Reflecting on Pain, Apple Adds to Donations

Other companies announce gifts to battle inequality
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 1, 2020 6:32 PM CDT
Apple Adds to Donations Addressing Inequality
Apple CEO Tim Cook, from left, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg at an event last year.   (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

Apple will be donating money to combat discrimination, CEO Tim Cook said, but that's just the start. "We have to reexamine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt but too often ignored," Cook wrote in a memo to employees after protests began in many US cities. "George Floyd's death is shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a ‘normal’ future, and build one that lives up to the highest ideals of equality and justice." Employees had said they were troubled by discrimination in their communities, Bloomberg reports. Among the groups the company will donate to is the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit; Apple will match employees' gifts 2-1 during June.

Other companies announced donations, including:

  • $1 million, from YouTube to the Center for Policing Equity, a nonprofit. YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet, said the gift is "in support of efforts to address social injustice," per the Verge. The center teams with police departments to identify and end discriminatory practices.
  • $500,000 from Peloton to the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The Black community is hurting," Peloton said, per Yahoo Sports. "Our Black Members, instructors, music partners and employees are hurting. #BlackLivesMatter, and it's time to take action."
  • $1 million from Uber to the Equal Justice Initiative and the Center for Policing Equity, per MarketWatch.
(Mark Zuckerberg's donation wasn't universally praised.)

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