by Hayden Ludwig
When radicals used the sad death of fentanyl addict and opioid abuser George Floyd to burn down America’s cities in summer 2020, they earned nothing but praise from many of our country’s biggest corporations.
Overnight, America’s corporate giants became footsoldiers in the Left’s “woke” revolution, tut-tutting their customers’ LGBTQ “microaggressions,” pouring millions of dollars into the Marxist-led Black Lives Matter, and condemning the “systemic racism” of the country that birthed them.
When the Georgia legislature passed a bill shoring up election security in 2021, Coca Cola accused Republican lawmakers of “voter suppression.” Delta Airlines called the bill “unacceptable” because it wasn’t woke enough to “match Delta’s values.” UPS dedicated itself to funding voter registration and get-out-the-vote groups—invariably left-wing—to “strengthen our democracy.” And most famously, Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest of the “restrictive” voting law, robbing countless local black-owned small businesses of their customers.
All of this was done to appease the rabid “progressives” who say corporations should be barred from politics (or abolished outright), call billionaires evil, and chant “eat the rich” while burning America’s cities.
Then Hamas terrorists massacred 1,300 unarmed Israeli women, children, and civilians on Oct. 7, 2023—and these “socially conscious” titans suddenly went silent.
No one (outside of Activism, Inc.) asked Coca-Cola, Delta, UPS, or Home Depot to weigh in on controversial political issues, but they forced far-left ideology down Americans’ throats all the same. But if silence is complicity—as “progressives” constantly tell us—then corporate America is all-in for Hamas terrorism, too.
Don’t let them forget it.
Coca-Cola
On June 4, 2020—a scant 10 days after Floyd’s death—Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey addressed the beverage giant’s 83,000 employees about their “duty to Black people in America.” “Simply put,” Quincey said in his 1,100-word monologue, “America hasn’t made enough progress, corporate America hasn’t made enough progress and nor has The Coca‑Cola Company.
George Floyd. Killed . . . I, like you, am outraged, sad, frustrated, angry. Companies like ours must speak up as allies to the Black Lives Matter movement. We stand with those seeking justice and equality.
Reality is that there is still a wound in the fabric of America that is not just not healed – but is being reopened. Racism. It begets violence, it begets death.
Quincey’s solution, naturally, was to buy off black Americans with a measly $2.5 million in grants to the left-wing NAACP, which aims to defund the police, and the Equal Justice Initiative, which supports abolishing the death penalty for violent criminals—virtue signaling 101.
He hit all the right social justice buzzwords: From now on, Coca-Cola would be committed to “listening,” “leading,” “investing,” and “advocating” for a new “hate-crimes law in Georgia” as well as corporate “Diversity and Inclusion” policies. “Our company must play a visible and proactive role in creating the change that is desperately needed,” Quincey concluded. “More progress must be made. It is our duty.”
No such commitment to fighting anti-Semitism or even condemning Islamic terrorism. As of this writing, Coca-Cola has been totally silent on Hamas’ attack on Israel and the radical leftists marching for Palestine in America’s universities. For Coke, it’s all business as usual.
UPS
Atlanta-based UPS wasted no time demanding “justice and reform to advance equality” in early June 2020, lobbying for the “immediate passage” of state and federal “hate crime bills” and gifting $1 million to the D.C. African American history museum to support educational programs that “advance racial equality.”
The package delivery firm quickly pledged $3.2 million to leftist groups, including the NAACP; Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an extreme litigation group run by an ex-DNC official; and the National Urban League, a leading Obamacare advocacy group.
“No one is safe until we are all safe, and we know there is no place in any community anywhere in the world for racism, bigotry or hate,” UPS CEO Carol Tomé blasted. Apparently bigotry extends to UPS founder Jim Casey, who failed to include “the Black community” in his vision of a company “built on the core values of fairness, dignity and respect.”
Like any good “woke” corporate citizen, UPS promised to reeducate all 534,000 employees with “unconscious bias training” and create “forums” for discussing “racial equity and justice.”
How about educating employees on the threat of anti-Semitism? Or a statement denouncing the murder of Israeli Jews? Don’t count on it.
Home Depot
“Racial equality and justice for all” was the message from Home Depot CEO Craig Menear, who related his “deep pain and anguish over the senseless killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and other unarmed Black men and women in our country.
We cannot ignore that their deaths are part of a pattern of racism and reflect the harsh reality that as a nation we are much too far from fulfilling the promise of equal justice for all. We must stand with all who are committed to change that will bring us closer to realizing an end to discrimination and hatred.
Systemic racism? Nothing a $1 million check to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law can’t fix. The Lawyers Committee is a close ally of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a radical pro-Hamas group with close ties to Islamic terror groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
But don’t count on Home Depot to walk it back, even in the face of mass murder. “We are all hurting, but none more acutely than those in our African American communities. Please know that you are not alone,” Menear whined.
Don’t expect any such heartfelt pledge to Jews in America or Israel, though. To date, Home Depot has been shamefully silent on Hamas’ killing spree and the leftist groups encouraging more bloodshed. “Hurting” indeed.
Delta Airlines
Delta CEO Ed Bastian to bray about the “ugly reality” unfolding in Minneapolis, “a city we consider our second home.
Being a values-led brand means we not only raise our voices when something goes against our beliefs, we help amplify those who have been silenced. We often think we need all the answers, but it’s important to remember that we don’t need answers to know that racism, violence, bigotry and hatred have no seat at our table.
“What happened in Minneapolis is not an outlier,” Bastian thumped, nor the deaths of black men in George and New York, “where injustice lives in plain sight.”
But never fear, Delta is committed to “championing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace”—proving it with the hashtag, #UntilWeAllCare. Social justice achieved.
And Delta continued boasting about its diversity and inclusion “progress” through October 2023. The headlines speak for themselves:
Ed Bastian awarded for “putting people first always”
Delta reports diversity progress in 2023 “Close the Gap” update
Leaning into equity: Delta supports the Equal Justice Initiative with Contribution
The closest thing was a brief mention that the airline had canceled U.S. flights to Tel Aviv. “Our hearts are with all who are impacted,” the company mewled, offering $1 million to the Red Cross to help affected Palestinians and Israelis—nary a mention of Hamas or terrorism.
Silence is Violence, Right?
These spineless CEOs were quick to adopt leftist lingo because they believed it would save them from the “woke” revolution. But siding with the crocodile only gets you eaten last. Americans won’t soon forget the multi-billion-dollar corporations that sold out their own country to appease anti-American ideologues—just look at Bud Light. If these weasels were wise, they’d ask for the nation’s forgiveness, but don’t hold your breath.
Until then, remember that these companies put themselves in the middle of the culture war—silence on Hamas’ atrocities makes them complicit in terrorism.
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Hayden Ludwig is research director for Restoration of America.
Photo “Pro-Palestine March of Washington” by CAIR.
