Posted on 04/30/2002 8:28:21 AM PDT by mhking
Jesse Jackson: Bill Gates Should Expand Into 'Un-White' Community
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
April 29, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - In his efforts to persuade America's corporate leaders to hire more minorities and do more business with black-owned firms, Jesse Jackson has apparently reeled in the world's richest man, Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates.
Gates, who delivered the keynote speech at Jackson's Digital Connections Conference in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, told a radio interviewer that he is planning "new initiatives to reach out to ... investment banks that are minority oriented."
Gates and Jackson were interviewed for Friday's broadcast of National Public Radio's Tavis Smiley program, with Jackson stating that Microsoft's next opportunity for growth in the consumer market lay with "un-white" Americans.
"Bill Gates' challenge is ... he needs to grow. Where is that growth going to take place? It will take place in the un-white urban areas and rural schools and take place in the un-white homes and churches and small businesses," Jackson told Smiley.
Jackson posed the question: "What does Bill Gates have that we want?" then answered his own question.
"Their money, infrastructure, technology and know how," Jackson said, referring to the software company headed by Gates. Jackson called the current state of minority involvement in the technology sector a "digital divide" and demanded that the marketplace be opened to all people.
"If golf limited its scope, it would not have considered Tiger Woods," Jackson said. "We don't know how good business can be until we green-line everyone in the market place."
Jackson also called for cultural changes within the black community. Blacks need to make "a laptop the thing to have, as opposed to making a certain kind of tennis shoe the thing to have," he said.
With Gates' help expanding minority opportunities, "we could be as dominant in a few years in this technology as we have been in football, basketball, baseball, music, art and literature," Jackson said.
He also chastised the federal government for failing to provide better education to minorities. "Schools cost less than jails and have more productive value," Jackson told Smiley.
Jackson's digital conference this year attracted fewer high tech executives, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper noted, "Of the many high-wattage chief executives who kicked off Rev. Jesse Jackson's Digital Connections conference three years ago, only Intel's Craig Barret is on the agenda this year."
Jackson also conceded that corporate donations to this year's digital conference are down compared to previous years.
Last January, Jackson's Wall Street Project Conference in New York City also suffered a falloff in corporate presence. That followed a difficult year for Jackson, in which he was forced to lay off over 50 employees from his Rainbow/PUSH organization.
Critics of Jackson allege these conferences are attempts to "shake down" corporations and use the proceeds to benefit members of his organizations and personal friends.
Shrink the Digital Divide
In his appearance on Friday's NPR program, Gates said America needed to "shrink the digital divide."
"There are a lot of things a company like Microsoft can and should do," Gates said, outlining a number of initiatives, including "hiring talented black engineers," and providing computer software to inner city schools.
"We've really beefed up our efforts to find good minority businesses to be partners with. We've got a new initiative to reach out to the banks and the investment banks that are minority oriented and we are making a big increase there," Gates concluded.
The new initiative is being kept secret until Gates is ready for the formal announcement. Jin Chon, a spokesman for Microsoft, told CNSNews.com, "Something may be in the works." Chon added, "I don't know if anything is ready to be announced. I don't know what the date will be. I understand there are some developments that will be coming soon."
Chon stated that the new minority initiative will be managed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a Seattle-based charitable foundation. The foundation has an asset base of $24.2 billion, according to its website.
CNSNews.com contacted a Gates Foundation spokesman, who denied any knowledge of a minority initiative. Joe Cerrell, a spokesman for the foundation said he "was not familiar with anything."
Jackson's decision to invite Gates to deliver the keynote speech at the San Jose conference did not sit well with everybody. John Templeton of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley told the San Francisco Chronicle, "Before you bring someone like Bill Gates ... you might say, why are your black employees suing you for $5 billion?"
Microsoft is facing a $5 billion class-action suit alleging racial discrimination over employment practices.
"We don't want companies to be able to hide behind something like (the Jackson conference) and go on doing the same old things," Templeton added.
Oh, I forgot. If they don't bow and kiss his feet, Jackson'll "boycott" them and talk about how "racist" they are. And when Jesse says something [tongue firmly placed in cheek], people listen...[/tongue]
I guess I'm just stupid that way.
Somehow, I think if I referred to someone as an "un-white" I would get in a heap of trouble.
Read the book Shakedown. Jackson is just an uncommonly good street crook.
I'm willing to bet that the term "un-white" is being used because people are starting to realize how idiotic it is to call someone like Tiger Woods an "African-American" when his background actually includes multiple races.
The thought of someone like Bill Gates taking advice from a morally void and fiscally bankrupt racist like “The Rev.” is laughable.
Jessie, you became irrelevant years ago, now you’re just making an ass of yourself.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
That may very well be true.
But, what's wrong with the existing term "non-white"?
Un-white makes me think of the Un-Cola.
