AT&T CEO Supports Black Lives Matter: Explains why AllLivesMatter is a problem during speech (Must Watch)

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson took a rare measure of action for a corporate executive recently, when during an address to several hundred employees, he called for an open discourse on race in the workplace. Not only did Stephenson break from business etiquette in talking candidly about a social/political issue before the company, he volunteered himself to lead by initiative, saying, "it's a difficult, tough issue. It's not pleasant to discuss. It takes work, it takes time, it takes emotion. And you're going to have to understand where the other one is coming from. But we have to start communicating. And if this is a dialogue that's going to begin at AT&T, I feel like it probably ought to start with me."

In observing what would shape up to be a shift in office culture, employees of the telecommunications giant can anticipate that they might be confronted by just how transparent they are being asked to be with one another. During his speech, Stephenson condemned society for avoiding the topic of race, citing the shootings of unarmed Black men by police, violent retaliation against law enforcement, and the massacre at a gay club in Orlando as examples of why mere tolerance of one another is not enough. He shared the experience of an African-American friend of his, who opened up to him about having dealt with discrimination and degradation all his life. His associate being a Black physician and military veteran never spared him from having to have identification ready to prove to an officer at any moment, that Chris belongs in his own neighborhood. Stephenson said it was at that point that he recognized the impact of having failed to have deeper and more personal discussions that might have invited his friend to expose him to a reality he had not been in tune with. "I have always been somewhat confused by some of Chris' views. And now I've gotta tell ya, I get his anger. When somebody responds to a Black Lives Matter protest by saying "all lives matter," Stephenson said. He would then go on to offer a resounding defense of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"When a parent says, 'I love my son,' you don't say, 'What about your daughter?' When we walk or run for breast cancer funding and research, we don't say, 'What about prostate cancer?' When the president says, 'God bless America,' we don't say, 'Shouldn't God bless all countries?'," said Stephenson. "And when a person struggling with what's been broadcast on our airwaves says, 'black lives matter,' we should not say 'all lives matter' to justify ignoring the real need for change."

Source: youtube.com