Voting Matters: Why Corporations Supporting Racial Justice Have to Get Political
On March 25, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, signed SB 202 into law. Many immediately declared the bill majorly disenfranchising. Critics pointed to procedures which attack everything from absentee voting to distribution of food and water to voters waiting in notoriously long lines.[1] Stacey Abrams took to Twitter to call the bill “Jim Crow in a suit and tie”—and she wasn’t the only one.[2]
Consumers were quick to acknowledge the racial undertones to the voter disenfranchisement bill, which would disproportionately affect Georgia’s Black voters. They called on prominent Atlanta-based corporations to make good on their racial justice statements of last summer. As spokesperson Bishop Reginald Jackson said pointedly, “We’re not going to stand with folk who don’t stand with us.”[3] Delta and Coca-Cola, the corporate epicenters of the storm, are currently subject to a massive boycott campaign for their insufficient response to (and even endorsement of) SB 202. As a litmus test for whether corporations honor those commitments, predatory voting laws show that companies have to be pressed to acknowledge their complicity.
As You Sow’s Racial Justice Initiative has tracked whether corporations acknowledge systemic racism, and whether they back that statement up with community involvement and advocacy. If corporations aid and abet voter disenfranchisement by ignoring the consumer power of those communities, too, those communities will be doubly disenfranchised. Both Coca-Cola and Delta have longstanding political involvement, and each made sweeping promises to support racial justice only a few months ago. Each scored relatively highly on the RJI scale—but clearly, there’s work to do.
Coca-Cola’s policy for political contributions stipulate zero tolerance for “egregious remarks in the Equality & Inclusion area.” Their “Taking a Stand” campaign, inaugurated this summer in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, intended to tackle systemic racism in all its faces— including voter rights. The “Sprite: Create Your Future” voter education program, their “Speak Your Peace” partnership with Vote.org, and their work with the GAVotingWorks campaign all threaten to be undone by their lackluster leadership concerning SB 202. Most tellingly, Coca-Cola’s response to the bill makes no mention of race, as if to dissociate voting rights from their racial equity plan.
Delta, meanwhile, initially issued a statement applauding their own involvement in the final bill, which they stated “improved considerably during the legislative process.” Five days later, after intense backlash, CEO Ed Bastian acknowledged that, “After having time to now fully understand all that is in the bill, coupled with discussions with leaders and employees in the Black community, it’s evident that the bill includes provisions that will make it harder for many underrepresented voters.” Delta, too, had an earlier voting campaign as part of their commitment to racial justice. At the very least, we can say they made the critical link between voting rights and racial equity.
As of March 24th, 47 states had introduced 361 bills with the potential to harm at-risk voters.[4] Black and Brown communities will be most affected. Voter ID laws have long been used to diminish Black political power, with huge repercussions for citizen rights and accountability. So, what can corporations do to disrupt this process?
Corporations are some of America’s key political institutions. Their constant presence in our daily lives means that they serve vital social purposes, distributing goods and services in much the same way the government would.[5] Consumers have the power to demand accountability of corporations, but corporations have the responsibility to leverage their power, too. As active participants in the political process, financing PACs, candidates, and lobbies, they are positioned to become real agents of change.[6] Best of all, studies indicate that political dialogues between consumers and businesses can indirectly create networks of accountability to the public.[7] For that to happen, corporations must not renege on their promises of last summer, and they must be willing to listen and make the connections that communities of color require of them.
[1] Beachamp, Zack. “Georgia’s Restrictive New Voting Law, Explained,” March 26, 2021, Vox, https://www.vox.com/22352112/georgia-voting-sb-202-explained
[2] https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1375226961568657409
[3] Papenfuss, Mary. “Calls Mount to Boycott Coca-Cola After Home State of Georgia Strangles Voting Rights,” March 26, 2021, Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coca-cola-boycott-georgia-voting-crackdown_n_605e72c7c5b6531eed04f76e
[4] “State Voting Bills Tracker 2021,” April 1, 2021, Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-voting-bills-tracker-2021
[5] Néron, Piene-Yves. "Business and the Polis: What Does It Mean to See Corporations as Political Actors?" Journal of Business Ethics 94, no. 3 (2010): 336. Accessed April 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40784698.
[6] Piene-Yves. "Business and the Polis,”343.
[7] Saffer, Adam J., Aimei Yang, and Yan Qu. “Talking Politics and Engaging in Activism: The Influence of Publics’ Social Networks on Corporations in the Public Sphere.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 63, no. 3 (September 2019): 560. doi:10.1080/08838151.2019.1660130.