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Last August, Kirk Triplett put a Black Lives Matter sticker on his bag for the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Triplett was prompted to show support for the cause of racial injustice because of his son Kobe, who is African- American.

I was thinking about my son, who is 18 years old and could be driving a car in the wrong situation, Triplett said Friday after the second round of the $3 million PGA TourChampions major. I wanted to make sure thats not his responsibility to deescalate the situation.

But Triplett knew displaying the sticker was not really taking action. An interview at Firestone Country Club and some that followed helped him discover a way to accelerate change.

One of his comments I actually Googled what can a white guy do? he said caught the attention of Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell, who emailed Triplett and told him he had an answer to his question. The former Pittsburgh Steeler is a board member of Dedication To Community (D2C), a national non-profit that educates and empowers communities on diversity, belonging, and equity. Tripletts partnership with the organization was announced in February.

Putting a Black Lives Matter sticker on your bag is just kinda, Thats a problem. But you hope people migrate from that to solutions and thats the reason for Dedication To Community on my bag, Triplett said. Their main focus is law enforcement training. Its guys that came through the NFL, worked heavily with them on their conduct policy, and the founder is [M.] Quentin Williams, he was an FBI agent and a prosecutor.

These guys have one solution. Training law enforcement, training the communities, helping people understand each other better. Really what they work on is communication and not letting these situations escalate.

Triplett, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, and his wife Cathi have four children twins Conor and Sam, 25, daughter Alexis, 21, and Kobe, the latter two adopted. Alexis is Latino; Kobes biological father is Black, his mother Japanese.

Before Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, Triplett said he had several conversations with Kobe. Chauvin received a sentence of 22.5 years on Friday.

Weve discussed that fairly regularly, Triplett said of the Chauvin case. This is not a great deal of interest to him. It became a great deal of interest to me when I talked to him and said, If you get stopped by the police, you need to do this, this and this. Ive got three other kids and that conversation looked completely different with them than it did with him. I thought, Heres where the patent unfairness comes in.

When people say systemic racism or system inequality its something thats really hard for me to visualize and understand because Ive never faced it. When Im having that conversation with him, I just get the little, tiniest inkling of what this might be like. I think thats the first step, everybody understanding what sometimes these people face.

Triplett said Kobe got the message. The Tripletts also participated in relationship training through D2C.

D2C has a partnership with the Miami Heat, training Miami patrol officers the Heat sponsor, and is involved with otherprofessional sports.

They have an agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing and they train the organization there. They do some stuff with the NHL, Triplett said. The NHL is like golf, theres not a lot of racial issues in those sports because theyre so white, for lack of a better term, theres not a lot of diversity.

Most sports today that lack diversity want to create opportunity. Its not an overnight process, but some of it starts with funding and finding ways for young people to look at a sport and instead of saying, Oh, thats the white mans game, they think, Heres this APGA, [a non-profit tour to prepare African-American and minority golfers] or I can go to school at a HBCU. Theres a pathway to participate in the sport.

Triplett sees progress in that regard.

Phil Mickelson made a large donation to HBCU golf teams, he said. The PGA Tour is trying to help minority access to golf through the APGA. Billy Horschel has also sponsored a tournament for the APGA. Access to health care, access to economic opportunity, all of these things.

Golf does a great job of contributing to the community. Maybe we havent always done a great job in the social justice area. I dont see any reason we cant.

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After sporting Black Lives Matter sticker on his bag last year, Kirk Triplett takes more action on social justice issues - usatoday.com

Last summer, when Black Lives Matter protests rolled through nearly 550 towns and cities across the U.S., the business community reacted swiftly.

Two weeks after the senseless killing of George Floyd, American corporations pledged more than $1.7 billion to address racism and injustice. At the same time, company leaders publicly promised to make their organizations more diverse by improving anti-discriminatory hiring practices, pay parity and equitable access to advancement for people of color.

Business has the transformative power to change and contribute to a more open, diverse and inclusive society. We can only accomplish this by starting from within our organizations, wrote Vijay Eswaran, executive chairman of the multinational conglomerate QI Group.

One year later, it seems appropriate to ask what has become of this outpouring of good will. How many Black people have been hired or promoted? How many are at pay equity with their white peers? What are the results of the systems put in place to promote Black employees retention and career advancement?

