Ramadan begins in a vastly changed world
April 24, 2020
This is the web version of raceAhead, Fortune’s daily newsletter on race, culture, and inclusive leadership. To get it delivered daily to your inbox, sign up here.
Happy Friday! The new Health and Human Services spox has a history of racist tweets, six senators are urgently calling for bias-mitigation training for the police, and actor John Cho fears for his safety and yours.
But first, your Ramadan-themed week in review, in Haiku.
It begins with a
sliver in the sky. A call
to contemplate and
fast, now a signal
to stay home, every room a
mosque. The time between
sunrise and sunset
has new Zoom rules for allies,
all sweet and helpful.
Don’t snack on camera.
Be mindful of prayer time. And
everyone can take
this time to reflect,
feel grateful! One quick iftar
tip: No bleach smoothies.
If you celebrate, may your Ramadan be as bright as ever. Wishing everyone a safe and contemplative weekend.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
A note from Fortune's editor-in-chief
How to invest in a snarling bear market
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Fortune publishes an 8-part quarterly investment guide just for our Access Plus subscribers. This quarter, we're examining how to adjust your portfolio during a bear market, how deep the economic fault lines go, where to find beaten-down value in a coronavirus-ravaged market, and why tweaking your retirement accounts now will pay off in the future. See our investment guide here.
Clifton Leaf
On point
The new HHS spokesperson under fire for now-deleted racist tweets Under fire? Really? Well, I suppose if the world were normal, he would be. Michael Caputo, a former 2016 Trump campaign operative, has been known for his fiery Twitter presence. Though he deleted most of his feed after being tapped for a job at Health and Human Services, they were easy to find. Here we find him pointlessly fighting with an anti-U.S. conspiracy theorist on March 12, by tweeting: "millions of Chinese suck the blood out of rabid bats as an appetizer and eat the ass out of anteaters." He said other stuff, too. When asked for comment by CNN, he said, “I don't care. It doesn't matter to me at all."
CNN
Six senators ask for greater anti-bias training for law enforcement during the pandemic An urgent letter sent to the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week, asked for their immediate intervention in light of alarming incidents involving Black men being profiled or detained by police while wearing protective face masks. One incident involved a Miami-area doctor who was detained during a volunteer effort to test homeless people for coronavirus. Among the signatories were U.S. senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. “These alarming reports highlight the fact that racial biases—implicit or otherwise—don’t cease and in some ways are heightened during a national crisis,” Sen. Booker told Vox in an email.
Vox
The assimilation of Asian Americans was never coming Actor John Cho has written an insightful and poignant opinion piece sharing the violence and fear roiling the AAPI community, and the now constant intergenerational pleas to “stay safe.” It's a reversal of the strategy embraced by his immigrant parents. “Growing up, the assumption was that once we became American enough, there would be no need for such warnings—that we would be safe,” he says. Even very famous people, he reveals, are targets. “The pandemic is reminding us that our belonging is conditional.”
Los Angeles Times
Crossword puzzles are biased This is the concern expressed by more than 600 crossword puzzle enthusiasts, who co-signed an open letter sent to Eric von Coelln, the executive director of puzzles at the New York Times. In it, they make the case that the puzzles are created by white, cis-gendered men and cater only to that audience. “The systemic erasure of minority and female voices in crossword puzzles,” even “in puzzles written by women, people of color, and queer constructors,” is deeply problematic, they explain. It’s a very good letter and a snapshot of a very specific sub-culture. Vice provides fascinating context below.
Vice
Take a moment to review ServiceNow’s 2020 Diversity Report Reporting continues during this difficult time, and I’d argue that numbers matter now more than ever. I have a longer interview with Pat Wadors, ServiceNow’s Chief Talent Officer, to share next week, but do start here. While there is some interesting cultural fodder, I did get stuck on one fact: As of December 2019, the company reports they've achieved pay equity across gender and racial lines. There’s still work to do, but it’s a start.
ServiceNow
Coronavirus in the community
• Soul food chef Jonny Rhodes turned his restaurant into a low-cost grocery story, sourcing produce from local farms.• Women are considering quitting their jobs because of coronavirus.• Black businesses are sidelined in the $484 billion relief package. This includes cultural icons like Ben’s Chili Bowl in D.C.• Beyoncé and Jack Dorsey #startsmall• Rural hospitals are shut out of stimulus loans. They were already vulnerable. They’re not going to make it.• Marshawn Lynch rode around Oakland on a scooter handing out protective face masks. Wrap him in a circle of light and protect him at all costs.• Juggalos get it. • Don’t tell Black people how to spend their stimulus checks, please.• Here’s a 60-page guide for teachers, parents, and caregivers with important tips to support students with autism during the pandemic—available in seven languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, and English.
