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In this story, Mustang News reporter Olivia Galvn asked 39 Cal Poly students about their most impactful experiences with race and racism and at what point in their lives these experiences occurred. She reached out to several organizations and students to share their stories. Here are their responses led by an essay from Galvn to provide context for the project. Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

In the wake of George Floyds death by a Minneapolis police officer, Cal Poly students have marched and chanted in Black Lives Matter protests, conversed with loved ones about police brutality and posted educational resources about racism on social media.

Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. Black Lives Matters mission is to terminate white supremacy and violence against Black people, while building local support for Black power, love, imagination and innovation, according to their website.

For some students, this movement was an eye opening look into the depths of racism faced by people of color. While Floyds death sparked national outrage surrounding police brutality and systemic racism, previous instances of Black people dying by police force have resurfaced.

These cases include Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black resident of Louisville, Kentucky who was shot and killed by police in her apartment and Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black resident of Aurora, Colorado who died in a hospital days after police restrained him with a chokehold and paramedics gave him the sedative ketamine that resulted in his cardiac arrest.

Cal Poly also has a history of racism that dates back to the early 1900s where students performed minstrel shows in blackface. In April 2018, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity member Kyler Watkins wore blackface at a gangster-themed party, which made international headlines and revived the conversation surrounding racism at Cal Poly.

The university continues to make efforts to promote diversity and inclusion on campus. In January 2019, the university announced a $234,000 partnership with diversity specialist Damon Williams to start the Cal Poly Experience (CPX) survey. The survey aimed to create a more diverse campus environment, and the CPX survey results were released October 2019.

The data showed that minority individuals across many backgrounds and identities including women, LGBTQIA folks, disabled persons, financially challenged persons and members of underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds have negative experiences on campus and do not feel a strong sense of belonging and a sense of community. The data showed it is most difficult for Black students to feel positively about their sense of belonging and community.

For several Cal Poly students, the CPX results informed them what they already knew. Experiencing racism while navigating Cal Poly and the current national climate as a person of color is not a new conversation for them.

I was one of the only Black students in my class throughout elementary school. It wasnt necessarily, Shes Black, lets be mean to her. It was the microaggressions. In kindergarten, the kids would come up to me and tell me I should straighten my hair. When we started learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. the questions were always directed to me first. It was like I was the only one who had a valid voice on racism.

I come from a tri-racial background I am Caucasian, Asian and Native American. I have two younger siblings. [As kids,] my brother and I looked pretty alike, we didnt have the same features but we had the same skin color. My sister, on the other hand, looked way different. Growing up we were told that we werent siblings because we didnt look alike It was hard for people to put together because our skin tone was different.

My little brother is adopted from Ethiopia. The rest of my family is white. From a very early age, I realized that my family would be treated differently from the way we are put together. Its something Im so proud of, I have a little brother that has been able to grow into himself. We live in a very white town, hes probably the only Black kid in his grade. Its been very educational for me to see him go through the same system I did, but as a Black man in America.

As a Filipino-American, my community holds a lot of anti-Black sentiments. My family would shame darker skin because it was ugly or because it meant you were poor. I realize now it was racist, at the time it was just something my family told me. I was four or five years old.

Being a military kid, Ive always seen an immense amount of diversity wherever I ended up moving. Ive lived in the South, where there are a lot of white people and a lot of black people. In Kindergarten, I lived in Jacksonville, Florida. My dad was stationed in a base near Jacksonville. Teachers would put white kids in a group and POC kids in a group for projects, it was normal.

Growing up, I hated being Chinese. People would say, Ching chong go away. It was a very toxic environment I grew up in. Im not very good at STEM. Kids would tell me, Youre Asian, why arent you good at math. Asian people and white people discriminated against me because I wasnt good at math. But, I was good at English. People would say, Why are you good at English? You dont fit in here, and other really weird remarks as I was growing up at school.

I live in downtown Long Beach, where I am exposed to a lot of homelessness and gang violence. Ive had to travel across Long Beach to go to school. My home schools dont have the same resources and educational opportunities. At a young age, it was instilled in me that schools in predominantly white areas with predominantly white students were better.