TJ Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductors did. Reverend Shakedown initially tried his act in Silicon Valley several years ago and Rodgers pointed out the numbers regarding the minority employment by his company (higher than percentage of population) and offered to debate Jack$on, who quickly refused to the invitation to a trouncing.
Short MSFT, Buy AAPL
It would actually be an improvement to see a multi-colored screen rather than microsoft-blue whenever Windows crashes.
The level of animosity and suspicion increases with every assertion by Jackson. What will be the end result of this?
When will they realize that just doing the above, by itself will solve the problem in two generations?
Nice page :)
Whether it's "un-white" or "non-white", trying to define things in terms of what they are not is almost invariably a waste of time. For one thing, it doesn't give you any definition independent of some other thing - take this on, and suddenly black people only exist as a function of white people. For another, there's a lot of things that they are not - listing all of them is not likely to tell us much about what they are, even if it were possible to do so. Finally, a single thing that they are not is likely to be a quality that they also share with many other things, and therefore does not assist us in defining them, or assist them in defining themselves - my couch is "non-white", but that doesn't really mean it's entitled to social programs, does it?
Not that Jesse spends much time pondering these things, I am sure ;)
Un-whites is just too funny. Maybe Rev. Jesse J. does have a sense of humor after all. Just wondering what ever happened to the movement to eliminate "picnic" form polite conversation.
Jesse has way too much time (& money) on his hands.
Jesse Jackson is one can short of a six pack.
His words are irrelevant.
That's right! LOL
Thanks for the heads up...
May 23, 1996
Doris Gormley, OSF
Director, Corporate Social Responsibility
The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
Our Lady of Angels Convent--Glen Riddle
Aston, PA 19014
Dear Sister Gormley:
Thank you for your letter criticizing the lack of racial and gender diversity of Cypress's Board of Directors. I received the same letter from you last year. I will reiterate the management arguments opposing your position. Then I will provide the philosophical basis behind our rejection of the operating principles espoused in your letter, which we believe to be not only unsound, but even immoral, by a definition of that term I will present.
The semiconductor business is a tough one with significant competition from the Japanese, Taiwanese, and Koreans. There have been more corporate casualties than survivors. For the reason, our Board of Directors is not a ceremonial watchdog, but a critical management function. The essential criteria for Cypress board membership are as follows:
* Experience as a CEO of an important technology company.
* Direct expertise in the semiconductor business based on education and management experience.
* Direct experience in the management of a company that buys from the semiconductor industry.
A search based on these criteria usually yields a male who is 50-plus years old, has a Masters degree in an engineering science, and has moved up the managerial ladder to the top spot in one or more corporations. Unfortunately, there are currently few minorities and almost no women who chose to be engineering graduate students 30 years ago. (That picture will be dramatically different in 10 years, due to the greater diversification of graduate students in the '80s.) Bluntly stated, a "woman's view" on how to run our semiconductor company does not help us, unless that woman has an advanced technical degree and experience as a CEO.
I do realize there are other industries in which the last statement does not hold true. We would quickly embrace the opportunity to include any woman or minority person who could help us as a director, because we pursue talent--and we don't care in what package that talent comes.
I believe that placing arbitrary racial or gender quotas on corporate boards is fundamentally wrong. Therefore, not only does Cypress not meet your requirements for boardroom diversification, but we are unlikely to, because it is very difficult to find qualified directors, let alone directors that also meet investors' racial and gender preferences.
I infer that your concept of corporate "morality" contains in it the requirement to appoint a Board of Directors with, in your words, "equality of sexes, races, and ethnic groups." I am unaware of any Christian requirements for corporate boards; your views seem more accurately described as "politically correct," than "Christian."
My views aside, your requirements are--in effect--immoral. By "immoral," I mean "causing harm to people," a fundamental wrong. Here's why:
* I presume you believe your organization does good work and that the people who spend their careers in its service deserve to retire with the necessities of life assured. If your investment in Cypress is intended for that purpose, I can tell you that each of the retired Sisters of St. Francis would suffer if I were forced to run Cypress on anything but a profit-making basis.
The retirement plans of thousands of other people also depend on Cypress stock--$1.2 billion worth of stock--owned directly by investors or through mutual funds, pension funds, 401k programs, and insurance companies. Any choice I would make to jeopardize retirees and other investors from achieving their lifetime goals would be fundamentally wrong.
* Consider charitable donations. When the U.S. economy shrinks, the dollars available to charity shrink faster, including those dollars earmarked for the Sisters of St. Francis. If all companies in the U.S. were forced to operate according to some arbitrary social agenda, rather than for profit, all American companies would operate at a disadvantage to their foreign competitors, all Americans would become less well off (some laid off), and charitable giving would decline precipitously. Making Americans poorer and reducing charitable giving in order to force companies to follow an arbitrary social agenda is fundamentally wrong.