History makes it clear how crucial accountability is for social justice. Although diversity and inclusion initiatives trace back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the chasm that separate promises and even good faith efforts from results remains stubbornly wide.

A February 2021 McKinsey report on race in the workplace describes Black employees as being 41% less likely to believe promotions are fair and 39% less likely to believe their companys diversity, equity and inclusion programs are effective than white employees in the same company. Racial discrimination suits, among the most-filed complaints at the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, result in relief only 15% of the time.

And of course, corporate support of social justice initiatives is not altogether altruistic. By speaking up for Black Lives Matter, companies position themselves to reap capitalistic benefits and avoid cancellation. According to a June 2020 survey, a majority of Americans of all generations 60% of the U.S. population say that how a brand responds to racial justice protests will influence whether they buy or boycott the brand in the future.

Nonetheless and not surprisingly its not hard to find examples of companies publicly voicing solidarity with Black workers but not backing it up in their hiring practices and policies.

A study published in May looked at diversity in the technology industry and found that companies that made statements of support with Black Lives Matter had 20% fewer Black employees on average than those that didnt.

As the protests were peaking in 2020, Amazon announced a $10-million donation to organizations supporting the fight against systemic racism and injustice, a figure that grew as the company matched employee donations. Since then, however, at its various businesses, it has racked up allegations of systemic bias against people of color, including retaliating against employees who wore Black Lives Matter paraphernalia, paying low wages to a disproportionately Black and Latino warehouse workforce and discriminating against them when it comes to promotions.

During this years proxy season, Amazon shareholders considered a proposal asking the board for an independent audit to assess the companys equity policies. Although the proposal had backing at the May 26 shareholder meeting, it was voted down.

On the other hand, Starbucks, with social justice initiatives that stem from a much-publicized 2018 in-store racial profiling incident, recently released an independently produced report on its progress on civil rights concerns. The report includes metrics on racial/gender pay equity and its workforce demographics, as well as strategies for reassessing policies previously put in place and updates on how they are tracking to their long-range diversity goals.

Additionally, in April, BlackRock, the worlds largest asset management firm, announced that it too would get an independent audit of its racial equity and inclusion. This puts pressure on smaller firms to do the same.

A companys dedication to the timely disclosure of complete equity data is the only way the public can assess whether its activism is performative or a real attempt at change. According to As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy organization, approximately two-thirds of companies in the S&P 500 made statements in support of racial justice in 2020, but tracking their progress toward goals they set was hampered because of a serious lack of data and transparency at the companies.

The tragedy of such lost accountability is best illustrated by Harvard University English professor and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr., looking back at the 40 acres and a mule promise to newly freed slaves the first systemic attempt to mitigate racism: Try to imagine how profoundly different the history of race relations in the United States would have been had this policy been implemented and enforced; had the former slaves actually had access to the ownership of land, of property; if they had had a chance to be self-sufficient economically, to build, accrue and pass on wealth.

In 100 years, no one should have to imagine what might have been if the promises of equity and inclusion in 2020 were kept. Companies can be kept honest. Customers and consumers can demand that businesses promote the outcomes of their diversity programs, their process and even their struggles in the same way they promoted their aspirations a year ago.

The pledges made by American business last summer need not become the thoughts and prayers of the racial justice movement. Too much is at stake.

Ralinda Harvey Smith is a marketing and business strategy consultant and a freelance writer in Santa Monica. @ralinda

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Op-Ed: U.S. businesses pledged to support BLM. How have they done? - Los Angeles Times

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A new report from diversity analytics company Blendoor reveals tech companies pledges of support for Black Lives Matter only went so far.

The State of DEI in Tech 2021 spotlights the diversity, equity, and inclusion disparities in 240 of the worlds largest and well-known tech companies. It comes a year after George Floyds murder. The death of the Minneapolis Black man at the hands of police reverberated around the world and prompted a wave of declarations and promises by organizations to make Black Lives Matter a part of their mission, and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in all facets of their work.

Blendoor counted 535 pledges worth $4.56 billion made by a majority of those tech companies between January 1 and December 31, 2020. But the report also reveals, for example, that the tech companies that made Black Lives Matter pledges or statements have 20% fewer Black employees on average than companies that did not make similar pledges and statements.