My best friend growing up was Black and adopted. [My friend] told me that she was at the store with her mom, who is white, when some lady came up to her and asked, Sweetie, where is your mom? My friend said, This is my mom. The lady said, No, your real mom. I realized that no one would ever ask me this question I didnt know what it was, but I knew something was up. We were eight years old.

In elementary school, there were microaggressions that I ignored to fit in with the other kids. It would be small comments, like Why is your arm hair so dark? Im Mexican, Hispanic girls have darker hair. Kids when they are young dont have filters and they nitpick. As kids, we dont realize this is not okay until we get older. Especially for Hispanic girls and minorities, we grow up resenting our culture because it isnt what we watch in the media all the cool girls on campus and in the media are white.

I am Middle Eastern. There is a rhetoric about Middle Eastern people being terrorists. In elementary school, I got comments on certain traits that werent predominantly white, such as thicker eyebrows. People would assume I was Muslim becuase I am Middle Eastern. In high school, they would say really dumb things about bombings, too. When [the comments] were more appearance based, it was oh, this is something different about you. They didnt know better, it was teasing. But when it came to be a stereotype, it was you are deeply misinformed and have assumptions.

In elementary school, a white boy asked me, So were were you born in China? I said I was born here, in Granite Bay, my hometown. He wouldnt take that as an answer and kept asking me. I was confused why he kept asking even though I said I was born in Granite Bay. After that, he asked me why I could speak English so well. At that moment I was very confused and hurt as to why he couldnt take my answer as true. That was the first time I saw myself from an outside perspective as people were making assumptions about me because I am Chinese.

I started swimming when I was really young. Because I am Mexican, more indigenous Mexican than Spanish Mexican, I tan really easily. The biggest trauma from my childhood is kids at swim saying, Oh my God, you are so dark you are Black. As a child, I didnt know how to respond. Even now, I dont know how to respond. Its hard to process why they would say that or think like that. My town was very white. We only had one Black kid in my grade. I didnt understand the meaning of diversity until I went to L.A. and San Francisco, getting out of the small town and Central Valley.

I went to a pretty small, private elementary school. My entire grade was eleven people and there wasnt much diversity. We would be lining up for lunch and would get on the topic of family and ethnic languages. There were some other students who were Chinese-Americans. There were other students, who were not Chinese, who would say ching chong and belittle the Chinese language. It influenced me to not respect my language I would laugh along, I did not realize what the term meant.

I went to an immersion school, half of the students were white and half of the students were Latinx. We didnt have any Black people. The darkest students were Mexican American and most assumptions were about them. In second grade, there was a group of white students questioning why other students had darker skin colors. We were never taught about different races. [They] were guessing why other people had darker skin. This one girl said, Oh, its because they eat this certain disgusting thing. Everyone else was like oh, that makes sense. For the next few weeks, [those students] were saying people with darker skin arent darker because its natural, its because they eat this thing. It didnt sit right with me. Because we werent educated, we didnt know what was real.

One of my really good friends in elementary school had an adopted little sister from Ethiopia. When [my friends sister] was in kindergarten, she was in the bathroom and two other kindergartens were gossiping. One girl asked, Is anyone in here? The other said, Oh, its just the little brown girl, she doesnt matter. My friend was so upset that her little sister had been diminished to the little brown girl. I was like wow, kids can be really mean and kids can be racist.

I was born in the Philippines and lived there for a while, then in Singapore for two years. When I first moved to the U.S. in third grade I was super quiet. In Singapore, I went to an international school. It was super diverse and the curriculum was, too. I remember learning about different religions and cultures. We had a culture week and I felt like there the different cultures were embraced. Coming here, it was a culture shock. I had an easier time connecting with Asian individuals. Growing up, you noticed that the popular kids are white and upper class.

I was a Girl Scout in elementary school. In third grade, my mom was picking me up from a meeting. I was with one of my little girlfriends and we were in the parking lot with our two moms talking. My friends mom started telling a story of how her car got broken into. [She] said, I bet its one of those Arabs because he was walking weird up and down my neighborhood. He had weird clothes and a headdress on. In my head, I was picturing a man not wearing Western clothes with darker skin. I was thinking that maybe because of 9/11 she was afraid of an Arab man. Still, I was like thats so weird she said that, she didnt even see him and her tone was so hateful.

