The corporate community must lead the way when government cannot: NAACP President & CEO

Protests across the United States that began last week in response to the killing of George Floyd and racial injustice have expanded across the globe. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson joins The Final Round to break down what is happening.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Anger and unrest has swept across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and ongoing issues of racial inequality here in the United States. For more on this, I want to bring in Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. Derrick, thanks so much for taking the time to join us this afternoon.

I know you have been extremely outspoken on this issue. We've actually spoken about this in the past. What are your initial thoughts just on everything you've seen unfold over the past couple of days?

DERRICK JOHNSON: It's unfortunate that we are here in 2020. In December 2019, NAACP did a report on the Twin Cities, and we was able to identify the extreme inequities that exist in terms of income wealth, homeownership. And in that report, we said that it would appear to be a bomb ready to explode. And unfortunately, we've seen that explosion.

In addition to that, it is an opportunity for all of us to understand the lingering effects of racism. We have to confront that upfront-- African-Americans, and whites, and all of us together. Anti-racism should be something that we work towards together in this time.

SEANA SMITH: And Derrick, going off that, people are extremely upset from the recent events. How do we make this moment a turning point for real change? Because we've talked about this in the past. It's something that has upset myself-- almost everybody I talked to-- yet we don't see a significant change. So what do you think needs to happen now to make sure that this moment is the turning point?

DERRICK JOHNSON: When my children look at the video, eight minutes, 46 seconds, where we watch a person murdered in the streets by police officers, that's shocking. And it's, for me, brought a lot of attention on the underlying issues facing America. That I have a lot of friends from law school and others-- whites who say, but what can we do?

How can we stand together in solidarity? And so for the NAACP, we're launching a campaign on Friday to allow everyone to begin to talk about, how do we end racism? What are the structural changes that need to take place? What are the electoral changes that need to take place? And quite frankly, how do we prevent the demagoguing of race for outcomes not healthy for this democracy?

RICK NEWMAN: Derrick, Rick Newman here. What should President Trump's role be in all of this, and what would you like to hear him say?

DERRICK JOHNSON: It's very difficult to say what role he should play, when he played the role of sowing the seed of division and racial hatred. Unfortunately, he'd been using his platform to spew a level of xenophobia, and hatred, and gender bias that we had not seen come from the White House in many years.

We used to talk about dog whistle politics. Unfortunately it's megaphone racial division politics. So at this juncture, I think it's incumbent upon all of us to band together and say, you know what, we can have a better society. We can have a beloved community. We can work together, black and white alike.

SEANA SMITH: And Derrick, going off that-- just commenting on what role politicians can play-- I want to get your thoughts just on what role business leaders can play. We have our own parent company speaking out today as well on this morning-- Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. He gave an emotional talking to the company's employees across the globe. Let's listen to what he had to say.

HANS VESTBERG: I'm an ally, and my thoughts are with all of the families who have been profoundly impacted by these events. It's important that we all come together as a V Team at these unprecedented and uncertain times, and above all, support one another.

SEANA SMITH: We just heard Hans talking about the importance of supporting one another, but I'm curious, from your perspective, just what role do you think business leaders should play at a time like this?

DERRICK JOHNSON: The business community plays a tremendous role. Systemic racism and institutional racism is not only public policy-- it's corporate policy. And how do we as a business community began to recognize the role we play in making sure society is both accessible and equitable for everyone?

I look back at the recent history of the LGBT community and how successful they were in navigating the question around marriage equality. And that started one person at a time until, all of a sudden, it became unpopular not to support marriage equality. We have to make it unpopular to be racist, and really work towards anti-racism in a way in which Viacom, the parent company-- in fact, we have a partnership through BET with Viacom-- how do we make sure that the skills, the talents of all citizens are allowed to be displayed in a corporate environment, as well as the society in general?

MYLES UDLAND: And Derrick, on top of this-- or ahead of this, I guess-- we have a pandemic happening right now here in the US that is disproportionately impacting the black community. From your vantage point, is that part of what had created the kindling, I guess, for the outrage that we're seeing, the anger that we're seeing in the streets right now?

DERRICK JOHNSON: I said earlier, we did a report on the Twin Cities, and we identified this was a problem in Minneapolis and St. Paul. But more importantly, think about the last 80 days-- 80 days of perhaps one of the most volatile moments in this nation histories outside of the Civil War. We had a pandemic crises that have pretty much destroyed our economy, and we lost all the gains we have picked up only to realize that we have a national problem and a federal response that's anemic at best for African-Americans.

When the data came out, it showed that we were disproportionately impacted because we're a part of the essential worker pool-- the transportation workers, the grocery store workers, along with the underlining health issue, only to see what happened in Georgia with Ahmaud Arbery case and the video coming out, followed up by a woman being killed in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, followed by the horrific vision of what took place in Minneapolis, followed by what took place in Central Park with Amy Cooper practicing her acting skills-- which could have ended up, but for that video camera, to be a tragic incident.

All of those things with economic insecurity create a space that overlay where we are, but also understand the impact of the messaging that came out of the White House. We're nonpartisan, but you can not continuously over a four-year period sow fear, and xenophobia, and division. And when you do that, you embolden one community, and suppress the aspirations of another community, and you create a level of tribalism that just bubbles up. We have to be a better society, and the corporate community must lead the way when government cannot do that.

SEANA SMITH: All right. Derrick Johnson, CEO and president of NAACP. It's always great to get your perspective on the show. We really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks so much for joining us today.

DERRICK JOHNSON: Thank you for the opportunity. NAACP.org-- come join us.