Jessica Guynn and Brent Schrotenboer, USA TODAY
Published
2:19 pm UTC Feb. 4, 2021
Editors Note: Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck, announced on Feb. 4, 2021, that he plans to step down from his post this June. Frazier is Black.
Nike has been talking this talk for the past quarter century: Diversity, inclusion, equality.
The company s ads, which famously encouraged America to Just Do It, have celebrated disabled athletes, female participation in sports and Colin Kaepernick, the outcast NFL player who protested racial injustice in 2016.
This year, after George Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white policeman in Minneapolis, Nike announced a $40 million commitment to the Black community, declaring that it will never stop striving to role model how a diverse company acts.” Nike even has three Black directors on its governing board of 12.