back to article Tech set responds in wake of American protests, police violence and civil unrest

Tech vendors and execs are sympathising with the ongoing protests across the US, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and other African Americans, by delaying conferences or launch events. Floyd, a black American man, died on May 25 as police officers arrested him, one kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds …

  1. chuckufarley Silver badge

    The next step...

    ...For Corporate America can't just be social media, press releases, and donating a small sliver of profits to charity. These are the richest organizations in the world. For real change to happen they need to send in their lobbyist armies to demand it. No other organizations in the country can match their political influence individually. If they send a message to US leadership as a united front they will not, can not, be ignored.

    1. The commentard formerly known as Mister_C
      Angel

      Re: The next step...

      Almost as if Covid is giving the world it's conscience back...

      1. Bernard M. Orwell

        Re: The next step...

        Mother nature has sent us to our rooms to think about what we've done.

        1. chuckufarley Silver badge

          Re: The next step...

          For once, I wish I could up vote twice.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The next step...

      Corporate white America needs to change and recognize and repair the faults of the past. Slavery was "abolished" in 1862 but while discrimination theoretically ended about 60 years ago, America is now anti-immigrant but it's a country founded by immigrants who made it their country by killing the natives.

      You can't change the past but you can stand up and admit that you did the wrong things and then work to repair the damage that you caused.

      1. Ede Wolf

        Re: The next step...

        The damage of defeating both fascism and communism for sure.

        The world would have been so much better without America...

        1. veti Silver badge

          Re: The next step...

          America is fast approaching fascism on its own behalf. As for communism, the only reason to hate that is because it's used as a cover for despotism, which the US is now encouraging around the world.

          Don't get me wrong, America has done great things in the past hundred years. But right now it seems bent on undoing most of them, and the goodwill it had built up is a finite resource, now nearing exhaustion.

        2. Robert Forsyth

          Re: The next step...

          Part of the reason, the US was so late to the WW2, is they supported both sides. Also the communist were with the Allies, i.e. on our side.

          (Simplistically)

          Europe tried to punish Germany for WW1, which leads to the Make Germany Great Again and the use of minorities as scapegoats for the failing of an idea without substance.

      2. Anonymous Custard

        Re: The next step...

        As the saying goes, "they who don't know their history are bound to repeat it...".

        Sadly that seems rather apt at the moment. We can but hope that sense and decency prevail.

        1. chuckufarley Silver badge

          Re: The next step...

          @Anonymous Custard,

          Someone down voted your post but left no reply.

          Who could think that:

          1.) Knowledge of history is bad?

          2.) That humanity should go on repeating the same mistakes over and over again for all time?

          3.) That points 1 & 2 could ever be irrelevant?

          4.) Hope that sense and decency do not prevail?

          <**channeling Dana Carvey**> Could it be...SATAN?!?

    3. Ede Wolf

      Re: The next step...

      You are so right.

      These institutions do not exist to offer a product that consumers want to buy in the most cost-effective manner, but to propagate whatever policital agenda a hysterical media is peddling at the moment.

      Bonus points if they are in a monopolistic position to force it down everybody's throat!

      1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: The next step...

        Just in case you weren't paying attention, corporations are people in the United States. If corporations want the protections of legally being people, it makes sense that we would hold them as accountable for their moral and ethical choices as we do real humans. QED.

        In re: defeating fascism, we seem like we're at the risk of ushering it back in. Hopefully sanity prevails.

        1. analyzer

          Re: The next step...

          If corporations are people in the USA, and the IRS tax American people on their worldwide earnings then why aren't these American people being prosecuted for tax evasion?

          The obvious reason, to me at least, would be the money they pour into US politics to dictate how things are done. So just turning off the Washington cash tap would likely have far more effect than postponing a few things that don't really matter and chucking chump change around.

          Just an idle thought.

          1. Graham Cobb Silver badge

            Re: The next step...

            Great idea: all the top US companies withhold 3 months of campaign contributions to all politicians as a protest. And warn that they will review again in 12 months time and unless bipartisan and effective progress has been made on the issue of institutional racism nationwide it will be 6 months contributions they withhold next year.

      2. chuckufarley Silver badge

        Re: The next step...

        I'm not even going to down vote you for that. You have obviously lived your life being told what to think and when to think it. Anyone can see that you have never had to go searching for facts because you are content to adopt who ever's opinions best suit your world view. Social Responsibility for you is nothing more than being the first in a line people with your hand out demanding the "Rights" you see as your birth right while doing nothing to earn them.

        The only thing about you more willful than your spread of hatred is your ignorance. Correct that and maybe then we can debate proper role of socioeconomic legal constructs in a democracy.

    4. veti Silver badge

      Re: The next step...

      "Lobbyists" are not some mysterious svengali caste. They can't just pick up a cause and translate into instant results.

      Lobbying is about representing the specific sectional interests of your community. That's where their influence derives from, because politicians know who they are representing and why they matter. You can't simply "lend" them to another cause, no matter how strongly you feel about it, because they would have no authority to speak on that subject.

      1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: The next step...

        "You can't simply "lend" them to another cause"

        It depends what the basis of the lobbyist's authority is. If the lobbyist is a technical expert, sure, that expertise is non-transferable. If the lobbyist is good buddies with a politician or is just a conduit for unmarked suspiciously-plump envelopes, then I can see no reason that such an individual could not be loaned out.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Call me cynical, but I think a lot these delays are just to gain the maximum attention for after these riots have calmed down enough rather than for sympathy, considering most people are more interested in the riots rather than tech announcements right now.

  3. Ede Wolf

    Not to forget the cancelling of the Playstation 5 event.

    I guess the "Sons of Obama" have to play out on the streets now...

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Flame

      Hey, thanks for joining The Register forums just to spread your racist tripe! Let's see how long you last.

    2. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      "Sons of Obama"

      To the folks reporting this ridiculous comment - I hear ya. It's already been shot down and down voted so I'll leave it be for now - not that anyone here agrees with it.

      C.

      1. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: "Sons of Obama"

        Thanks, C - you are probably right in this case.

        1. Cereberus

          Re: "Sons of Obama"

          I'm not sure which is worse. The comment made by EDE, or the fact that it has been upvoted 4 times (at time of writing).

  4. chivo243 Silver badge
    Holmes

    The more things change, the more they stay the same

    Yes, things have really changed since Rodney King was nearly beaten to death. Just not for minorities.

    Guess what, birth rates in caucasian America are falling, maybe caucasians will be a minority soon? Can we extrapolate here...

    1. onemark03

      ... birth rates in caucasian America are falling ...

      Caucasian birth rates in America are indeed falling - and white America knows it. This is what has spawned the rise of various white supremacy groups over the last ten or so years.

      White America is scared.

    2. chuckufarley Silver badge

      Re: The more things change, the more they stay the same

      Statistics may not be proof, but they should always be food for thought:

      https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects/

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