Major corporations are joining the recent calls for equality in America but Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, told Cheddar, companies need to back up their words with action.
"We need some corporate accountability," he said.
The NAACP is among several civil rights organizations calling for advertisers to boycott Facebook, which has recently faced criticism for its handling of controversial posts. The organizations took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times this week, largely citing opportunities Facebook had to stop hateful and violent content but opted not to do so.
Johnson said one way for businesses to act is to stop providing Facebook with ad dollars.
"Its a value proposition. Many companies have expressed concern around the current racial climate. Facebook has been used as a primary platform for racial hate groups, white supremacist groups, and it's also been used by foreign governments to subvert democracy, particularly when you look at the 2016 election," Johnson told Cheddar.
In recent weeks, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly spoken out against censorship, particularly when it comes to President Trump's controversial posts that critics have deemed as misinformation or stoking violence. While Johnson said Facebook and entities that do not correct or remove misinformation are "promoting profits over security of our democracy," he praised platforms such as Twitter, which has taken steps to alert users when they may be viewing material that is false.
"I commend Jack Dorsey and Twitter for the position they took with the misinformation around our elections," he said.
While Johnson does not agree with the way the president uses social media, he does support Trump's recent executive order to roll back protections for social media platforms, allowing them to be held liable for third-party commentary.
"I think they should ultimately be responsible," Johnson said. "We have an election coming up, we have a rise in racial hate crimes, and we have a rise in racial hate groups using this platform and there should be some corporate responsibility to do something about it."
As president and CEO of the NAACP, Johnson's fight for equality isn't just on the cyber front. He is also a proponent of changing the "the culture of policing" Black Americans via examining and redistributing funds allocated to police departments.
"We need to look at: how do we provide opportunities for young people to participate in a more positive way as opposed to them being bored in idle hands, which cause mischief," Johnson explained.
For Johnson, true equality for Black Americans will come once the government corrects economic policies that intentionally excluded Blacks, placing them behind in an insurmountable race for wealth equality.
"When you adopt programs like the FHA home mortgages, and African-Americans were excluded because in the policy they allowed local banks to determine who would qualify and not qualify, that stripped us of our wealth over the last three generations," he said. "There's going to have to be a way to repair the harm that's been done."
