malaysia Was 'Routine Training'" /></div>
The planes had not entered any other country's territorial airspace (Representational)
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
China said Wednesday a flight by 16 military aircraft over hotly contested waters off Malaysia was routine training, after the Southeast Asian nation accused Beijing of breaching its sovereignty.
Malaysia scrambled fighter jets Monday to intercept the Chinese air force transport planes that appeared off Borneo over the South China Sea, where it has overlapping territorial claims with Beijing.
The Malaysian foreign minister criticised the flight as an "intrusion" and said the government would lodge a protest with Beijing and summon the Chinese ambassador.
But a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur said the "activities are routine flight training of the Chinese air force and do not target any country".
"According to relevant international law, Chinese military aircraft enjoy the freedom of overflight in the relevant airspace," he said.
The planes had not entered any other country's territorial airspace, the spokesman added in a statement.
The aircraft came within 60 nautical miles (110 kilometres) of the Malaysian part of Borneo, and did not respond to attempts to contact them, prompting Malaysia to scramble jets, according to the country's air force.
They turned back before entering Malaysian airspace over its territorial waters.
But Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said they had entered the country's "maritime zone" -- an area that extends much further from the coast -- and described the incident as a "breach of the Malaysian airspace and sovereignty".
China has laid claim to nearly all of the South China Sea and has built numerous military outposts on small islands and atolls, angering other countries with competing claims to the waters.
Malaysia-China relations are usually warm but Monday's incident comes after a build-up in tensions over the sea, which is home to key shipping lanes and is believed to harbour rich oil and gas deposits.
Last year, a Chinese survey ship had a long stand-off with a Malaysian oil exploration vessel off Borneo.
Other claimants in the sea include Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.
The United States has also sent warships through the waters to assert international rights to freedom of navigation, angering China.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-says-military-flight-off-malaysia-was-routine-training-2454492">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/china-says-military-flight-off-malaysia-was-routine-training-2454492</a>

news world China Says Military Flight Off Malaysia Was "Routine Training"

The planes had not entered any other country's territorial airspace (Representational) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: China said Wednesday...