I was having dinner at a friends house one time. Somehow, my family came up. I am half Taiwanese and half white. My dad is a first generation immigrant. My friends mom asked me if my dad liked Chef Chus, a Chinese restaurant. I went home and was confused by the question It seemed like, You are Asian, do you like this restaurant? Its the small things you dont always feel comfortable calling people out. But you yourself are uncomfortable.

Ive never experienced racism Im white and we live in a systemic society that benefits people who are white. I really noticed racism in teachers when I was young. Im from Fresno, which is pretty racially diverse. In school, I would notice teachers talking to children of color differently. Students of color would be the ones being called a problem, even if they were just acting like children.

Im not a person of color Im Latino but I have fair skin and white privilege. You would hear boys in middle school say the N-word, beaner and wetback. It was funny and it was a joke. I would be like, Ive seen South Park, Im not a snowflake. People saw it as normal. I didnt realize this anti-Latino deal until I was out with my mom and she was speaking Spanish. White women were staring at her, like she was an alien. Now whenever we go out and she is speaking Spanish, I look to see who is around.

I was in Girl Scouts and we went to a hostel [for an event.] We were in a meeting talking about racism. Im Mexican and everyone else was white. I used to wear dark, heavy makeup. One of [the people working at the hostel] said to me, Someone might look at you and your dark makeup and think that you dont know English. I got red in the face. I thought, I know English, I was born here! Do people really look at me and think that I dont know English?

Im Chinese and I was adopted by white parents. Im a person of color, but Ive definitely been raised in a different way than others. I live in a very diverse part of California in Monterey, but I have had instances where Ive been treated differently. In sixth grade, my white friend asked, Do you see half the world because your eyes are so small? At that point, I didnt know how to address it. But, it got on my nerves.

In middle school I wasnt aware of a lot I knew there was racism, but I was sheltered in my own little bubble. But in 2013 when the first Black Lives Matter movement was taking place and people were protesting, I remember my family saying, Why are people protesting? In school, we would talk about the protests.

When I was a freshman in high school, one girl, who was my friend, said, I didnt know Asians could be pretty until I met you. I was really offended by that. I grew up in a white area there is a lot of racism when people get comfortable with each other.

We had a lady [who worked] at the front desk of my high school who blatantly called people by names that were stereotypically associated with their race. She called an Asian girl fortune cookie and a Mexican girl cinnamon spice. We all knew about it and were like, Dang, what is wrong with her? Those microaggressions are hurtful.

My junior year of high school I was at a party and guys were talking about which girls they thought were cute. I wasnt in the room, but my friend later told me that one of them [talked about me and] said, Maybe she would be prettier if she wasnt Black. That was my first experience with outward racism. At the time, I tried to act like everything was fine and brush it off. Not even until my senior year did I fully comprehend that statement and the little things that had led up to it. Ive always been given backhanded compliments and little statements that I didnt even realize.

I grew up in a majority-minority area. It was not until I transitioned to a high school in a more diverse area in a different neighborhood that I began to experience racism. I am Filipino. People sort of assume my race because I have a Spanish last name. I have had experiences where people would ask if I was fluent in Spanish. Just because I dont have paler, whiter skin, Ive noticed some people tend to distance themselves from me.

In high school, we would have potlucks in class. Teachers would always say, I expect you to bring insert traditional Filipino dish here. Id be like okay, I dont know how to make that. It would be mostly teachers making comments. In that situation and position to be teaching and raising students, it was surprising to see them act in this way. It goes to show, even though my high school tried to push inclusivity and diversity there are a lot of situations that you know administration will protect white students over students of color.

I grew up in a predominantly white suburb. In high school, my [Black] friend was called a gorilla. I had other incidents in high school of students who were not-Black and would use the N-word openly.

I have a friend who is mixed. She got arrested in a different city, that is predominantly white, for shoplifting. I dont want to justify her shoplifting but it was bikini bottoms. The cops showed up and the store owner said, We dont need people like you around here. It was like something out of a history textbook those words people like you. It really got to me, I realized this racism is still around. Its the microaggressions.

When I was in high school, I worked at a clothing store. Id sometimes see white people in the store making comments towards people of color amongst themselves. Two summers ago, I was at the register and an older, Chinese woman came up to me. A middle aged white woman and her daughter were at a table nearby. When the older woman came up to me, the white woman began yelling at her, saying she cut her in line. The woman said, Im so tired of dealing with all these Asian people, they should go back. It was uncomfortable and the older woman didnt do anything wrong.

