Racial Equity and Justice Initiative
apple.com
apple.com
Apple is here for the money, they don't care about anything else. I don't blame them for that but I'm tired of seeing how the wealthy are trying to give us moral lessons while they do exactly the opposite.
They want justice but they don't mind their products being manufactured by slave labour.
They tell us to stop polluting while they have private jets and yachts.
A good marketing campaign but you won't see them talking to people from poor neighbourhoods too see what they have to say or what are they daily struggles.
Companies like Apple are big places. There will be funds used for various and sometimes contradicting aims. That doesn't change the fact that sometimes they do good.
Also, 'throwing money at problems' has never really solved much.
The best way to solve problems is to solve them in your own backyard, within the context of the system you are directly working in.
The grossest inequality in the world is not in America, it's in developing nations, places where Apple manufactures and sells.
Steve Jobs - with literally a one sentence email - could have changed the quality of living standards for every FoxConn employee and have knock-on effects around the world.
The vast surpluses gained by Apple from having 'workers live in factories, be woken at various times during the day' are seen right in Apple's P&L. Was there really a reason for that?
If Jobs were to have said: "Dear Foxconn, all apple products will be constructed in a manner that respects workers rights in these basic terms i) consistent work hours during the day ii) fair and objective oversight iii) fair wages equal to 'some function'.
... that would have changed things.
Instead, we are 'marketed to with morality' so as to make Apple appear to be moral, in which case, we can ignore other material actions they take, and 'feel good and moral' about buying their products.
I remember in 2000 driving down 101 in the Valley and seeing the 'Think Different' billboards featuring none other than Gandhi.
Yes - literally using the moral claims of Gandhi to hustle their new Mac. It was actually a big moment for me in terms of understanding communication, it was really ridiculous, I've never really trusted them since. Great hardware though.
There's also some pretty gross inequality in the Bay Area, where only rich people can afford any kind of housing within less than an hour commute from where all the jobs are. All of California has this problem to varying degrees.
Like at Facebook or Google, programmes/initiatives like these are less marketing directed at customers (Eg why would a Slovenian IPhone User indulge himself with us domestic issues and be bothered with his alledged white guilt?) and more directed at their workforce and the incumbent US administration.
Both groups which represent the same cohort (upper class woke) which are trained in identity politics and will use the rhetoric to their personal gain.
Fascinating that their definition of racism is explicitly racist.
In fairness to Apple, they cited the ADL as the source for their glossary of terms, and it is indeed taken verbatim from there:
https://www.adl.org/education/resources/glossary-terms/educa...
I'm interested in what you're saying, but after some quick Googling I still don't understand the significance of "Londonderry".
Do people not realize this kind of bullshit plays right into "replacement theory" fascist conspiracy propaganda?
It's doubly odd for this to be the ADL's definition. The majority of people would identify Jews as white. The only people I've heard explicitly state otherwise are Nazis. So for most people this definition would exclude anti-semitism from being racism.
It's really mind blowing frankly that every single time the issue arises it's about 'one group' and never the rest.
Yes - there are special historical conditions, surely.
But Latino America is massive and almost completely unrepresented in most sports (outside baseball), pop culture, music, awards, politics etc..
It's an odd dynamic.
JLo is one of the only mainstream Latina stars and therefore gets the shoe-in invite to thinks like 'inauguration performances' because who else can they chose? Bruno Mars? Who else?
Even Hispaic/Latino winners at the Oscars are almost all from Mexico or Spain, with almost zero actual American representation.
There are 'massive global stars' from the Latin of course world but they generally originate from South America.
Latino/Hispanic USA has about the representation of Asian America in mainstream culture.
There are quite large sections of culture dedicated specifically to that group - news, entertainment, music etc. but it exists within it's own bubble.
The Wikipedia article on racism is much more precise and inclusive. The first paragraph makes for a useful definition. Most importantly it doesn't insult the reader's intelligence or their hardship when they where victims of racism that doesn't fit the ADL definition.
It's one thing to say: "Here is our product, it works well"
It's another to say: "Here is our product, we are moral, and that's a reason you should buy from us, it might make you moral as well".
e.g. Do you remember the bottled water at Starbucks called 'ETHOS'? As if to say 'this is Ethical water - you don't need to be concerned abut the fact the plastic is not reusable and wasteful)
I am not remotely against spiritual organization, but there's a special kind of cynicism we reserve for the moral failings of those who's job it is literally to tout morality.
I don't doubt everyone at Apple wants to help in some way, but it's a pretty dangerous thing to make certain claims, and it's doubly dangerous when there are potential hypocrisies afoot.
I'm cynical of this kind of marketing, I wish Apple would be less Nike about it, and more 'local community group' about it - and take a much more humble approach. Their willingness to try to turn their actions into projections of morality is a bridge too far.
There is a women's shelter 100m from my flat, I see the crazy goings-on all the time, the workers there never get a hint of the credit they deserve. It's the most 'opposite' place I can imagine from the clean, austere, clinical, 'corporate morality' ethos of an Apple Store.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/apple-spent-90000-lobbyi...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/29/lens-te...