EssaySnark’s pro bono initiatives in support of BIPOC MBA candidates

Last summer, people across this country and even around the world rose up in protest following the murder of George Floyd.

There was certainly a new awareness that came over many Americans. We had a lot of Black Lives Matter header images plastered on the websites of major corporations. That’s now faded into the background, or turned into marketing messages like this:

That video was produced by P&G. Based on that messaging, you’d think that the company was ahead of the times, in leading the way for social change. The front page of its website certainly seems to be broadcasting that:

 

CuriousSnark decided to investigate further. With all this messaging around doing good, what is the makeup of its executive team ?

 
 
Well, sure, white middle aged men, that’s kind of who runs most companies still, so it’s not really that much of a surprise that that’s who’s running the show at P&G. Let’s see who else they have on board at this huge multinational corporation.

Scrolling down on that same page gives us:

Okay, okay! There are some women! Some people of color! Okay cool!*

But what about representation from Black or African-American people at the top of this company?

There’s gotta be at least one of them, right? Based on all this “widen the screen” messaging, and the “good corporate citizen” thing on their front page. There’s gotta be a Black person in their leadership team. Right?

 
 

Finally. One Black person. Damon Jones — in a communications role.

Communications.

That’s no dis on Mr. Jones; however, core business lines at a company are where the real power lies. You’ll frequently see women and minorities holding higher-level roles in supporting functions like HR or marcomm (or communications).

Mr. Jones is not in the succession path to CEO for this company.

The other massively significant issue is this:

There is only one Black person. Out of 20 executives.

Not a single Black woman, from what we can tell (we don’t want to make the mistake of assuming anyone’s identity, but it does not appear that there are Black women in those first 20 positions).

This big U.S. corporation is touting the importance of recognizing bias and dropping stereotypical thinking, proclaiming that this group of executives represents is “[a] team with the future in mind” — whose future, exactly??

It’s hard to point to substantive changes that have come about in the past year since George Floyd was killed.

It’s not something that the EssaySnarkers have forgotten about, though.

Pretty much everything involved in higher ed, and especially the MBA, is systemically problematic, in how it favors the wealthy and privileged (for ex: the unfair access described in the post from the other day).

It is against this slow-changing landscape that EssaySnark again announces our pro bono program for the coming admissions season, a repeat of what we first launched last year:

 
 

 

If you’re a BIPOC MBA candidate who’d like to receive this free service, please email “gethelpnow” at essaysnark dot com and we’ll get you set up.

More info on our BIPOC support program is available here.

We are continuing with our support for military/veterans as well, as outlined on our Military MBA page.

If you’re not in any of these categories and you’re thinking, “Dang, EssaySnark, how can I get in on some of the fun?” then we’ll just offer the insider information that our prices are currently incredibly low, and they won’t stay that way for long. The next admissions season is starting to peek over the horizon, and we’re already getting busy with BSers looking to get a head start. Our Foundations package is particularly valuable for this early part of the season. Other options are described here.

Black Lives Matter is not a political campaign. It’s about equity.

EssaySnark cannot change the societal forces that result in 1 Black person out of 20 sitting on the leadership team of a multinational corporation.

However, we can walk the talk and live to our values in our small snarky corner of this capitalist ecosystem that is supposedly building a pipeline of talent (the “supposedly” should key you in that that excuse about no pipeline of talent is not the reason for the lack of representation).

One final comment on that P&G “widen the screen” video: We’ve heard of so many reactions to that, across a huge spectrum of positive and negative. If you care to share your thoughts on it, we’d be interested.
 
 

* light sarcasm hopefully detectable