I am a part of [Cal Poly] athletics. The first time I came here as a freshman, an older teammate took me to another students house. [There were about ten people there.] I was called the N-word with a hard R. It was ironic that some of the people there ended up being my roommates this year. The act itself was racist, but the people around were just as wrong. It was my very first day out of the dorm, I wanted to make friends so badly. I was really shocked. I dont want my roommates or athletics to not like me because of what happened. [] I think Cal Poly does an awful job when it comes to racist things that happen on campus. They can suspend or cancel things, but it still doesnt stop. I talked to Jamie Patton in Diversity and Inclusion, he is really wonderful and he really cared. But everyone else is trying to shove diversity down your throat. Its so bad that no one cares. It is an attack to learn about diversity and not treated as a gift to learn about other people.

This past summer, I was asked to play with the Philippines National Softball Team in Georgia. After a game and practice, we all went to a mall and there were a lot of white people. Were a group of Filipinos Were brown. The white people were looking at us up and down like we didnt belong. That exposure was eye opening. I felt that like one time, but people who are Black feel like that all the time.

Pretty early on in my first quarter at Cal Poly, I took notice of the people who grouped together. The diversity students grouped together and other cliques formed in the dorms. In the classroom, you would notice that you [were] the only person of color. It was a little bit of a culture shock, I come from a predominantly Hispanic community.

Im a white woman, Ive inherently never experienced racism and that is a privilege. Being a white person and growing up in a conservative Christian household, there are certain ideologies and biases Im still trying to shake. I cant acknowledge that those are not there. I dont think people should be ashamed of changing their opinions. To all the other white people out there, that is something to keep in mind We wont ever grasp the racism, oppression and discrimination that people of color live with. But, we need to start addressing this.

There is an overwhelming presence of white students at Cal Poly. I took [Cross Cultural Experience Week of Welcome] and a lot of alumni from Cal Poly came back and were telling us their experiences. It was heartbreaking. In WOW, you hear things that you didnt hear when you were applying and accepted. [For example,] Poly Cultural Weekend is not a realistic parallel to how the campus is. Walking around campus, you notice that people dont really see you at all.

There is a lot of anti-Blackness in the Asian community It is very rooted in assimilation. In older generations of people of color, it was everyone for themselves and a lot of hatred. Walking down the street with my parents growing up, we would cross the street if a Black person was coming. My parents and grandparents didnt think it was harmful to others, it was ingrained in our culture. That is something that needs to change. A lot of racism has to do with the perpetuation of stereotypes and microaggressions that we are brought up thinking are normal. Coming to college and being on your own helps you think for yourself. Being stuck in your culture bubble can be detrimental, exposure is ultimately the only way to break down those walls and barriers.

On the first day of Fall quarter when I attended my first set of classes, the culture was shocking. It wasnt blatant mistreatment, it was the microaggressions. None of my classes had any people who were Asian, Black or Hispanic everyone was white. I was treated differently the other students ended up forming smaller groups in each class, I was left out of that. It really sucked, but I joined more clubs and Chinese Students Association, which helped me get my bearings on the culture of Cal Poly.

I am half Japanese and half European. There were a lot of microaggressions that I didnt realize were due to how I looked. Part of it was I feel like growing up we didnt really do a lot for our culture. I didnt really see myself as being different from everyone else who is white. After I learned that microaggressions are a form of racism, I was like wow, I guess I have experienced that. I started to realize that more when I was in college. Im in the College of Agriculture, [Food and Environmental Sciences.] There have been times when I go into a class the first day and notice that everyone else is white.

At Cal Poly, everyone looked the same. [But my parents] said through all of elementary and high school, everyone looked different. That was the first time I realized I had never really noticed how diverse my school was. At Cal Poly Ive definitely come into contact with a few individuals that you could tell they have never been taught or raised in an area that was diverse. Theyd make off-putting comments and I would bring it to their attention. People would say that they would try to better themselves and be more inclusive. Ive had friends of mine tell me that they were hesitant about coming to Cal Poly because it isnt as diverse or inclusive. That was something I had thought of, I didnt think it would be as big of a culture shock as it has been.

