In a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook reflects on the last year and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic, which he says was a year where “critical conversations about equity and systemic injustice attained both new urgency and a well-deserved central role in our national conversation.”
Cook goes on to discuss how the virus affected the world, and how “structural discrimination” resulted in some people being affected more negatively than others. Cook writes:
Cook stated that Apple’s approach to times of crisis is asking “how can we help?” which has resulted in investments in social justice and racial equality initiatives. Cook states:In simple theory, a disease should affect all of us equally. But in plain fact, the opposite is true. We have all seen, in real time, how structural discrimination and obstacles to opportunity do their work in a crisis. In our communities, every burden—from rates of infection and care outcomes, to economic adversity, to the challenges of virtual learning when schools are closed—falls heaviest on those for whom true equity has always been farthest from reach. As someone who grew up during the civil-rights movement, it has been frustrating to see how much work is still to be done but heartening to see the degree to which people of good will have set aside comfort with the status quo to march and to demand something better.
Despite Cook’s dedication to social justice and racial equality, it appears that this dedication does not extend outside of America. It was reported last year that iPhone manufacturers in China were using forced labor from Uyghur Muslims held in Chinese concentration camps. Breitbart News reported at the time:And it’s led us to undertake major new investments through our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. These projects include the Propel Center in Atlanta, which we’re helping to build in partnership with the country’s historically Black colleges and universities, to support the next generation of leaders of color in fields ranging from machine learning to app development, entrepreneurship to design; and our first Apple Developer Academy in the U.S., in downtown Detroit, home to more than 50,000 Black-owned businesses and no shortage of great ideas for the app economy.
