Merck’s CEO, Ken Frazier, is an anomaly. Mr. Frazier is CEO of the 7th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, as measured by revenue. Mr. Frazier is a black man.
No matter what you think about the pharmaceutical industry at large, we must celebrate people of color reaching the highest executive office of major corporations, as C-level positions are filled with a carousel of white men bolstered by the ‘ole boys’ club. It’s even worse for women of color — the only two I can think of heading Fortune 500 companies are Indra Nooyi of Pepsi, and Ursula Burns of Xerox (who actually ended her term as CEO in December 2016).
This morning, Mr. Frazier announced his resignation from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, releasing the following official statement:
Mr. Frazier was clearly dissatisfied with Trump’s lack of leadership and failure to condemn Nazis, and so I commend him for his resignation. He should never have joined in the first place, but at least that mistake was corrected.
Trump was silent on the Nazi rally and subsequent murder of 3 protesters (I include the two people who died in the police helicopter crash) for two days, and then released a weak false equivalency “LOLbothsides” statement, and then failed to denounce white supremacists as he walked away without responding to reporters’ questions.
Well, it surely won’t surprise you that it took Trump a whole 54 minutes after Mr. Frazier released this statement for Trump to attack him:
Trump — slient on Nazis, in full attack mode on black CEOs.
Edit — Just saw Jen’s diary that she posted about 30 minutes away. Head there for first coverage, but would also enjoy some discussion here as well, if you’re so inclined. Thanks for reading.