The high school I went to was mostly white. One of my history teachers had an American flag and a Confederate flag hanging in the classroom. I didnt think to question it, I was unaware. Now with my new knowledge, even just having that in the classroom doesnt make sense and is not okay. When I was an incoming freshman, the Cal Poly open house I came to was during the blackface incident. That was the first real time I saw people protesting because of racism. That was scary for me. I hadnt been taught that some things were inexcusable. This racism is real, and this is happening at the college Im going to.

Correction: A different quote was attributed to Celestine Co. Her quote has been updated to accurately reflect her response.

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From kindergarten to Cal Poly: Students share their experiences with racism - Mustang News

A close second to the coverage of COVID-19 in 2020 has been the systematic racism in law enforcement and this has been so widely accepted, the mentioning of anything else is considered heresy but that is exactly what Attorney General William Barr said on Tuesday during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.

When asked by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas whether the Department of Justice is committed to ending systemic racism in law enforcement, Barr said:

I dont agree theres systemic racism in the police department, generally, in this country.

As an American citizen, one would think that an issue this important being raised by some of the most powerful politicians in our country would come with some some sort of evidence but unfortunately none of that occurred.

For instance, when Barr pointed out that more unarmed whites were shot and killed by law enforcement this year, Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond joined Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas by invoking the tired and ridiculous demographic parity claim.

Noting that the disparity was glaring because blacks make up just 15% of the population.

Despite resounding scientific evidence contrary to systematic racism, this has long been the only argument used to prove it.

Never mind that law enforcement doesnt encounter an exact replica of racial demographics, but rather criminals and crime is very much the epitome of disparity with blacks committing the majority of violent crime in America but there is no need for these politicians to mention that.

And after the failed demographic parity argument, there is only one thing left for politicians to do in order to prove their case that policing in America is racist.

LIE.

And lie did they ever and to our knowledge, not one media outlet pointed any of it out.

For instance, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, discussed the talk that black mothers give to their children and mentioned Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown in her statement discussing police violence.

Think about it.

Police racism is such a problem that the very examples given fall about as short as Muggsy Bouguesa 53 former NBA basketball player.

Trayvon Martin wasnt killed by law enforcement so that example is stupid, although the civilian George Zimmerman was exonerated as the jury determined Martin was the aggressor and the shooting justified as self-defense. Neither was Ahmaud Arbery killed by police, so that is equally stupid.

Tamir Rice was described as just a kid playing with a toy gun.

That is a lie.

Yes, the gun was a toy, with the orange tip removed and was being used to point at citizens before the police were called and it was pointed at them. The gun is pictured below. You decide if that appears to be just a toy gun.

And then there is the Gentle Giant, Michael Brown.

Can we just stop and realize how incredibly desperate this all sounds.

Seriously, using Michael Brown, a robbery suspect that attacked a police officer with almost 100 witnesses siding with law enforcement and where Officer Wilson was cleared by President Obamas Department of Justice of any wrongdoing as an example of systemic racism?

This is all so ridiculous but this is the world we live in today. Where those we trust to be honest about important issues continue to lie and lie and lie.to the point where cities are burning, athletes are kneeling and everyone seems to be losing their mind.

Are there problems in law enforcement? Of course, but by lying and manipulating, these elites will never be of any help.to anyone.

You can watch the full hearing below:

Law Officer is the only major law enforcement publication and website owned and operated by law enforcement. This unique facet makes Law Officer much more than just a publishing company but is a true advocate for the profession.

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If Cops Are So Racist Then Why Do Politicians Need To Keep Lying About It? - LawOfficer.com

On July 24, Taylor Swift celebrated the launch of his latest production, Folklore, which has broken download figures on Spotify and Apple Music; However, the taste has not lasted for a long time, as she now faces a lawsuit that accuses her of plagiarizing the albums logo. This has led her to redesign the merchandising of the album.

The lawsuit has come from the owner of The Folklore brand, Amira Rasool, who accused the pop singer of usurping the logo of her brand with a forceful message via Twitter: Wait a minute, Taylor Swift. Its one thing to use the name Folklore, but youre also stealing black womens logo.

He also wrote: Based on the similarities in design, I think the merchandise designer tore off my company logo, he wrote. I am sharing my story to shed light on the trend of big business or celebrities copying the work of minority-owned small business owners. I will not let this blatant robbery go unchecked, he questioned.

