Report: Corporate boards tapping limited circle of executives of color to fill open slots
08 June 2021
Data: Deloitte and the Alliance for Board Diversity; Chart: Will Chase/Axios
Corporate boards are getting less white and male, but companies are "recycling" to achieve the feat — i.e., tapping a limited circle of executives of color to fill open slots.
Why it matters: In some cases, more diversity came "by recycling ... existing Fortune 500 board members rather than bringing in new individuals with different skills, backgrounds, and perspectives," according to a report out today by Deloitte and the Alliance for Board Diversity.
- Roughly 36% of board seats held by people of color were occupied by executives on several boards last year. That doesn't account for involvement on boards outside the Fortune 500.
- Two out of every five Black board members belong to several boards.
- Hispanic/Latina women serve on roughly 1.3 Fortune 500 boards. Compare that to white men, who serve on an average of 1.1.
Sober stat: No Fortune 500 corporate boards are representative of U.S. demographics.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.