Despite these public displays of commitment to DEI and the investment of billions of dollars over the last seven years there is little evidence of tangible progress overall, said Blendoor founder and CEO Stephanie Lampkin, MBA 13.

The report also spotlights that there are no Black females who are named executive officers (usually the five highest paid executives at a publicly traded company) in the 240 tech companies analyzed. Women only make up 15% of those named executive officers and on average make 21% less money than male named executive officers. And there are 49% fewer Asian executives compared to Asian workers at entry-level positions, the largest drop-off in the tech pipeline according to the report.

Lampkin started Blendoor in 2015 and in 2020 launched its BlendScore tool. The tool analyzes companies using a variety of information like public data sets as well as company websites, annual reports, diversity reports, and equity and inclusion performances. Blendscore was used to compile the State of DEI report using data from January 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. A companys score is based on four criteria: leadership, retention, recruiting, and impact.

Heres a closer look at some of the reports findings.

According to the report, 42% of tech company executives analyzed are women or people of color, but white women represent about half of that group. White men represent about 58% of tech executives, while Asian (South, East, and Southeast) men make up 12% of tech executives. Asian women hold less than 4% of those roles, while Black men and women, and Latino and Indigenous men and women, make up less than 5% total.

Of 240 tech companies analyzed, zero had a Black female as a named executive officer. NEOs are the five highest-paid jobs in publicly traded companies.

The average salary for a white employee at one of the 240 tech companies scored is $130,000, compared to $98,000 for Latino and Indigenous employees;Black employees make an average of $91,000.

Companies founded after 2008 had an average of 32% more Asian executives than older companies. Larger companies with more than 10,000 employees had on average 56% more women executives than smaller companies. Companies headquartered in the Midwest have an average of 50% more underrepresented minorities than companies in other parts of the U.S. Underrepresented minorities are defined in the report as any individual in the U.S. in the tech industry who does not identify as white or Asian.

According to the report, Asian women in the tech companies studied have the lowest upward mobility from entry-level to executive/senior-level, with 58% fewer Asian women in executive positions compared to the number of Asian women in entry-level roles (called a drop-off rate). Asian men have a drop-off rate of 44%. Underrepresented women experience a drop-off rate of 25%, while underrepresented men experience a drop-off rate of 50%.

White women and white men did not experience a drop-off rate. Both are better represented in executive/senior-level roles than they are in entry-level roles.

Impact refers to a companys established programs and partnerships aimed at corporate social responsibility.

Annual diversity reporting is the most common impact practice among the 240 tech companies analyzed, with nearly half of the companies analyzed doing some sort of reporting; followed by supplier diversity that emphasizes relationships with women, people of color, veterans, and people with disabilities; and diversity scholarships.

Lampkin said the report does offer signs of improvement, like growth in female employees and Asian employees at every level of tech in the past six years, as well as more companies sharing their data, hiring diversity consultants, forming employee resource groups, and conducting unconscious bias training.

The companies who are making pledges are also saying we need to do better, Lampkin said. What were trying to elucidate is just saying were working on it is insufficient. If indeed you want to do better, show us your numbers on a regular basis much like you do with quarterly financial reporting.

If indeed you want to do better, show us your numbers on a regular basis much like you do with quarterly financial reporting.

The absence of Black female named executive officers and the 20% fewer Black employees figures are two things that stood out to MIT Sloan lecturerMalia Lazu.But she said she wasnt surprised at the reports overall findings or what might appear to be a lack of progress from the 240 tech companies.

This isnt about getting an anti-racism widget to market, said Lazu, a former Berkshire Bank executive vice president who focuses on inclusion in the innovation economy. Its important to understand that what youre changing here is value structures, and that doesnt happen quickly.

Building and maintaining a diverse and inclusive company is a process of continual accountability, Lazu said, but she offered some short-term steps for managers. They include individual education listening to podcasts and reading books to better understand the history of diversity, equity, inclusion, and corporate accountability and looking at the numbers, to see who exactly makes up their workforce.

Blendoor offered several calls to action for companies, including the adoption of reporting standards, and incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion standard metrics into their due diligence or when they are raising funds. Blendoor is also pushing for public disclosure of EEO-1 forms, which provide demographic breakdowns of a companys workforce by race and gender.

