Not so long ago, Justin Danhof of the National Center for Public Policy Research made a proposal asking Amazon to promote diversity in the company by featuring more conservatives in its board of directors. This proposal met with a thorough rejection and the crowd booed Danhof throughout the proposal.
From the proposal:
“Across corporate America, company after company is adopting board diversity policies based on race and gender. These procedures have the stated goal of reducing corporate groupthink and require companies to interview an underrepresented minority and a woman for each open board spot. This isn’t diversity. It’s racism and sexism. Not all women think alike based on the fact that they are women. Similarly, not all Asian or Latino or black Americans think the same based on their respective skin color.
At last year’s annual meeting, Amazon adopted just such a policy. Following this surprising development, I asked Mr. Bezos if the company’s leadership also valued viewpoint diversity, and he claimed that they do. So we submitted a proposal requesting that the company put Mr. Bezos words into actions. However, the board balked at our request. That’s a shame.”
Justin addressed several left-wing positions taken by Amazon such as the company’s stance against religious freedom legislation in Texas, opposing Trump on his immigration policies and funding the Human Rights Campaign which Danhof referred to as the “most bigoted anti-religious organization.” He also addressed Amazon’s association with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left organization for deciding the eligibility criterion for Amazon Smile charitable program.
Danhof said that Amazon would have cut ties with organizations such as SPLC if it had conservative board members too. He said that featuring conservatives in the board of directors can prevent Amazon from groupthink and can help in boosting the diversity in the company.
In the recent past, the nonprofit coalition group CCA also strongly urged Amazon to cut ties with the SPLC and went to the extent of putting up a full-page advertisement in the Seattle Times saying the same. Both Justin Danhof and CCA collectively argued that the SPLC designates certain groups as ‘hate groups’ and prevents them from receiving the benefits of Amazon Smile charity program.
Danhof had pointed out that SPLC ranks conservatives alongside extreme hate groups such as Ku Klux Klan. To prevent such anti-conservative practices, Danhof said that Amazon needed diversification and more conservatives on board.
