Full-page ad blasts GM CEO Mary Barra as racist

VRYALT3R3D

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Leaders of several major Black-owned media companies including Byron Allen and Ice Cube are accusing General Motors CEO Mary Barra of being racist for what they described as her refusal to meet with them.

They are asking for an hour-long Zoom meeting with her or, in the alternative, her resignation.

That's according to a full-page ad on page 3A in Sunday's Detroit Free Press accusing Barra of refusing to meet with them "consistently, over time and after multiple requests."

The ad is signed by the heads of the seven Black-owned media companies including rapper and actor Ice Cube, who co-founded pro-basketball league BIG3, TV and film production company Cubevision, and Contract with Black America (CWBA), which he started with the goal of initiating dialogues about racism.

Also signing the ad is native Detroiter Byron Allen, head of Allen Media Group, and former NBA player Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman, who bought Ebony Media last year after bidding $14 million for it in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.


In response to the ad, GM said it aspires to be the most inclusive company in the world, and that includes how it allocates its advertising expenditures.

"We have increased our planned spending with both diverse-owned and diverse-dedicated media across our family of brands," said GM spokesman Pat Morrissey in an email. He did not provides specifics.

'No one happy with GM'
The Black-owned media group wants GM to allocate at least 5% of its ad budget to Black-owned media companies, said Allen in an interview with the Free Press on Sunday.

The ad says "less than 0.5% goes to media companies owned" by African Americans, calling that "horrendous, considering that we as African Americans make up approximately 14% of the population in America and we spend billions buying your vehicles."
 

AustinSN

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This looks more like a situation where those media outlets don't have the viewer demographic that GM would expect to purchase new vehicles from them or enough of them.

I can see it in the meetings.

"What can we do to get larger accounts?"

"We can shame major corporations by calling them racist for not using us"
 

BDF8

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Maybe they chose to give their advertising money to companies that are leading the industry and have the best level of experience? I mean what they are saying is they should be given preferential treatment. Or am I just crazy?


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SolarYellow

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Once again people incorrectly or ignorantly using the term "systemic racism" because they think they can get something out of the deal.
 

AustinSN

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Read up on Byron Allen. A real piece of work. Basically sues companies until they agree to give him business.

Borderline extortion
Wow.

No kidding, this is exactly in his wheel house. A lawsuit would be expected at this point.

He sued Charter and Comcast for $10b each for not carrying his channels due to racism. Went all the way to the supreme court before he lost 9-0. They ended up settling out of court, Comcast is going to carry some of his channels and Charter most likely will also.

Dude said he wants to own CNN, but he needs to buy AT&T to do it, but he is confident he will.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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That's a weird complaint/targeting tactic.

Would she or a CEO even deal with the granularity of advertising allocations?

Seems like they should be targeting an office 3 floors down from the CFO at best.

I'd almost put money on it they've had the opportunity to meet with those people and either refused it or couldn't work a deal so now they're resorting to this
 

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