2021 is ushering in a new generation of environmental and socially consciously investors, consumers, and job seekers, Lampkin said. Companies who take an apathetic or apolitical stance on social issues will find it difficult to attract and retain the best talent.

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Tech companies lag behind their Black Lives Matter pledges - MIT Sloan News

Italy's national football team has decided not to "take the knee" before kick-off against Austria in the Euro 2020 match in London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday 26 June.

However the situation now appears to be less clear-cut than reported by Italy's media on Friday, with new reports suggesting that the entire Italian team willtake the knee only if Austria does the same.

Theall-or-nothingapproach is designed to avoid a repeat of the divisive scene before the Italy-Wales match in Rome on Sunday when five Italian players knelt - together with the entire Welsh team - and six remained standing.

The five players - Federico Bernardeschi, Andrea Belotti, Emerson Palmieri, Matteo Pessina and Rafael Toloi - chose to make the anti-racist gesture to express their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The spectacle descended into a political case - with Italian politicians and the media weighing in with opposing views - a situation that Italy's football chiefs are keen to avoid.

Until now Italian players were free to choose whether or not to make the gesture, however itwas subsequently decided to stop players from taking the knee, reflecting the majority view of the squad, to avoid any further "confusion."

After the players who did not kneel before the Wales match were criticised in the media, the Italian team issued a statement.

On behalf of the entire squad, we reaffirm that we are against all forms of racism, said communications chief Paolo Corbi, adding: "Adhering or not to a form of protest, a symbolic one at that, does not mean ignoring the fight against racism.

The case, which comes as former US police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in jail for the murder of African-American George Floyd, has divided Italy's fans on social media.

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Euro 2020: Italy will not take a knee for Black Lives Matter - Wanted in Rome

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

GoLocalProv News Team

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U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Brother Gary Dantzler

I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and Im sorry it hasn't happened yet, said Whitehouse. The Senator and his family have been members for decades.

Since GoLocal reported the news the Whitehouse's defense of the exclusive club, it has been reported by the NBC News, the Daily Mail, Washington Post, Fox News, and dozens of other news organizations globally.

SEE THE FULL VIDEO INTERVIEW BELOW

The Senator transferred his ownership in the club to his wife Sandra Thornton Whitehouse making her one of the largest shareholders in the exclusive club.

Whitehouses comments sparked outrage and disappointment from Rhode Islands leaders in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

In Rhode Island, there are two separate BLM groups. Brother Gary Dantzler, Executive Director of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island blasted Whitehouses membership and Baileys Beach Club.

We need to put an end to this good ole boy mentality and hold our elected officials accountable. Black Lives Matter Rhode Island expects the Senator to call this what it is; Jim Crow era racism thats been lingering around the Black community like a plague. Its time for real change and equity, said Dantzler.

The Senator has spoken out about the injustice of systematic racism in America. On June 4, 2020, after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, Whitehouse said in a statement,We hear the voices of the peaceful protestors who have marched. We can and must do better to root out systemic racism in its many forms."

Its time to create opportunities in the Black community by supporting the work thats happening in RI. No more hiding behind empty words, added Dantzler.

Whitehouse in his interview with GoLocal said of the exclusive club,It's a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them and I think we just need to work our way through the issues, thank you. Whitehouse was then ushered away by a staffer.

SEE GOLOCAL'S 2017 INTERVIEW WITH WHITEHOUSE HERE ON HIS MEMBERSHIP IN THE CLUB

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse at Bailey's Beach Club

Harrison Tuttle, the Executive Director of the BLM RI PAC, also had strong words for Whitehouse and called for him to force change at Baileys.

Sen. Whitehouse declining to push to diversify the all-white Baileys Beach Club shows where his priorities lay, said Tuttle.

After a year of protests calling for change, Sen. Whitehouse is in a position to make it happen and has passed the buck. Its past time that Sen. Whitehouse used his platform and make his actions match his rhetoric. Sen. Whitehouse should publicly and vigorously support increased diversity and accessibility and clubs like his, which have long held shut their doors to people of color, added Tuttle.

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BLM Blasts Whitehouse I Am Ashamed of Senator and His Affiliation With This Racist Club - GoLocalProv