Companies Nod to Racial Injustice in Latest Earnings Calls

(Bloomberg) -- The push to end racial injustice is spreading from the street to the boardroom, with many leaders of U.S. public companies using second-quarter earnings calls to acknowledge the persistence of systemic racism and to vow to make their own organizations more inclusive.

Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, said on the company’s earnings call that it is “making a long-term commitment to build a more inclusive, a more diverse firm.” Ally Financial Inc. CEO Jeffrey Brown said on his company’s call that “systemic racism has prevailed for far too long” and that Ally would promote diversity from the top down.

Corporate calls for racial diversity are not new, and past commitments have often led to little change. But with the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May sparking global Black Lives Matter protests, some business leaders have taken action. For instance, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian resigned from the board of the forum-style media company and suggested a Black candidate take his place.

The stakes are also becoming clear this year. Black Americans called on members of their communities to not shop, or to buy only from Black-owned businesses, on July 7 in a demonstration of economic power dubbed Blackout Day. Global protests under the “Black Lives Matter” banner followed the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May.

A Bloomberg analysis found that in addition to BlackRock and Ally Financial, companies mentioning social inequality in their second-quarter calls included Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Software AG, Mercantile Bank Corp. and JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. Four other companies—Evercore Inc., Flushing Financial Corp, American Campus Communities Inc. and AAR Corp.—reference the death of Floyd and the events that followed.

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