New Delhi: A letter by a Goldman Sachs executive to his colleagues pleading for racial equality has gone viral at a time people have been pouring onto the streets across the US in protest against the killing of a black man, George Floyd, by a white policeman in Minneapolis.
Frederick Baba, who is black and works in Goldman’s electronic trading business, sent the letter via email to a group of bankers he works with on 2 June. However, the letter soon went viral within the firm, and was shared with almost everyone at the bank, which employs about 38,000 people globally, Reuters reported.
CEO David Solomon reportedly even wrote back to Baba.
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‘Learned to prove not threatening after being assumed guilty’
Opening with the subject line “How’s it going…”, Baba’s email addressed the issue of the protests against the killing of George Floyd and police brutality against black people.
“The past few months have been demoralizing, and family/friends/colleagues I’ve spoken with and listened to across the firm and country seem to share this feeling. Being black has been nothing if not instructive,” he wrote, while clarifying that he was not claiming to speak for all black people or even all black people at the firm.
He went on to list one case after another of African-Americans being killed by the police, and the police walking away free or with the least amount of punishment possible. “I’ve learned how to prove intelligent, to prove not threatening, to prove innocent after being assumed guilty,” he wrote.
Baba also recounted his own experience of being stopped by Chicago police and being suspected of robbery. The description the police had was that of a generic black man in a city which has over one million African-Americans.
“I went home and I cried for the first time in years. Then I filed a report with the Chicago Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), complaint #1050215.”
He ended the letter by calling for action to counter racial inequality, including at work.
“While our firm expresses a commitment to equality and social justice up top, they don’t necessarily see commitment and support from their direct managers,” he wrote.
The letter also included details of advocacy organisations that one could contribute to, and minority-owned businesses one could support.
On 3 June, Goldman Sachs created a $10 million fund for racial equality while Bank of America Corp pledged $1 billion to help bridge gaps of racial inequality. CEOs of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co also put out statements denouncing racism.