By Facebook Pledges To Support Black Businesses, Organizations With $200 million
As part of efforts to address racial injustice in the United States of America and support black people owned businesses amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is committing $200 million.
This was made known in a post Zuckerberg shared on his Facebook page some moments ago.
Zuckerberg wrote,” the last few weeks have made clear how much work is ahead to achieve racial justice and equity in this country. To help drive progress, Facebook is committing over $200 million to support Black businesses and organizations.
”We’ve been speaking with Black business owners to understand how we can best support them, and in the short term, we’ve heard that financial support can go a long way, especially during a pandemic and economic downturn that have disproportionately impacted communities of color.
”We’re building on our Covid-19 grant program and making an additional $100 million in cash and ad credits available to support Black-owned businesses, creators and non-profits serving Black communities in the US. To make sure we are supporting the community in our own business practices, we’re also committing to spend at least $100 million with Black-owned suppliers, part of a goal to spend $1 billion with diverse suppliers next year and every year thereafter.
”While financial investments help, I know it’s not enough to address the systemic inequalities that the Black community has faced for generations. We can’t build products to serve the world without a diverse and inclusive workforce. We already have a goal for 50% of our workforce to be from underrepresented communities by the end of 2023, and we’re further committing to double the number of Black and Latinx employees in the same timeframe. Over the next five years, we’re committing to have 30% more people of color, including 30% more Black people, in leadership positions. We will also continue our ongoing efforts to increase the representation of women in leadership. And we’re continuing to work on our policies, products and decision-making processes as I outlined in my post last week.
”Today is one more step on this journey. We’ll have more to come soon.”5
