During the past four years, companies have chosen to speak about every contentious issue in our hyperpolarized, culture war-driven world. But now they are abstaining from condemning the most extreme political violence: an assassination attempt against a former president.
While former President Donald Trump escaped with relatively minor injuries, an innocent bystander was killed . The silence from brands busy boasting about their corporate social responsibility is deafening.
It would be fine for companies not to make a statement and just to continue marketing sneakers or beer or eyeglasses. The sole fiduciary responsibility of companies and their leaders is to build a profitable and growing business. Sitting out the national debate on abortion might make sense for beloved, big-tent brands. Except they don’t sit out.
I dare you to find a major brand that didn’t post a black square on Instagram pledging to do its part in combating racism and denouncing its own complicity in furthering it during the summer of 2020. Companies committed to hiring heads of DEI and implementing programs to educate employees on their white supremacy. They formed employee resource groups for black employees. They promised to recruit from historically black colleges and increase their percentage of black employees.
None of this had anything to do with their primary business goal: selling stuff. But companies don’t do anything that doesn’t have something to do with their primary business goal of selling stuff, even if most would have you believe they make these controversial statements and implement these polarizing policies because it is the right thing to do. They are wrapping themselves in what they perceive to be virtue as a marketing ploy. (Notably, during the pandemic, they all sat out on advocating the opening of public schools, disproportionately attended by black students, a policy that I would consider the most structurally racist since Jim Crow.)
Why they did it has become clear: woke capitalism.
Almost every company on Earth, or at least those operating in America, believed that making these statements would “build their brand,” attract like-minded “cool progressive” consumers, and ultimately, yes, sell stuff. They were clout chasing, which they assumed would translate into sales.
They also thought that not making pronouncements in the heated frenzy of the summer of 2020 would get them called out by employees and activists and would-be social justice warriors who only buy leggings from brands that denounce racism. They believed that if a brand dared remain silent on these matters, there would be mass boycotts and declining business.
They weren’t wrong. The fervor was such that no statement was simply unacceptable. The hordes descended, trolling Instagram for an absence of black squares from notable brands. Some CEOs were pushed out of the companies they themselves founded because they declined to make a public comment. Andrew Crapuchettes built a $100 million tech company and was pushed out by the board in the summer of 2020 for refusing to make a "we denounce racism and pledge to do better" statement.
And so, Nike demanded: Don’t sit back and be silent.
Shein, a Chinese fast-fashion brand selling $4 leggings, pledged $50,000 to the NAACP.
Canadian fashion retailer Aritzia pledged $100,000 to the NAACP and Black Lives Matter “in honor of #GeorgeFloyd and our entire community.”
It continued well into 2021. Amid a rise in reported attacks against Asian people, Converse, the old-school sneaker brand owned by Nike, told its 10 million Instagram followers: Hate toward one of us is hate toward all of us.
I guess not when it’s hate toward Trump. That hate seems to be OK.
The black square-ification of corporate America continued nonstop beyond 2021. Many companies made statements about the war in Ukraine, halted business in Russia, and pledged humanitarian relief funds.
It continued with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Companies pledged to expand healthcare benefits to include travel costs across state lines for reproductive healthcare (aka abortions), when necessary.
Lauren Hobart, the president and CEO of retailer Dick's Sporting Goods, said the company would provide up to $4,000 to cover the cost of travel for employees and their spouses who needed to travel out of state for an abortion. Hobart acknowledged that abortion is a polarizing issue.
She wrote: "We recognize people feel passionately about this topic — and that there are teammates and athletes who will not agree with this decision." The company chose to do so anyway.
Given these pronouncements on racism and abortion and Ukraine, it is impossible for companies now to say, "We don’t weigh in on controversial issues." And so, they aren’t saying that. They are silent.
While it is nearly impossible to fathom an issue people feel more passionately about on both sides than abortion, there is Trump. He is the embodiment of Hitler for the Left while being the savior of the MAGA faithful, and there is quite literally nothing that divides this country more.
So now, for the first time in years, companies are going back to marketing the sneakers and beer and eyeglasses — and ignoring the most monumental political event in this country since 9/11.
Companies simply can’t find the gumption to condemn political violence, an assassination attempt resulting in the death of a law-abiding, firefighting citizen. They can’t find the chutzpah to make a simple nonpolitical statement of unity and remind us we are all Americans.
Why can’t CEOs muster the courage? Because "Trump derangement syndrome" has unhinged half of the country. Whether the CEOs themselves are suffering from it or not, they don’t want to provoke the wrath of those who are - those taking to TikTok and bemoaning the shooter’s poor aim.
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But leaders need to lead. And there is an absence of leadership in American business today, even as those in the executive suite boast about their moral courage and corporate social responsibility bona fides.
The fact is, the vast majority of CEOs, human resources leaders, and corporate communications lackeys either secretly or not so secretly wish the shooter hadn’t missed. They are morally bankrupt and have no business leading anything. You don’t have to like Trump to condemn political violence. I’ve never voted for him, and I condemn it . And so did my company . I invite other CEOs to stand up, find their backbone, or step aside.
Jennifer Sey is a USA champion gymnast, the producer of the 2020 Emmy-winning documentary Athlete A on Netflix, and the founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics .
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