As the message began to circulate and go viral, Taylor Swift replied to Rasool: Amira, I admire the work you are doing and am happy to be able to make a contribution to your company and support the Black without Fashion council with a donation.

Amira Rasool, in turn, recognized Swifts message and did not hesitate to mention that the singer has always been an advocate for women.

I commend the Taylor team for recognizing the damage the merchandise caused to my company brand The Folklore, he wrote Tuesday. I recognize that she has been a great advocate for women who protect their creative rights, so it was good to see that her team is on the same page, she said.

She is an entrepreneur and freelance writer who distributes her residence between New York and Cape Town. He collaborates for prestigious publications such as TIME, Vogue, Teen Vogue, i-D Magazine, PAPER Magazine, Glamor, V Magazine and WWD. It also has a YouTube channel and a personal blog. Also, as weve already seen, she owns the Folklore online retail store. Read more about her on her website.

This situation occurs in a context where the African American community increasingly raises its voice to demand its rights. The Black Lives Matter movement, which emerged after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin from a shooting. Later it gained strength with the death of the citizen George Floyd at the hands of a policeman in the city of Minnesotta.

This movement has had a significant impact worldwide and many brands have had to rethink their strategies, speeches or even their graphic identity to avoid falling for messages that promote racial discrimination, as was the case with the NFL team Washington Redskins, that eliminated the nickname with which they have historically made themselves known as being racist.

The American agricultural cooperative Land OLakes has also pledged to change its packaging and remove the image of a Native American woman from its packaging early next year.

Another case that had a lot of impact was that of the Aunt Jemima brand, products of mapple honey and flour mix to make hot cakes of the Quaker Oats brand and owned by Pepsico. This product stated that it would change its graphic identity and even the name when considering that they promoted a racist message against people of color.

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Taylor Swift is sued for plagiarizing the logo of her new album, Folklore - Explica

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked a national human rights/social justice movement. The recent Black Lives Matter movement has forced companies to respond to its customers on where it stands. Local companies are all navigating how to show support to the Black community, while some others remain silent. Either way the brands risk alienating some customers in the middle of an economic downturn.

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked a national human rights/social justice movement. The recent Black Lives Matter movement has forced companies to respond to its customers on where it stands. Local companies are all navigating how to show support to the Black community, while some others remain silent. Either way the brands risk alienating some customers in the middle of an economic downturn.

Christian Reed-Ogba and husband Uchennaya Ogba are founders of Ech Public Relations. They've used their platform to help other black entrepreneurs with marketing long before the death of George Floyd sparked

Looking to protect their brands, corporations largely embrace Black Lives Matter

In the hours after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, many businesses were faced with a decision about how to respond to what was quickly becoming a national reckoning.

With carefully crafted brands to protect, should they respond directly to its Black customers by acknowledging and condemning systemic racism? By doing so, would they risk alienating other customers in the midst of a major economic crisis?

Americans weary from weeks of government-mandated stay-at-home orders turned their attention to video of Floyds killing on their smartphones, laptops and TV screens. No amount of TikTok videos or Netflix shows could lessen the shock.

Early on, many executives recognized it would ignite social unrest and demands for change, in unpredictable ways that could affect their bottom line.

H-E-B, Whataburger and the San Antonio Spurs denounced racism on social media platforms, and pledged funds to fight racial injustice.

USAA CEO Wayne Peacock penned a letter to the insurance and financial services companys 12 million members saying that despite efforts to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, there is more work to do. Peacock, who took the reins at USAA in February, wrote that the killings of Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor stand as stark reminders of the injustice still prevalent in our country.

El Paraiso Ice Cream, a paleta parlor on Fredericksburg Road, invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail in an Instagram post, quoting its most famous line, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Public relations firms said companies almost immediately reached out seeking advice.

For those that did take a strong position, it was, and is, important that it was for the right reasons and not seen as capitalizing on a sensitive issue, said Katie Harvey, CEO of KGB Texas, a San Antonio firm.

