Numerous companies have come out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement despite the widespread riots, looting and violence that have erupted from out of it. However, these same companies turn a blind eye to the human rights violations that occur in China. They stamp the Chinese government’s actions with approval—simply because they want to make money in the largest economy in the world.
Q1 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Black Lives Matter movement takes over U.S. streets
The latest round of protests and riots from the Black Lives Matter movement was triggered by the death of George Floyd while in police custody. He died at the hands of a white police officer who has now been charged in his death. Justice is being served, just as it should be in this case, but what about all the cases in which justice isn't being served?
In a post on Medium, Ashley Rae Goldenberg shared a list of the companies that have made a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Unfortunately, rioters have tainted the movement and turned into violence with an excuse. The violence isn't even about Floyd's death.
A look at the numbers indicates that there is more reason to be concerned. Data from the FBI shows that far more black people are killed by other black people. However, Black Lives Matter is protesting the smaller number of black people killed by white people and has no statement on African Americans who are killed by other black people. These numbers are given as per 100,000 people:
The situation isn't good any way you slice it. The movement makes it appear that the only black lives who matter are those killed by white people, so even those killed by other African Americans don't seem to matter.
What about China? The buck stops here
Major companies that have commented on the Black Lives Matter movement could be mostly doing so as a public relations ploy. They feel they can make more money by supporting a movement that has become violent, so they do it. However, chastising the Chinese government would get them barred from the country, which means they don't come out in support of the Chinese people who are oppressed by their own government.
Data from Human Rights Watch indicates that oppression in China is on the rise. The organization called out President Xi Jinping's move to abolish term limits for the presidency in 2018, calling it "emblematic of the increasing repression under Xi's rule."
Human Rights Watch also said the Chinese government "dramatically stepped up repression and systematic abuses against the 13 million Turkic Muslims, including Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs." The organization also called out the Chinese government for "mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment" of some of these minority groups.
The Chinese government's oppression was even more on display during the coronavirus pandemic. Many doctors, researchers and journalists who spoke out against the apparent cover-up of the real numbers of infections in China mysteriously disappeared.
No social justice in Black Lives Matter
Apparently, these Chinese lives don't matter. American companies want to make money in China, so they don't care about those lives because they get in the way of their bottom line. They support liberal policies and "social justice," but only if it helps them make more money.
Another benefit companies receive from siding with liberal policies is the fact that it shifts the focus away from how they treat their workers and toward the causes they supposedly support. Companies up and down Wall Street were buying back shares, paying dividends to shareholders, and paying their executives exorbitant amounts of compensation, but then they turned around and laid thousands of employees off and/ or sought a government bailout to deal with the pandemic.
Apparently, investors' lives matter, but not the lives of people who work hard every day to make these companies what they are.
