Chenault & Smith on the “Memo to Corporate America” #2

I want to ask this question because I can imagine that as you all were coming together, there were some challenges in getting 70 to 72. Maybe there wasn't. I would be delighted to hear that. But what were some of those challenges and security, if you can share, but particularly for those who are still employed that may not be at the top in corporate America, major companies? I can share. And at the end of the day, as I told some people, I don't judge them, but there were some people who said, I'm concerned, given the position that I'm in, that there could be retaliation in some way against me. My perspective is, in business, to be successful in business, you have to display courage. You have to display courage to be successful in business. And so therefore, on social issues, you've got to speak up. And what was very important in this situation that I say to people, there is nothing more fundamental than the right to vote. And so if we're going to stand up on an issue, this is the issue that we've got to stand up. And so people are in different situations. And I think one of the things that's important is not to ostracize those people who did not participate. And most people did. But there were a few that didn't. It's one to try to understand where they were coming from, to try to help them, and to try to emphasize to them that if we don't take some risk, which we do take risk in business, we then have to take risks on social issues. And we can't, let me be clear, we can't be involved in every single issue. But we need to understand what are the fundamental issues, what are the important issues that we need to take a stand. Robert, I'm sure you have a perspective. Yes, I'm into that. You know, and Ken is right. You know, there are many of our brothers and sisters who were uncomfortable signing this because they felt, you know, the backlash that they may receive immediately. And let's be clear, there's going to likely be some backlash that many of us who did sign will receive over time. Some of it will be blatant, and we will see it in some, like all things will be subtle, and there'll be an erosion. And it's important for us, again, as a community to support each other, those who didn't sign, we still have to support them and help them build their power base in those companies, help those companies, you know, get more diversity at their board in the C-suite, and ensuring they have a conscious inclusion dynamic to get more and more African Americans, Latinx, into those companies to change the culture, educate and change the culture, and support each other in creating more businesses, independent businesses, so we can have more independent voices of African Americans who can stand, and I'll call it withstand, you know, withstand the pain. Because, listen, as painful as it is today, it is nowhere near as painful as our prior generation went through. We owe it to them. We owe it to our ancestors that we stand, and we have courage, and we take the fight forward. And that's what we do. And I have to say, Ken, you know, we've got a number of groups that circulate in emails led by African Americans, and people, you know, we rally, and we get together, and we think about economic inclusion, and banking, and finance, and housing, and this is an issue. When this issue came, I mean, it happened immediately, okay? Once it was understood, people said, no, no, no, no, this cannot stand. We have to do all that we can, and part of all we can beyond signing the letters is now to educate and have the conversations. Ken and I and others, we went to different organizations, business roundtables, and said, listen, you all need to jump on this too, okay? We then started talking to a number of state legislators, you all need to get on board with this too. This is important. You know, if we're employing people in your state, you need to understand how we feel as corporate leaders about these sort of activities. Now, I'm not saying, oh, we should boycott today, tomorrow. I think it's critically important that we make those voices heard, we make them strong, and we have to draw a line that says this will not stand. We cannot have a country where we make it harder for people to vote, especially with the advent of technology. This would be the easiest country in the world to vote. The easiest country in the world to vote. And you know, as African Americans, we stand in line on average 10 times longer than white Americans, on top of the number of polls, you know, the access, all those sort of things, and you can just see all this at the edges. It's just built to pick it off at the edges, and every single election that we cared about in this last cycle was won at the edges, all at the margins. So it's critically important that we not only understand and recognize where we are today, but where we're going tomorrow, which is we should be using and utilizing technology more efficiently so every American has a chance to vote in a fashion that has the least amount of friction. Those are the problems we should be focusing on for the future.