Undoing MLK's Work: CNN's Harlow Wants People to Be Judged by the Color of Their Skin

August 8th, 2020 10:45 AM

On Thursday morning’s CNN Newsroom, co-host Poppy Harlow engaged in cultural Marxism with President and Chair of the National Council of Negro Women Dr. Johnetta B. Cole and Google’s Chief Diversity Officer Melanie Parker to forward the far-left’s radical agenda. Harlow celebrated a letter from Cole which claimed that “the daily racism your black employees live with is killing them literally and figuratively.”

She also virtue signaled by wondering “How is it that we are in America in 2020 and there is not today a single black woman leading anyone of the fortune 500 companies?”

 

 

The ever woke Harlow, who has endorsed slavery reparations and pressured the Commissioner of the WNBA to force out a Senator Kelly Loeffler as an owner for opposing Black Lives Matter, began the segment by celebrating Cole’s radical letter:

This morning an open letter calling out America's most powerful leaders for a lack of swift action to address racial disparity signed by more than 50 chief diversity officers from big companies like Twitter, Nike, Intel, Zoom, Coca Cola, and Google. They write quote “You expressed your commitment to ensuring racism-free work environments, frequently calling for a renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Collectively, however, we must share our consternation that it took thousands of protests sparked by unconscionable incidents of racial animus to garner the attention of many leaders. Denying, minimizing, or ignoring racism is no longer an option and we are hearing a resounding message from the many voices that are speaking out globally from your c-suite to the entry levels of your organizations. The message? The daily racism in your black employees lives -- live with is killing them literally and figuratively. 

Harlow then showed off her progressive credentials to Cole, who responded with typical woke talking points:

HARLOW: Dr. Cole, let me begin with you. How is it that we are in America in 2020 and there is not today a single black woman leading anyone of the fortune 500 companies? That’s just an example of what’s going on here. And how are you actually going to affect change? 

COLE: That is a perfect example of what I would call systemic racism as it is expressed in corporate America. Those of us who came together, and I must say called together by Candi Castleberry of Twitter, those of us who came together -- years of experience working in corporate America, These professionals understand the struggle to not only bring more black women into corporate American but to sustain them there and to give them the -- the support to rise.

Ah yes, systemic racism. A country founded upon the ideals and principles of everyone being equal and equal opportunity does promote systemic inequality. The notion of systemic racism starts to crumble when one considers that only 21 percent of millionaires inherited a substantial sum of money. Only three percent of that group inherited over a million dollars. This has helped explain why Asians are the richest group in the U.S and why if African Americans were their own nation, it would be the fifteenth wealthiest nation in the world. But sure, systemic racism isn’t a political talking point. For the anti-racism cult, they want to replace equal opportunity with equal outcomes.

Harlow then suggested that whites should step down and give their jobs to blacks:

Well, Dr. Cole to you, Darren walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, who has called you a, quote, singular force for transformation, he told me on -- on this show that there's -- there’s a real problem with corporate America, that corporate -- the culture of corporate America is white, and you know he wrote in the New York Times, it's not just about what you're going to give, it's what will you give up. Do you believe that more white leaders need be stepping aside like Alexis Ohanian did on the board of Reddit and saying I want a black person to take my spot? 

Surely Harlow will live up to her principles and leave her job to allow a black anchor to take over.

Harlow also expressed her excitement over Google hiring people based on their skin color and not their talent:

Yeah, there's no question about that. Melanie, one of the things that really struck me about this letter that you signed on to is that you guys talk about the need to specifically address the racism and inequity that black people in your companies have faced. Not to -- that it's been a mistake to group into sort of overall diversity and inclusion, and I -- I -- I wonder about that because you look at Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, who recently has said and committed to raising the percent of underrepresented people in leadership at Google to 30% by 2025.

Is this the 1930’s? Supposedly we are past making hiring decisions based on color.

Further demonstrating her virtue, Harlow finished the segment by promising "to tweet out the full letter." 

CNN has been all in with the far-left’s radical agenda and will continue to be a platform for its insane ideas.

This woke propaganda was paid for by Nutrisystem and Northwestern Mutual. Let them know here if you think they should be sponsoring this content.

Read the full August 6th transcript here:

CNN Newsroom

08/06/20

10:36 AM ET

POPPY HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning an open letter calling out America's most powerful leaders for a lack of swift action to address racial disparity signed by more than 50 chief diversity officers from big companies like Twitter, Nike, Intel, Zoom, Coca Cola, and Google. They write quote “You expressed your commitment to ensuring racism-free work environments, frequently calling for a renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Collectively, however, we must share our consternation that it took thousands of protests sparked by unconscionable incidents of racial animus to garner the attention of many leaders. Denying, minimizing, or ignoring racism is no longer an option and we are hearing a resounding message from the many voices that are speaking out globally from your c-suite to the entry levels of your organizations. The message? The daily racism in your black employees lives -- live with is killing them literally and figuratively. Joining me now, the author of the letter, Dr. Johnnetta Cole. She serves as the president and chair of the National Council of Negro Women, former president of Spellman College and Bennett College and Melanie Parker, Google’s chief diversity officer. Good morning ladies, thank you for being here. 