* A final point with which you will undoubtedly disagree: Electing people to corporate boards based on racial preferences is demeaning to the very board members placed under such conditions, and unfair to people who are qualified. A prominent friend of mine hired a partner who is a brilliant, black Ph.D. from Berkeley. The woman is constantly insulted by being asked if she got her job because of preferences; the system that creates that institutionalized insult is fundamentally wrong.
Finally, you ought to get down from your moral high horse. Your form letter signed with a stamped signature does not allow for the possibility that a CEO could run a company morally and disagree with your position. You have voted against me and the other directors of the company, which is your right as a shareholder. But here is a synopsis of what you voted against:
* Employee ownership. Every employee of Cypress is a shareholder and every employee of Cypress--including the lowest-paid--receives new Cypress stock options every year, a policy that sets us apart even from other Silicon Valley companies.
* Excellent pay. Our employees in San Jose averaged $78,741 in salary and benefits in 1995. (That figure excludes my salary and that of Cypress's vice presidents; it's what "the workers" really get.)
* A significant boost to our economy. In 1995, our company paid out $150 million to its employees. That money did a lot of good: it bought a lot of houses, cars, movie tickets, eyeglasses, and college educations.
* A flexible health-care program. A Cypress-paid health-care budget is granted to all employees to secure the health-care options they want, including medical, dental, and eye-care, as well as different life insurance policies.
* Personal computers. Cypress pays for half of home computers (up to $1,200) for all employees.
* Employee education. We pay for our employees to go back to school, and we offer dozens of internal courses.
* Paid time off. In addition to vacation and holidays, each Cypress employee can schedule paid time off for personal reasons.
* Profit sharing. Cypress shares its profits with its employees. In 1995, profit sharing added up to $5,000 per employee, given in equal shares, regardless of rank or salary. That was a 22% bonus for an employee earning $22,932 per year, the taxable salary of our lowest-paid San Jose employee.
* Charitable Work. Cypress supports Silicon Valley. We support the Second Harvest Food Bank (food for the poor), the largest food bank in the United States. I was chairman of the 1993 food drive, and Cypress has won the food-giving title three years running. (Last year, we were credited with 354,131 pounds of food, or 454 pounds per employee, a record.) We also give to the Valley Medical Center, our Santa Clara-based public hospital, which accepts all patients without a "VISA check."
Those are some of the policies of the Board of Directors you voted against. I believe you should support management teams that hold our values and have the courage to put them into practice.
So, that's my reply. Choosing a Board of Directors based on race and gender is a lousy way to run a company. Cypress will never do it. Furthermore, we will never be pressured into it, because bowing to well-meaning, special-interest groups is an immoral way to run a company, given all the people it would hurt. We simply cannot allow arbitrary rules to be forced on us by organizations that lack business expertise. I would rather be labeled as a person who is unkind to religious groups than as a coward who harms his employees and investors by mindlessly following high-sounding, but false, standards of right and wrong.
In conclusion, please consider these two points: First, Cypress is run under a set of carefully considered moral principles, which rightly include making a profit as a primary objective. Second, there is a fundamental difference between your organization's right to vote its conscience and the use of coercion by the federal government to force arbitrary "corporate responsibilities" on America's businesses and shareholders.
Cypress stands for personal and economic freedom, for free minds and free markets, a position irrevocably in opposition to the immoral attempt by coercive utopians to mandate even more government control over America's economy. With regard to our shareholders who exercise their right to vote according to a social agenda, we suggest that they reconsider whether or not their strategy will do net good--after all of the real costs are considered.
Sincerely,
T.J. Rodgers
T.J. Rodgers
President CEO
(This text has been slightly abbreviated, but the content is unchanged.)
....more than TOYOTA.
Unfortunatly for Toyota they lost my business. As I had planned to buy a new Camry, I heard they didn't have the guts to stand up to un-whiteJesse. To bad, so sad for Toyota; I bought a Honda Accord. Corporations who get pushed around by this crook have no right being in business in the first place. How pathetic.
As for African-American ...It would be good if it died out, as people today are too stupid to use it, especially if they're "educated". The double digit IQ brigade in textbook publishing and journalism has it engraved on their brains,"Don't use black, use African American." As a result, we've seen in print Britons of African descent described as African Americans, and I have a book which describes the ancient Egyptians as African Americans. Think about it . The book is called The Victorian Homefront, and it was written by a professor Louise Stevenson. Whether the professor or an editor is responsible for that howler, I don't know,but someone should have caught it before the book went to press. Oh, and cases where "blackboard"* and "in the (financial)black " were changed to African American board, etc, but that's the fault of a bad spellcheck program, whereas the other cases are the result of a failure to think of the meaning of words, like, how can a UK subject be an American,African or otherwise?
*should be "greenboard",IMO.
Sure. As soon as it stops being profitable for people to exploit it. Don't hold your breath ;)
Great minds think alike see my post #2!
UNCOLA NUT definitely applies to Jesse "shakedown" Jackson
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