On ExpressNews.com: Weathered Souls Brewery's Black is Beautiful stout raises awareness to racial injustice

Marcus Baskerville, co-owner of Weathered Souls Brewery, located near Bitters Road and U.S. 281, started an initiative in which he encouraged brewmasters to create their own Black is Beautiful beer. The concept caught on, and more than 1,000 breweries are producing batches of the beer in all 50 states and 20 countries.

Small retailers like Feliz Modern, which has a location in The Pearl, opted in the days following Floyds death to promote online a Black-owned San Antonio soapmaker called Organically Beauty Inc.

Anamaria Suescun-Fast, executive vice president at the DeBerry Group, said the firm told its clients that the most important thing, if they decided to put out a statement, was to be authentic.

Sometimes that means listening instead of having a knee-jerk reaction, she said. Determine if what you have to say brings value to the movement in an impactful way. Now is not the time to get your brand out there.

Nationally, some of the biggest brands YouTube, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Disney and Uber have pledged millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter.

One of the most generous donors was Adidas, which pledged $120 million, or less than half a percent of its gross revenue from 2019, according to data compiled by Latonas, a mergers and acquisitions broker specializing in web-based businesses.

Last summer, the German sports apparel giant faced criticism when Black employees complained about what they described as the companys discriminatory workplace practices at its North American headquarters in Portland, Ore.

Recently, theres been a shift in which brands consumers are willing to financially support, said Karla Broadus, a professor who will teach a class this fall on the Black Lives Matter movement at University of Texas at San Antonio.

I think consumers and the general public have the Im tired of all of this attitude, she said. People are angry at so many things right now.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio school districts still struggle with the citys segregated past

Broadus is director of the African American Studies program in UTSAs Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies a program that the university didnt recognize as a minor until last fall.

She first taught a course on the movement at UTSA in 2017.

She said Black Lives Matter and its social media hashtag first appeared in July 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.

This feels different for me this time, said Broadus, who lived in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots, which followed the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King in custody.

At 47.8 million strong, the countrys Black population wields $1.3 trillion in buying power, on par with many countries gross domestic product, according to a consumer report compiled by Nielsen.

But companies arent just eyeing Black customers. Several polls have shown that a majority of Americans support the BLM movement, which is centered on protests against racism and police brutality.

Corporations have responded to the turn in public opinion.

Quaker Oats Co., a subsidiary of PepsiCo Inc., dropped the Aunt Jemima image and name it used for 130 years on its pancake syrup bottles, saying in a June 17 statement its origins are based on a racial stereotype.

After decades of controversy over its team name, the Washington Redskins last month dropped it after corporate sponsors demanded a new moniker. Other professional sports teams depicting Native Americans are considering taking a similar action.

Christian Reed-Ogba and her husband, Uchennaya Ogba, founded Ech Public Relations in 2011, and its one of a handful of Black-owned marketing operations in the city.

Their storefront on Broadway features a hand-written poster that reads Support Black Businesses and another one in the shape of a heart painted with the phrase Si Se Puede SA!

Reed-Ogba, CEO of the firm, has shared her bad experiences working in professional circles in San Antonio. She said her firm has been primarily considered for projects on the East Side, was told to hire someone to speak for her and has been blacklisted for speaking up.

She hosts weekly Zoom sessions mentoring up-and-coming entrepreneurs who likely will face similar hurdles.

Reed-Ogba has watched recently as companies expressed solidarity with the Black community, but she hopes that it also spurs introspection and change within companies.

She tells her corporate clients that consumers are watching to see whether theyre working to recruit and support people of color. They want to know if a company is establishing retraining programs for its staff, and will be looking for signs that the firm is treating its employees with respect.

If not, their brands could suffer.

This is not a moment to lay low, she said. If businesses try to side-step the upheaval, I'm taking that as doing absolutely nothing.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura

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Looking to protect their brands, corporations largely embrace Black Lives Matter - mySA

It was within days of the murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, at the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement and national outrage sparked by the killing, that they started appearing. Facebook posts on my feed of friends and friends of friends joining the All Lives Matter bandwagon.

It was part dj vu and not at all surprising. This counter movement had happened before, when Black Lives Matter first began and large portions of the white American populace took it as a direct disregard for their lives.

