Companies touting black lives matter face workforce scrutiny

 After hitting streets to protest racial injustices, Sharon Chuter was disillusioned by number of corporate brands posting “glossy” messs spouting support for black lives. 33-year-old founder of Uoma Beauty, a cosmetics company that caters to black women, came up with a social media challenge to test sincerity of companies: She launched #pulluporshutup campaign on Instagram to push brands to reveal racial makeup of ir corporate workforce and executives.

hashtag has since gone viral, amassing nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in a week. Chuter said it's a wake-up call for many businesses who couldn’t see or didn’t take seriously eugh silent racism and prejudices that hold black people back in ir own workplaces.

“Reflection is painful,” Chuter said. “ truth hurts and I just felt like brands didn’t want to do it.”

As protests over police brutality have erupted across country over past two weeks, Associated Press reviewed diversity reports of some of biggest companies pledging solidarity with ir black employees as well as black community, and found that ir efforts to recruit, maintain and promote mirities within ir own ranks have fallen short.

Microsoft has been posting powerful quotes on Twitter from black employees describing how systemic racism takes a toll on ir lives. One employee, Phil Terrill, talked about death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleed for air as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for several minutes, sparking protests around globe.

“It should t take death of Black people at this magnitude to inspire everyone to be an ally,” Terrill is quoted as saying.

Only 4.4% of Microsoft's global workforce across all brands, including retail and warehouse workers, identify as black, and less than 3% of its U.S. executives, directors and manrs are black, according to company’s 2019 diversity and inclusion report.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nella dressed issue in an email to employees, saying company “must change first” if it wants to help change world, and that it's investing in its talent pipeline by expanding connections with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

″In order to be successful as a business in empowering everyone on planet, we need to reflect world we serve," Nella said.

Amazon is prominently displaying “Black lives matter” on its platforms and its CEO Jeff Bezos has been posting on Instagram racist emails he's received from consumers who are unhappy with company for taking a stance.

But company itself has been accused of hypocrisy for

Courtenay Brown, 29, who sorts packs at Amazon fulfillment center in Avenel, New Jersey, said she feels that Amazon’s messs supporting justice and equal opportunity for blacks are t genuine. She said that most of employees she works with at center are people of color, but higher-ups are white.

“As a black woman, I feel like it is empty words,” she said. “y don’t help our struggles. Everyone wants to join in and profit from us.”

In U.S., black people account for 12% of overall workforce, but only 8% of manment jobs, said University of Virginia professor Laura Morgan Roberts. number of black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies peaked in 2002 with 12. Today re are just four.

Roberts’ research looking at careers of Harvard business school gruates found black alums got fewer prime opportunities, such as global assignments, than white gruates with same degree.

“y’re saying, ‘We’ve got qualifications but we can’t get into inner circle,’” Roberts said.

idas, which responded to Floyd’s death and subsequent protests by crossing out word “Racism” on an Instagram post, ackwledged its own shortcomings after a growing group of employees called out company for its lack of diversity.

“ events of past two weeks have caused all of us to reflect on what we can do to confront cultural and systemic forces that sustain racism,” said idas CEO Kasper Rorsted in a statement. “We have h to look inward to ourselves as individuals and our organization and reflect on systems that disvant and silence black individuals and communities.”

Germany-based company didn't provide a breakdown on race or ethnicity of its workforce.

Nike has long been viewed as an “insider” brand among black consumers because of its lucrative and high-profile sponsorship deals with prominent African American athletes.

Portland, Oregon-area company famously

Yet a look at who is leing corporate business shows a disconnect between what brand projects and how it actually operates.

Though whites make up less than half — 43% — of its total U.S. workforce, 77% of its high-ranking vice presidents company-wide are white, according to Nike’s 2019 numbers on representation in its leership. Meanwhile, just under 10% of vice presidents are black. But that is still a nearly 2% improvement from previous year.

CEO John Donahoe ackwledged that such progress wasn't eugh, saying in a memo to employees that its “most important priority is to get our own house in order.”