The continued support also reflects changing norms around corporate activism. Not so long ago, it was popular to bemoan Citizens United and to ridicule Mitt Romney for saying that “corporations are people.” But in the intervening years, frustration with the federal government as a source of solutions has shot up, and Americans are increasingly expecting companies, particularly large ones, to fill that void. According to a Harris Poll, 72% of Americans trust companies more than the federal government to address COVID-19 and racial inequities; another recent report from Axios and Harris Poll found that 53% believe staying silent on social issues equates to indifference to what’s going on in the world and evidences a lack of integrity. And according to a recent poll from Morning Consult shared with Vanity Fair,60% of Americans believe companies should be taking action on important social issues, even if they aren’t related to their products or business. Few companies will want that kind of hit to their reputation.

All these factors were at work before the police killing of George Floyd. For many companies, therefore, the protests prompted an acceleration of what was already in the works. In early June, for instance, Bank of America announced a $1 billion commitment to address economic and racial equity. Anne Finucane, the Bank of America vice chair overseeing the program, told me it had been in progress, “but then it escalated because of the coronavirus and the disproportionate effect it had on people of color…and then George Floyd’s death of course put a punctuation here in terms of immediacy and concern.” What was initially scoped as a $500 million program quickly doubled, and over the last few weeks, Bank of America has begun rolling out elements including investments in Black-owned banks, support for historically Black colleges on job training and job creation, and increased lending to Black-owned small businesses.

Obviously, there’s only so much corporate action can do to fix a problem 400 years in the making. And there are still significant obstacles at play, such as a lack of common understanding about where the focus should be. Many companies are concentrating their efforts internally, on corporate values and diversity-and-inclusion programs. While Color of Change’s Hatch expressed support for such efforts, she also described them as “table stakes.” “We have a number of examples of how Black faces in high places, for lack of a better phrase, don’t lead to actual change. And so while diversity and inclusion are incredibly important and can be signals to wider systemic problems, we’re really focused on the real-world impact on Black people,” she said.

Hatch has pushed companies to undertake civil rights audits, to challenge their ways of doing business. A number are doing so, she says, but the jury is still out as to which are willing to change their practices in a significant way. Hatch touted some successes, such as the decision in early June by Paramount to drop the TV show Cops, but symbolic gestures are’t likely to have the systemic impact that Hatch and others are seeking. It’s fair to wonder whether, absent significant policy changes, the financial-services sector will help reverse the decline in Black homeownership, or whether soft drink companies will address the health disparities they have contributed to. Indeed, a new report this week from the consulting firm KKS Advisors accuses members of the Business Roundtable, which last year announced to great fanfare a new corporate purpose of serving all Americans, of “purpose-washing” and failing to follow through on their public commitments. Reports like these might give pause to anyone expecting rapid and systemic change, but the relentless pressure from younger employees and consumers likely means that change will still come, however haltingly. As Washington plunges deeper into the bottomless morass of partisanship, corporate America may, in fact, be the best hope for true reform.

Read the full story at Vanity Fair.