Amazon founder Jeff Bezos expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the most recent post on his Instagram page.
In the two-image upload, Bezos shared a letter that he claimed was sent by a customer who was upset about a banner on the site that said “Black Lives Matter.” The purported letter writer claimed that they were a regular Amazon customer who felt that the company should represent all of their customers. At one point in the letter, they wrote “All Lives Matter” in all caps.
Bezos opened his response by explicitly stating that he disagreed with the customer.
“‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t matter,” he wrote. “Black Lives Matter speaks to racism and the disproportionate risk that Black people face in our law enforcement and justice system.”
He added that, unlike black parents, he never has to worry about his 20-year old son being killed by the police. Bezos later clarified that he doesn’t want to trivialize any problems that people of other ethnicities might deal with. But he stressed that he remains committed to his stance on Black Lives Matter.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBEcwTgneUY/
The post has racked up more than 150,000 likes as of this writing, and close to 7,000 Instagram users have commented on it. In those comments, some Instagram users seemed thrilled to see the richest man in the world speak favorably about the movement.
“Your platform, your positive message! Leading by example!” one person wrote.
“Amazon is doing better things socially than most Fortune 500 companies. Let’s not forget the homeless shelter Jeff built,” another added.
But there were some who didn’t seem moved by Bezos’ show of allyship.
“Pay your taxes,” a third commenter wrote.
“Okay, you’ve shared your response. NOW SHARE THE DAMMIT WEALTH,” a fourth requested.
Others seemed to doubt the sincerity of Bezos’ words and expressed suspicion that the post might be just a public relations ploy.
Bezos’ post comes as protests against the death of George Floyd continue across the country. As Business Insider reported, Amazon previously shared a statement on the issue in which they claimed to stand “in solidarity” with activists calling for an end to police brutality against black people in America.
As the article noted, the statement might seem hypocritical to some since Amazon Web Services has previously come under fire for hawking facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies. According to a study by The National Institute of Standards and Technology, this technology was 100 times more likely to misidentify Asian and African American men compared to white men, The Washington Post reported.
— Amazon (@amazon) May 31, 2020