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Take physic, pomp

It’s the usual roaring silence from the mining industry on race (rpt15)


It
comes as no surprise to this desk to note that, to date, we have not
had a single word of support from the mining industry for the George
Floyd protests in The USA and the world in general. Not a single company
has issued a message of support, not a single captain of this white
male dominated industry has stepped up to be counted. And it really is
“as usual”, this is after all the same industry that treated local
communities like dirt for centuries, it’s the one that was forced to
accept women onto their boards, now it’s setting up to be the one that
will wait until obliged by law to do something about its race problems.
And there are many, starting with the number of black or minority faces
you see in mining C-suites, as with very few exceptions your industry
either whitewashes boards or has the worst sort of tokenism on show. The
only place you see black people in executive positions in mining
companies on a regular basis is South Africa, a country that knows all
about structural racism and the steps to solve the problem.
The
industry has to speak out on George Floyd and the growing movement
around his death and needs to do it proactively, because this time
really is different. The USA’s Black and Afro-American communities have
been hitting us with the same message for years, only to be met with
silence from those who might agree (or tone-deaf idiocies such as, “Well
actually young man, all lives matter!”). This time, white middle class
comfy life guy who agrees with their cause, i.e. me, doesn’t have the
option of silent agreement. We need to speak, say “Ok, we are listening”
because a flashpoint has occurred and they’ve finally, FINALLY, got our
attention on the Afro-American agenda, not the one we’d like them to
have.
Mining
captain of industry, time to step up and put mining into the
progressive social lane, rather than let it stagnate in the
retro-mentality of always. Be the industry that makes a difference,
instead of waiting for the different to happen to you. There are dozens
of real mining rockstar influencers to choose from, famous name CEOs,
investor moguls and even the big name newsletter writers who could all
get a five minute slot on BNN with just a phone call. It would only take
one of you to start the ball rolling.

re-post from here.

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