Rev. Jesse Jackson, who critics say has benefited financially by targeting companies, accusing them of racism, and then collecting their gilt and guilt-edged donations or benefited from contracts given to firms that paid him for referrals, is planning to target high tech companies in the Silicon Valley such as eBay and Google at their shareholder meetings this week.
Jackson is following up on the campaign he started with his Rainbow Push Coalition earlier in 2014 which he called the “new digital inclusion initiative.” The campaign featured public letters to Apple, Facebook, and Google, among others, as well as a visit to Hewlett Packard’s March shareholder meeting.
Jackson and his entourage are expected to hit eBay’s headquarters in San Jose on Tuesday morning and Google’s headquarters in Mountain View on Wednesday afternoon. He wants more blacks and Latinos serving in the companies’ boardrooms and handling financial transactions.
Jackson lambasted Hewlett Packard’s shareholders for not having any blacks on their board and added that there should be more opportunities for minorities in universities such as Stanford University.
On Monday, Jackson stated, “Technology is supposed to be about inclusion, but sadly, patterns of exclusion remains the order of the day.”
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