DETROIT — The Rev. Jesse Jackson boxed the auto industry leaders into a corner during the 14th annual Global Automotive Summit at the MGM Grand Casino and Hotel with irrefutable numbers of rampant inequality and lack of reciprocity that blared before the throng of attendees like neon signs. Despite the hard showing minority loyalty to many of the world’s biggest automotive brands, the industry is devoid of equality and lack investments into the community that’s commensurate with black and minority patronage of their cars.
Despite projections predicting that the minority population will become the majority in exactly 30 years, advertising has gone down and investments into their communities are far below the ratio with their white counterparts. Since these numbers have been revealed before — with the car industry unable to refute the data nor provide accountability of their lack of support for the black community — attendees wanted to know just one thing:
What will these powerful auto executives do about it?
Jackson, the founder of the 14-year-old annual Global Automotive Summit, opened the event, themed “Economic Parity: Driving the Plan for Success,” with a moment of silence for Evelyn Lowery, wife of famed civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery, who was buried in Atlanta after dying from a massive stroke over the weekend.
The summit’s participants included dignitaries and celebrities from a diverse array of industries and genres: Ed Gordon of BET was the morning moderator; Ted Childs Strategic Diversity Adviser, Ted Childs, LLC; George C. Fraser, chairman and CEO, FraserNet, Inc.; Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist and president emeritus Bennett College; John W. Rogers, founder and CIO, Ariel Investments, and Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, senior VP government relations, of Nielsen Ratings.
Glenda Gil, the executive director of the Rainbow PUSH Automotive Project, summed up the conventioneers’ sentiments when she eloquently and forcefully declared: “As our global landscape becomes more diverse we have to take off are cultural blinders. One thing I know for sure is that we deserve a place at the table of an industry we helped build. This is not charity, philanthropy or handouts. This is what we have earned.”