MELANIE PARKER (GOOGLE’S CHIEF DIVERSITY OFFICER): Good morning. 

DR. JOHNETTA B. COLE (PRESIDENT AND CHAIR OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NEGRO WOMEN): Thank you.

HARLOW: Dr. Cole, let me begin with you. How is it that we are in America in 2020 and there is not today a single black woman leading anyone of the fortune 500 companies? That’s just an example of what’s going on here. And how are you actually going to affect change? 

COLE: That is a perfect example of what I would call systemic racism as it is expressed in corporate America. Those of us who came together, and I must say called together by Candi Castleberry of Twitter, those of us who came together -- years of experience working in corporate America, These professionals understand the struggle to not only bring more black women into corporate American but to sustain them there and to give them the -- the support to rise while the letter -- 

HARLOW: You know --

COLE: Certainly I’ll listen. 

HARLOW: I -- I was just going to say to Melanie's point, who’s leading this effort at one of the big tech companies where there's a dearth of black representation across silicon valley. Melanie, if you could just speak to Google, right? If you look at your own diversity numbers that you guys put out and transparency is important, 2.6% only of leadership by Google is black, two of the 11 board members are black and when you look back to 2014, about 1.9% of the workforce was black and even now, six years later it's only 3.7%. How do you convince people that this time it's different, right? That -- that real meaningful change in those numbers are going to go way up going forward? 

PARKER: Poppy, it's a -- it’s a great question and -- and you know, at Google we actually see diversity as a verb. So it’s that action. It’s bold and decisive and so we have made steady progress over the last six years. I've really consider Google a leader and a learner. So we have the largest publicly available DEI data set in industry and we do that knowing that we use data to inform us how to continue to get better. But we’re transparent about it. So as we're learning by looking at the data and informing how we hire, how we progress our talent, how we retain people every day, we want to encourage other companies to be as transparent and to come along as collectively as well to do the same. 

HARLOW: Well, Dr. Cole to you, Darren walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, who has called you a, quote, singular force for transformation, he told me on -- on this show that there's -- there’s a real problem with corporate America, that corporate -- the culture of corporate America is white, and you know he wrote in the New York Times, it's not just about what you're going to give, it's what will you give up. Do you believe that more white leaders need be stepping aside like Alexis Ohanian did on the board of Reddit and saying I want a black person to take my spot? 

COLE: Well first of all, I have to say that Darren Walker is an extraordinary champion for racial justice, for social justice. You know, when you put the question in terms of a zero sum game that all white men have to give up their positions for black folk, I think that's a -- that's an unreasonable picture, but that some black men must is clear because there are so many people of color ready, able, fully qualified to lead. 

HARLOW: Yeah, there's no question about that. Melanie, one of the things that really struck me about this letter that you signed on to is that you guys talk about the need to specifically address the racism and inequity that black people in your companies have faced. Not to -- that it's been a mistake to group into sort of overall diversity and inclusion, and I -- I -- I wonder about that because you look at Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, who recently has said and committed to raising the percent of underrepresented people in leadership at Google to 30% by 2025. But do you need to make that specifically about black people in setting goals for black employees specifically at Google? 

PARKER: So, Poppy, at Google, we routinely set aspirational goals across underrepresented minority, including black people, and I think it's important that we're informed by data to see where we have gaps and what we need to do to get better, what we need to prioritize. So actually I think it's critically important to set those goals, to measure ourselves and to learn from them as well. 

HARLOW: Dr. Cole -- yes, please, go ahead. 

COLE: You know, our letter says specifically that we stand in solidarity --

HARLOW: Yeah.

COLE: -- with all allies' communities, but there is specific need, especially at this moment in our country, for corporate America, for all organizations, to address systemic racism that affects black people, and I don't see a contradiction in calling for that and standing simultaneously with all marginalized communities. 

HARLOW: Yeah, It's a very important point. I wonder, Melanie, to the extent you're comfortable speaking about your own experience, because one of the things that I was moved reading about your comments is that you say there's a real difference between being at the table and being welcomed to the table. You're a black woman who has risen very high up at one of the biggest companies in the country, one of the most important companies in the world -- in the world. What -- what is your experience been like throughout your career? 

PARKER: You know, my personal experience as a black woman, I have benefitted greatly from mentorship, and I have been invited to the table but not welcomed, and so I'm very personally passionate about making sure that all feel welcomed at the table. One of the things I'm particularly proud of as a black woman is that in this movement today, I was able to sit down with Sundar and speak with him directly, and he asked me for my feedback and my recommendation, so that critical leadership commitment and buy-in, our CEO saying he's with us, he's in it and what can we do can, and we set forth a set of commitments critically important to my own lived experience as a black woman, not just in industry but in tech. 

HARLOW: It's -- it’s a very, very important point and I'm -- I’m glad to hear that. Thank -- thank you, both. I wish we had many more minutes to talk about this. Thank you for what you’re doing to lead on this, Melanie Parker, Dr. Cole.