Business Leaders Need To Step Up...Because George Floyd Could Have Been Me - Part 3
Its been about one month since George Floyd, a 46 year old African American, died at the hands…should say knees of former Minneapolis officers, in particular Derek Chauvin ending in the eruption of protest nationwide and around the world. Anyone having a hard time understanding the situation or having a hard time showing empathy, well check out this quote.
African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible -- even if you're choking on it -- until you let the sun in. Then you see it's everywhere.
-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The GOAT
So how do we really change the situation in America, that has been going on for decades because this isn’t just about police brutality, it’s also a pay inequality issue as well…the business leaders need to step up.
“Like so many of you, we have been deeply saddened and angered by recent events in our country,” they wrote. “The unnecessary and unjust killing of anyone must not be accepted. The issue of race and the experiences of too many people of color cannot be ignored. We owe it to our employees, our customers and our communities to be very clear in condemning these acts of violence. They represent a disregard for basic human rights that has no place in our communities or country, and certainly not at Nordstrom.”
-Erik Nordstrom, CEO Nordstrom
Yeah, we have seen CEOs talking about change is needed, donating money to different organizations (which is a tax write-off), but this is just to show face. Five or six companies own all the media outlets in America. And when it comes to social media, there is no bigger company than Facebook.
Two years ago, claims made by the New York Times and UK media stated that Cambridge Analytica tried to influence how Americans voted using information from 50 million Facebook without their permission. An undercover TV reporter suggested Cambridge Analytica was prepared to use bribes to create videos for clients it could then post to the internet to influence voters.
Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg eventually testified in Washington to discuss foreign meddling in 2016 presidential elections, the spread of disinformation, privacy and censorship. Sheryl Sandberg told the Senate Intelligence Committee her company was "now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day" and was "making progress on fake news.
Facebook had some other issues after that, but the stock bounced back and hit all-time highs several weeks ago. The issue back then was Facebook still had all the power. They too showed face by implementing features to increase privacy, but no sweat, they were still making their ad revenue.
Amid ongoing protests against police brutality and racism, a new campaign from organizations including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League is urging advertisers to pull their spending on Facebook ads for July, emphasizing the platform’s repeated failure to curb hateful and false content.
The organizations, which also include Color of Change, Common Sense, Sleeping Giants, and Free Press, point to several examples where they say Facebook has failed. They specifically point to the social network enabling “incitement to violence against protesters” amid recent anti-police brutality demonstrations; its decision to make Breitbart a news source on its platform and to enlist the Daily Caller as a fact-checking partner; its failure to remove Holocaust denial from the platform as a form of hate; and allowing voting disinformation to target black voters.
“We have been continually disappointed and stunned by Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to protecting white supremacy, voter suppression and outright lies on Facebook,” said Color of Change president Rashad Robinson in a published statement. “A key way for major corporations to demand racial justice is to withhold their dollars until Facebook becomes more responsible and accountable to Black communities on the platform.”
Since the campaign launched earlier this month, more than 160 companies have signed on to stop buying ads on the world’s largest social media platform for the month of July. Facebook generates about $70 billion in advertising sales each year with the big companies making up about a quarter of that $70 billion. On Friday, Facebook's 8.3% decline in stock price wiped out $56 billion in market capitalization. Now the organizations of the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign is looking to go global starting with Europe will to join the boycott.
My wife says I'm a straight capitalist. So what comes to mind is at some point...good, bad or indifferent, Facebook' stock price is approaching a level where buyers are going to willing to step in and own the stock. Yesterday, Starbucks announced they were removing all ads on all social media platforms. During the pre-market Facebook's stock was down another 3%. During the pre-market, price was sitting between 4 hr demand and supply.
Zooming out to the daily chart, clearly shows we are still in an uptrend and thus I don't see the stock going below $200 and anticipate the Smart Money getting long the stock between $200 -$210 range. Maybe it consolidates for a bit while the Smart Money gets all their positions filled, before the stock moves higher.
Or maybe it doesn't consolidate as the Smart Money and I think alike.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
Posted Using LeoFinance
