AT&T CEO: 'Tolerance Is for Cowards' in Speech on Racial Tensions

Addressing hundreds of employees at a company diversity event last week, AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson lamented how racial tensions are ripping apart American communities. Video/Image: Joshua Fields/YouTube

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[katiecnin]

A coward is a person who yields to bullies.

[Muddyres]

I'm so glad I worked for him and I still patron their products

[imulligan]

I actually hate AT*T...but this CEO is speaking from the deep mind. He makes complete sense and I totally respect that....thanks so much for posting...now we need something from Wells Fargo...

[pintadto]

Does anyone reading this work for AT&T? the reason I ask is because I would like to know if Randall does walk the talk? If he does, what does it look like, sound like? feel like? What is the impact on his productivity? I'd love to hear your experience and YES, lets reinforce that type of corporate culture and spread it!!

[roloorozco]

When you try to be a positive role model to a bad neighborhood, they start to treat you different.They think your selling out.Then at work you get treated second class as you are doing your best to earn a position that the youngsters will look up to.You try to show them theres a better way but then you end up getting pounded by both sides.

[wendyf]

How many people are here because of the book We Can’t Talk About That At Work by Mary-Frances Winters? 📕

[marthacollins]

What an AMAZING leader! Thank you so much for sharing his speech.

[PearlDrummerFTW]

I would have loved to attend this event

[brigidrohde]

I would say after this pandemic many of the employees may rate quite differently than what you state two years ago here. They have offered as a company no protective gear it is up to the employees to provide their own safety, although this is against protocol regarding COVID-19. Some employees have contracted coronaVirus on job site and there are no compensation or any hazard pay given bus far from AT&T company to any of their employees. These essential workers have laid their life on the line going into homes without knowing whether they will contract the virusAnd yet they are being laid off and treated poorly. I have never seen a more disgraceful company at the rate they are treating their employees with the billion dollar industry they hold.

[roloorozco]

Yes this is the truth.We need to just learn to understand each other and take time to realy get to know each other.This may help bring clarity to what i believe is our main problem in the U.S. The old days are over.Today is a new day.

[QB.]

Powerful and effective speech. Don't necessarily agree with the analysis of tolerance, and at times it seemed like a PR stunt, but overall it was thought-provoking.

[beegum]

I should mention that I come from a small town and they used to and still might rent cops from a nearby city. Anyway, some of the cops would pull over everyone on the street, not like in cars, but on bikes and foot, hassle them for ID, and so forth... yeah, when they were walking. It appears pretty rare to get killed by a cop. One would think that these protests despite their appearance, actually don't involve people effected directly, although often the people speaking make it seem more personal. This might sound insensitive, but white folks tend not to be so socially cohesive, which to me indicates that black communities are oppressed in some way, however, it's important because to them, complaining about another black person reflects a sort of vouching for the character of that individual. And there are a lot things that are at higher rates among blacks that make the deaths at the hands of polices not all that surprising. And this takes us to US conservatism. Now the media is particularly offensive if some conservative attempts to break into their voter block, lol, especially because black folk have been known to select a change of pace when a credible example arises, lol, especially at the executive level. In some ways it's not all that surprising we don't have more conservatives attempting to enter into the black voter market. I mean while I can point out that your politicians send their kids to different schools and they've been "fixing" your schools for decades, lol, sorry, I can't actually do anything about that. And look at what a poor school does to a neighborhood. How it doesn't prepare people for anything, doesn't help them get anywhere... even facilitates crime... then within the environment it creates, a need for more government arises. look at how bad crime is, now we need more cops. We need more welfare. Higher taxes to pay for it, on the middle class, because, as it turns out, and those urban folks know, stuff is generally taxed more and more expensive in the urban environment. Surrounded by poverty, you've got plenty of people to help, but not enough saving to start a business, besides with so many cops and regulations to keep the system going you can't hope to start a business without a license, and sometimes, to get a license you need to grease the palms of the machine. And then thugs mixed in with BLM might riot and destroy your business if you do. I'm generally confounded by the power of that machinery. How simple it is and diabolical its design. I generally recommend fleeing therefrom, as JMJ... Anyway, as for current policy, many police forces are shoring up their training, but I find this rather humorous, because as it usually goes, the ones training now, are probably already the ones that were training before, and a few that just got caught with their pants down... yeah, the ones the other chiefs and sheriffs were complaining about cheaping out on the training, yeah, probably still not training. There was a little push back on the recommendation for police training, but yeah, and no doubt some of it was justified, ... but like, I mean, I said, it's not like we're likely to force it down to the people cheaping out on it in the first place, so we just go and insult well trained cops mostly. They're probably the ones most likely to go train every time one of these things happens anyway. That's what people are like a lot of times. And I can understand the cops complaining about how their training to deal with people far exceeds people's training in how to deal with cops, but that's life, and they probably understand that too, in many cases they're the local professional... You can have a good life out here. It won't solve all the problems and others are likely to occur, but... you know, something that's difficult to say, but appears to be true is that white folks in general tend to treat black folks better than other black folks... I just can't stand the lack of school choice, it's difficult for me to describe the cup of wrath it calls to mind... and they're getting it...

[hellenhoran]

The best company in VERMONT. Cricket rocks...