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On background
Some descendants of victims of the 1923 Rosewood massacre received reparations. Did it help? The answer appears to be complicated. Rosewood, a thriving Black community in Northern Florida, was set upon and burned to the ground by an all-white mob in 1923. A 1994 law passed by the state’s legislature allowed descendants to go colleges in Florida tuition-free, the first such form of official reparations in the U.S. The scheme has been a blessing and a burden for some students. “We’re not doing this just for us,” says one recipient, at a low point in her six-year pharmacy doctoral program. “You always have to be the best and prove a point, simply because of who you are and what your family has gone through.” The Florida program is a test case for other reparations arrangements. “If I mess this up, I mess it up for me and my cousins and people I don’t even know,” she says.
Washington Post
Inclusion: Will you or won’t you? Erica Merritt, founder of Equius Consulting Group explains why the diversity and inclusion movement feels stalled in the U.S. For one, corporate systems often value assimilation, not inclusion. “Many of them are not willing to shift their culture, policies, or practices in order to make room for those people who look different, i.e. are of different racial backgrounds.” Lasting change requires organizations to “wrestle with the history, culture, ideology, and power dynamics that hold [their] social hierarch[ies] in place,” says Merritt. You can make all the business cases you want, she says. “Either organizations have the will to do this work or they don’t.”
Bold Culture Hub
Hey, how are you doing? It is a surprisingly powerful question, particularly if you ask it sincerely. Karen Twaronite, EY’s Global Chair, Diversity and Inclusiveness, has data that suggests the question can trigger an important moment between colleagues. Pre-pandemic, their data found that more than 40% of people surveyed reported feeling physically and emotionally isolated in the workplace, across all generations, genders, and ethnicities. (It's got to be way higher now.) But about the same number reported that when people checked in on them, they felt more included. The check-in has to be personal—being cc'd on work emails, or invited to formal events (or Zooms) isn’t going to cut it. I share this advice from David Kyuman Kim often and it bears repeating now: It’s not the asking, it’s the listening. In times of crisis, “we have a responsibility to draw our attention to co-workers, to community members and ask a simple question—‘how are you doing?’” he says. “And then listen, really listen, as if you don’t already know the answer.”
HBR
Tamara El-Waylly produces raceAhead and manages the op-ed program.
The big number
$1.38 billionThat’s the economic impact of businesses run by people of color, according to Ashley Harrington, federal advocacy director and senior counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. They also employ more than 8.7 million Americans.
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Today's mood board
The family business
Updates from members of the raceAhead community.
• RaceAhead treasure Rebecca Carroll’s latest podcast Come Through with Rebecca Carroll: 15 Essential Conversations About Race in a Pivotal Year for America did an on-the-fly reset this spring, only to become even more essential in a world rocked by coronavirus. Click through for her interview with Insecure's Issa Rae, and stay tuned for a raceAhead interview with Carroll and her sense of how the world is unfolding now.• Jessica Santana, co-founder and CEO of America on Tech (AOT) has been named a Compass Leader by Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) for her work to end generational poverty. AOT prepares underrepresented students for tech education or careers; out of 2,500 students trained, 85% are majoring in STEM subjects or are working in the field. Keep your eye on Jessica. • Andrew Plumley, the director of inclusion for the American Alliance of Museums, has launched a new content series called Museums and Equity in Times of Crisis. It is filled with resources for equity-minded museum and exhibition professionals. “Museums are spaces that help us grow and learn and have always been spaces that have a unique ability to shape our world,” he says. It’s a terrific resource for any creative marketer, frankly. • White Men As Full Diversity Partners (WMFDP) has launched a podcast on inclusive leadership called The Insider Outsider Podcast. Gwendoline Van Doosselaere, WMFDP marketing manager, is excited about it and would love community input. What should they cover? What are you curious about?• Juliet Aiken, PhD, the founder of the Master's in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at the University of Maryland, hosts a weekly “coffee shop” discussion, now focused on diversity, inclusion, and equity in organizations in a COVID-19 world. It’s an eclectic group of practitioners, students, and academics—topics include recruiting, hiring, performance tracking, and vanquishing systemic barriers. Get it, Juliet! Email for an invite iocoffeehouse@gmail.com.
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