For more than three weeks, Americans have been demanding from the country’s civic and corporate leaders their plans to tackle police brutality and systemic racism during protests that have gripped the nation following the killing of George Floyd.
On Friday, known as Juneteenth, many of those leaders have a major first opportunity to put into action the rhetoric that has flowed since Memorial Day, when Floyd died in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
J.P Morgan (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has said the bank is "committed to fighting against racism and discrimination." BlackRock’s Larry Fink has said the firm will "not tolerate" shortcomings in racial equality within its walls.
Activists are hoping that that opportunity, however symbolic, will be part of the path to change.
June 19 is the anniversary of the day in 1865 that Union forces announced in Texas that slaves were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That delay is a "symbol of freedom not yet fully realized" for blacks in America, according to experts.
The median black family owns a little over 2% of the wealth owned by the median white family, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
The coronavirus pandemic seems to have further widened that divide. From February through April, 41% of small businesses owned by black people closed, but only 17% of those owned by white people closed, according to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
