San Francisco (AFP)
Google announced Wednesday that it will donate $ 275 million to a variety of causes to fight racial discrimination, including the $ 100 million already pledged through its online video platform YouTube.
In a letter to employees, Sundar Pichai, the boss of Google and Alphabet, the parent company, said he was concerned by the tragic events that have struck the black community in recent weeks and provoked large-scale anti-racist demonstrations in across the country and an awareness of discrimination.
"As a company and as individuals who have come here to create useful products for everyone, Google promises to translate the energy of these events into meaningful and lasting change," he said.
Internally, the company will do more to recruit and promote African-Americans in the management of the company.
The objective is to improve the representation of minority groups by 30% by 2025.
Mr. Pichai also promises to recruit more members of visible minorities and better integrate them into the company.
But, recognizes the group - which made more than $ 34 billion in net profit in 2019 - "beyond our products, we know that racial equity is inextricably linked to economic opportunities".
In addition to the $ 100 million already announced by Youtube to help black artists, Google will pay $ 50 million in financial assistance for African-American small businesses, $ 100 million to finance startups in the community, $ 15 million to help job training and 10 million to facilitate access to education on company platforms.
Google joins a long cohort of companies that have very publicly announced initiatives to show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been marching in the United States for weeks to denounce police violence and more generally the systemic racism which curbs the aspirations of the African-American population.
© 2020 AFP