Only this time, the posters on my feed were not white. They were South Asian, many of them Bangladeshis, like me, either part of the diaspora in the United States or living in Bangladesh. Their extreme grievance had all the outrage and indignation of the original coiners of All lives matter. How dare their lives be left out! Some of the posts sounded as though they were personally harmed by the mere utterance and existence of Black Lives Matter. They scolded and they issued clarifications of why Black Lives Matter struck such a nerve.

A Muslim lives matter post appeared. And another, in its indignant inclusivity, added Police lives matter. In the real world, police across America were teargassing lawful protestors, beating them with batons, and firing rubber bullets and pepper-spray pellets at Americans decrying systemic racism and demanding justice.

Heres a refresher: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi created Black Lives Matter in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martins murderer, George Zimmerman. Martin was a 17-year-old Black man and Zimmerman, a 28-year-old man of mixed race. Zimmerman shot and killed Martin in 2012, claimed self-defense, and was acquitted. The following year, Michael Brown was murdered by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Eric Garner died the same year in New York, unable to breathe in a police chokehold, for selling loose cigarettes outside a convenience store.

Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Breanna Taylor, Tony McDade Black men and women dead at the hands of racist cops, not one of whom were charged with murder. Black Lives Matter is a specific and direct response to this. In the early days of the movement, posts and memes went around telling BLM and its supporters to get over themselves. Projection, anyone?

My fellow South Asians and Bangladeshis who were and are so hair-trigger prompted to lash out against Black Lives Matter neglect a crucial aspect of what theyre latching onto as a consequence, however inadvertently or unintentionally: White supremacy. No, this doesnt mean theyre chanting White Power and hurling racial slurs. Neither does it mean that just because they have Black friends and co-workers whom they love and respect that they cant be racist.

White supremacy is a multilayered, multifaceted system, not limited to the Ku Klux Klan or fringe outfits like the Boogaloo Boys. In its most insidious forms, it exists silently and comfortably in mainstream American life at schools, at workplaces, in finance, in real estate, in police departments, the military and, closer home, in my community, with those South Asians and Bangladeshis who have opted for white-adjacency.

Anti-black racism seems to come easy for too many in my community, easier than accepting Black Lives Matter. The roots of this are complex, ingrained in our attitudes toward skin color which favours fair over dark. Deplorable ads for a skin-lightening product named Fair and Lovely play across channels throughout the subcontinent. The ones that I saw in Bangladesh featured prominent Bollywood actors whose skin color is shown in time-lapse going from an undesirable dark to a cleansed and palatable fair after they used Fair and Lovely as directed over a period of time.

South Asians and Bangladeshis talk of bad neighborhoods in Chicago and New York and Detroit and Los Angeles with the same underlying suggestion as the white people from whom theyve inherited the racist whistle: those neighborhoods are predominantly, if not entirely, Black.

South Asians and Bangladeshis have largely fared better in America. Education, upward mobility, wealth. They assimilated, which meant what it has always meant: blending and disappearing as model minorities within white society, not sticking out, not calling attention to themselves, being grateful for a shot at the American Dream, being okay and silent in a system rife with inequality and oppression because it doesnt affect them.

The post-Black Lives Matter backlash saw Blue Lives Matters. Suddenly, there not only needed to be a movement calling for cop killers to be brought to justice but it had to use, of all the other choices of words and phrases, the one that hit home the hardest.

In June, a Dallas bar-owner, one of several suing the Texas governor over re-imposed restrictions because of Covid-19 spikes, organised a Bar Lives Matter concert and protest. On July 5, a news report out of Branson, Missouri showed Black Lives Matters protestors facing off with counter-protestors of the predominantly white town waving Confederate flags, wearing MAGA hats and Trump 2020 t-shirts. One man wore a black t-shirt that said White Lives Matter, and at least one other man had no problem with the Swastikas tattooed on his neck being shown, in close-up, on national TV.

Am I suggesting that my fellow South Asians and Bangladeshis are the same as those racists? No, not literally.

But what do I make of them using the tactics of White supremacy without a thought, and defending their use of it? What do I make of them seeing the validity of a racist backlash over the legitimacy of a movement for lives that have repeatedly not mattered?

If were going to be allies, the only permission we have is to say Black Lives Matter. If were not going to be allies, fine. What we cannot do is to appropriate, to disregard specifics and be ignorant of oppression were enabling and supporting.

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South Asians chanting All lives matter are feeding the rise of White supremacy - Scroll.in