To fight racism, are promises and protests enough?

Solving the problem requires structural reforms: In 2016, middle-income white households were more than 10 times richer than comparable black households.

Some cities in the United States have begun to carry out police reform, but there are still many outstanding problems in education and housing.

Are promises and protests enough?

In the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd, some of the world's most powerful organizations have donated large sums to the movement against racial discrimination. Thousands marched across the U.S. and announced some encouraging initial steps, such as public policy changes that cut police budgets in cities from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to New York.

Now is the time to see if business, government, and society can follow through with the necessary structural reforms to open up or lock in better opportunities for black people everywhere.

It's not easy, but there are some good ideas on how to get started.

1. Point out the problem

Everything starts here. As countless people have demonstrated in recent weeks, challenging racism and racism starts with pointing out the problem.

Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, the parent company of social networking site Snapchat, has done it in a novel way. He announced to employees that he was "heartbroken and angry" at racism in the United States and called for a more progressive tax system that would allow businesses to pay more.

Many other companies have pledged to support Black Lives Matter and other movements against racism; Nike posted a video on social media calling for "For Once, Just Don't" Do It, which was viewed by millions, delivered a timely message that people should be united.

2. Donations

Brands around the world face real-life, measurable pressure to support.

Nike has pledged $40 million over four years to support campaigns in the black community and strengthen efforts to attract a more diverse workforce. In addition, Silicon Valley giants including Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, YouTube and Facebook have also made large donations.

Outside of the business world, crowdfunding helps people target their donations with precision. The bail fund, which keeps people arrested from having to wait for trial and provides them with bail, has received tens of millions of dollars in funding. The Minnesota Freedom Fund has received significant donations and now directs donors to other charities. George Floyd's family is receiving direct help from the public and celebrities, such as singer Kanye West, who has pledged to fund Floyd's daughter through college.

However, donations can only go so far, and businesses are under pressure to turn goodwill into solutions.

Some of these solutions are relatively simple. Uber Eats lets customers identify and support Black-owned restaurants on its app. Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey made June 19 a company holiday — the anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States.

However, we still need deeper reforms, especially in terms of workforce structure and compensation.

According to McKinsey, there is a huge wealth gap between black and white households, and the gap is growing. Black people (56%) are more likely to play a "supporting role" than the average American worker (43%). Overall, this results in lower average incomes for black Americans.

There are many ways to solve this problem. Last year, transportation company Uber announced a potentially effective solution. It ties executive compensation to the company's progress toward its 2022 diversity and inclusion goals. Wells Fargo has similar incentives to increase employee representation at the company.

The other is a measure taken by PayPal, which adjusts employee compensation throughout the year in an attempt to reduce income disparities caused by race and gender. Alternatively, businesses could pledge to pay a living wage, a move that Harvard Business Review says has helped some U.S. states achieve economic growth.

3. Police reform

A few things have changed since the death of George Floyd, especially when it comes to policing.

The Minneapolis City Council has banned the police department from chokeholds and neck restraints. Authorities in Louisville, Kentucky, have voted to ban break-in searches; in March, police shot and killed Breonna Taylor after entering her home without permission.

Meanwhile, New York City Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a slew of reforms, including changes to a law that would keep police disciplinary records secret.

4. Political change

In much of the United States, local property taxes fund state schools. Because of lower local property taxes, this can disadvantage students from poor neighborhoods, especially negatively impacting school opportunities for children (often African-Americans) who live there.

But such profound reforms will take time to bear fruit. Take the “red-line policy,” which deprives many African Americans of loan opportunities across the country.

Although the policy was abandoned half a century ago, recent analysis shows that its effects are still lingering. Two-thirds of residents in these areas are more likely to be from low-income and minority backgrounds, often black and Latino.

5. Payment of compensation

In 2014, Ta Nehisi Coates called for reparations for the suffering of African Americans, arguing that such reparations would create "a kind of national reckoning that would lead to spiritual revival." The idea stemmed from a promise made by the U.S. government after the Civil War to free slaves to give each former slave 40 acres of land and a mule, but that promise never materialized.

In the intervening decades, there have been repeated calls for reparations, but this new turmoil provides fresh impetus. BET founder Robert Johnson recently proposed $14 trillion in reparations for slaves to narrow the gap between rich and poor.