from the actions-not-words dept
We not too long ago famous how U.S. telecom big Verizon was very happy to kiss Trump’s ass in trade for FCC approval of its $20 billion merger with Frontier. That included shortly kowtowing to the administration’s calls for that it do its best to be more racist and sexist.
For its half, Verizon counterpart AT&T claims it’s not following on Verizon’s heels. Even though AT&T can be in search of approval to purchase Lumen’s residential fiber network for $5.75 billion, CEO John Stankey says it received’t be retreating from its “DEI initiatives” (learn: he claims it received’t begin being extra racist and sexist simply because the Trump administration asks it to):
“We don’t should roll again something. Our insurance policies and our strategy at AT&T have all the time been that we progress folks on benefit. That any worker that involves work right here ought to have a chance to develop their profession, work on constructing their abilities, have a chance to succeed and earn a residing. “And our objective is to make it possible for each worker that walks via the door of AT&T looks like they belong right here and it’s a great place for them to work.”
On one hand, with a merger approval pending on the FCC, Stankey might have simply adopted Verizon’s lead and behaved like a feckless coward. Verizon’s CEO, you would possibly recall, couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge that something out of the odd was occurring when interviewed by The Verge recently.
That mentioned, it’s not clear how a lot worth AT&T’s phrases and guarantees have.
For one factor, AT&T had already indicated it was strolling again its assist for LGBTQ causes, together with cancelling funding support for a suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth. It cancelled an extended record of applications and renamed some others to get within the good graces of the administration already. It additionally throws a ton of cash at extremist proper wing politicians after specifically claiming it wouldn’t do that.
AT&T additionally has an extended historical past of hijacking or “co-opting” civil rights teams in weird and unethical methods. AT&T has usually been caught paying civil rights groups with malleable ethics in exchange for support for shitty policies (merger approvals, the elimination of shopper protections, the demise of internet neutrality) that usually hurt these teams’ real-world constituents.
In impact, AT&T has an extended historical past of utilizing variety as a lobbying marionette to faux there’s broad assist for extensively unpopular insurance policies.
Nonetheless, Stankey’s feedback resulted in a bunch of headlines suggesting that AT&T was a company chief relating to not being a bunch of obnoxious bigots:
Once more, I’m unsure AT&T’s doing something notably brave right here, however with a merger awaiting approval the corporate might have adopted Verizon’s route and easily turn out to be a spineless pumpkin working in blind fealty to a bunch of bizarre, authoritarian zealots. So, good job. I assume.
The Trump administration and the Brendan Carr FCC have been launching a bunch of “investigations” into firms for not being racist enough. The cornerstone of those efforts is the laughable authorized declare that variety and inclusion efforts are, themselves, by some means discriminatory in opposition to white folks. AT&T has good attorneys, and sure is aware of these efforts don’t have a lot authorized standing.
AT&T attorneys additionally know that on the similar time the Trump FCC claims to have all this authority to bully firms, Trump court docket rulings and government orders are successfully destroying all remaining U.S. corporate oversight and regulatory energy, one thing AT&T’s been lobbying for for many years. AT&T attorneys and executives know that the trajectory we’re on finally ensures that no person can inform AT&T what to do on any topic, whether or not it’s racism, taxpayer fraud, anti-consumer safety efforts, or its longstanding quest to crush competitors underfoot.
Filed Underneath: bigotry, broadband, dei, fcc, mergers, racism, telecom, trump administration, wireless
Corporations: at&t
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