conix
3 years ago
Lie of credit — American Express tells its workers capitalism is racist
By Christopher F. Rufo
August 11, 2021
American Express, which made a $2.3 billion profit last quarter, invited the great-grandson of the Nation of Islam’s founder to tell its employees that capitalism is evil.
It was part of the credit-card giant’s critical-race-theory training program, which asks workers to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves on a hierarchy of “privilege.”
According to a trove of documents I’ve reviewed, AmEx executives created an internal “Anti-Racism Initiative” after George Floyd’s death last year, subjecting employees to a training program based on the core CRT tenets, including intersectionality, which reduces individuals to a tangle of racial, gender and sexual identities that determine whether he is an “oppressor” or “oppressed” in a given situation.
In a foundational session, the outside consulting firm Paradigm trained AmEx employees to deconstruct their own intersectional identities, mapping their “race, sexual orientation, body type, religion, disability status, age, gender identity [and] citizenship” onto an official company worksheet.
Employees could then determine whether they have “privilege” or are members of a “marginalized group”: White males presumably end up in the oppressor position, while racial and sexual minorities are considered oppressed.
In a related session, trainers instruct employees how to change their behavior in the office based on their relative position on the hierarchy. The trainers provide a blue flowchart with specific rules for interacting with black, female and LGBT employees: If members of a subordinate group are present, workers should practice “intersectional allyship” and defer to them before speaking.
In another handout, the instructions for white employees are even more explicit: “identify the privileges or advantages you have”; “don’t speak over members of the black and African-American community”; “it’s not about your intent, it’s about the impact you have on your colleague.”
American Express employees were taught about concepts like "privilege" and "micro aggressions."
Even common phrases are subjected to race-based regulation: White employees are told not to utter phrases such as “I don’t see color,” “we are all human beings” and “everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough.” — all categorized as “microaggressions.”
At one high-profile “anti-racism” event, AmEx execs invited Khalil Muhammad — great-grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad — to lecture on “race in corporate America.” He argued that the system of capitalism was founded on racism and that “racist logics and forms of domination” have shaped Western society from the Industrial Revolution to the present.
“American Express has to do its own digging about how it sits in relationship to this history of racial capitalism,” Muhammad said. “You are complicit in giving privileges in one community against the other, under the pretext that we live in a meritocratic system where the market judges everyone the same.”
Muhammad then encouraged executives to begin “the deep redistributive and reparative work” and to “lobby [the government] for the kinds of social policies that reflect your values.”
More, Muhammad argued, the company should reduce standards for black customers and sacrifice profits in the interest of race-based reparations.
“If American Express cares about racial justice in the world, it can’t simply say the market’s going to define how we price certain customers, who happen to come from low-income communities,” he said. “If you want to do good, then you’re going to have to set up products and [product] lines that don’t maximize profit.”
Finally, in the flagship Anti-Racism Initiative training module, AmEx recommends a series of resources for employees to, quoting Ibram Kendi, “learn about covert white supremacy” and dedicate themselves “to the lifelong task of overcoming our country’s racist heritage.”
Employees are encouraged to listen to the Beyond Prisons podcast, which advocates for “prison abolition,” a movement committed to “eliminating imprisonment, policing and surveillance” altogether. Workers are also directed toward a series of articles that promises to “force white people to see and understand how white supremacy permeates their lives,” demonstrate that white children become racist before they can speak and persuade employees that Congress should pass legislation for race-based reparations.
Last October, AmEx announced a $1 billion “action plan” to increase diversity, invest in more minority-owned businesses and donate to nonprofits that promote “social justice.”
Whether the company will forgo profits or abandon capitalism, as it encourages its employees to do, remains to be seen.
American Express tells its workers capitalism is racist (nypost.com)
www.nypost.com/2021/08/11/american-express-tells-its-workers-capitalism-is-racist/
I-Man
3 years ago
Yeah TechWhiz and you wonder why so many have rioted against corporate America !
It is beyond stinks! I have been with them since 1986 and NEVER had anything and am very creditworthy and hold many private and other accounts due to my long established small business. Always been good "credit risk". but today in this socialist environment, seems a "one size fits all" approach is being used and many good people and businesses are going to be affected negatively and that is criminal in my book !
There will be no "growth & unity" at all ever again in the USA if you are targeting small businesses and others who have proven good customers for many years, and you just axe their credit limits by 75% like they did to mine out of nowhere. nd for others to know, this newer AMEX prime Business account card tied to Amazon is a con- as they state there is "no interest for 6 months on all purchases", to better help small businesses grow/ problem is, their fine print reads "You must first hit a thresshold of $200,000.00 within a calendar year to qualify for 6 months no interest program".. That in itself is worthy of a FTC investigation and is fraudulent... I don't know ANY small business or other who would run up $200K in purchases irresponsibly like that in the first place!!
Was it because I tried to purchase a Benelli 12Ga shotgun Saturday from sporting goods retailer only to have that transaction declined? Everything was fine and dandy for decades. I made my normal monthly payment on time from recent statement showing "$19,900.00 credit limit"... Saturday I went to use it on a gun purchase and wham, it's denied... Sunday am drinking my coffee I look at emails, and low and behold, I get a notice from AMEX my credit limit axed to $5,000.00 only !!! ???
Have they become "Anti American" like so many other corps out there today???
TechWhiz
3 years ago
That really stinks about your Saturday afternoon purchase.
Similar thing happened with me about 15 years ago with MasterCard. I hadn't used it in about 4 months and was more concerned about paying down my $2,000 balance. Low and behold, I got a letter saying they were reducing my credit limit from $10 k down to $5 k. I never used that card again, cut it up, paid off my balance and called them up to officially close my account.
I think with the ongoing COVID, Unemployment, Increased Margin Levels, etc., they are trying to rein in spending to make their books look better.
Doesn't matter how long you are a cardholder and instead all they want is you to spend, spend, spend so they can reap the benefits of high interest rates. If you don't spend they typically will try to lower your limit and push you out the door and focus on someone else.
Don't you just love Corporate America....
I-Man
3 years ago
Something bad going on in banking behind scenes. Banks are starting to reign in on accounts like prior housing collapse under Biden Admin and this is very upsetting again.
OR is this something else very different say regarding 2nd Amendment and guns/ammo purchases perhaps?? My current statement shows my $20,000.00 credit limit. I made my normal monthly payment as I do (have small balance on card). And Saturday afternoon I did in fact try to use this card to purchase a hunting firearm (shotgun), and quickly was stopped, saying transaction declined & cannot be processed! Didn't think anything of it till Yesterday morning and used another CC to make that purchase.
My own story this Sunday morning is when I opened my e-mail, I had letter from AMEX in their stating, a Notice of Credit Limit Reduction !! I thought it was a scam letter, called AMEX, and told by an agent, due to an internal revue of all accounts with AMEX, that my long standing $20,000.00 credit limit has now been reduced to $5,000.00 !!! They are my oldest established credit card account (tied to Amazon even), going back to 1986 (35 years !). Now not due to anything wrong in my financial practices or account abuses of any kind, they are reducing the credit limit out of nowhere by 75% on an excellent creditworthy customer as I am ??... I have NEVER had a any standing balance on that card over $4,000.00 at any one time either so far below the normal 40% threshhold you want to keep to maintain credit score on monthly basis...
I would like to hear of others out there, small businesses especially, who may be seeing this like we are here. I have the AMEX Business/Amazon type card these days FYI...
surfgreen
4 years ago
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