The following is a letter from the Subaru CEO regarding recent incidents and social justice.
June 17, 2020
Subaru of America, Inc. stands with a nation rising to fight social injustice after the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks along with untold other Black Americans. We Believe Black Lives Matter. The events of the past three weeks, which have led to nationwide protests for justice, speak to the deep-seated anger, frustration, exhaustion and fear felt by Black citizens in our communities, the depth of which is just now starting to be understood by all Americans.
It's something that all of us need to reflect on and truly ask ourselves "What can we do?" What actions can we take to alleviate and correct these social injustices which have plagued our society for far too long? At Subaru, we like to pride ourselves on being "more than a car company." This means we have a responsibility to do what we can to address racism in all its forms, whether systemic, structural, institutional, or individual.
The profound sadness we feel must give way to action. To that end, today we are announcing several actions that Subaru is taking in service of relevant, sustainable and systemic change:
Working together with the leadership of our employee resource group Black & Latino Employee Network for Diversity at Subaru (BLENDS), Subaru is announcing a $500,000 donation to the Equal Justice Initiative. EJI is an organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
But we understand that real change begins at home, so today we are also announcing several new actions:
* To support our employees' efforts in the fight for justice and equality, we are announcing a 5 to 1 employee matching gift program for donations to organizations that promote social justice--up to $500,000. This is in addition to our donation to EJI. We have also created a matching gift offer for our Subaru retailers.
* At Subaru we strive for a culture of inclusion. In collaboration with our partners, Performance Paradigm, we are expanding our equity, inclusion and diversity training experiences. We have already introduced R.I.C.H. Dialogues, a conversation tool that explores how to have meaningful dialogues around race, identity, culture and heritage to the executive team and managers. Furthermore, we commit to do even more to create a culture of inclusion throughout all levels of our company.
* We will launch a new comprehensive multi-year learning curriculum to confront bias, communicate about topics of difference and build skills for inclusive conversations and understanding. This curriculum will be included in Subaru's training for not only our approximately 1,200 employees, but also to all of our 630 plus Subaru retailers across the country.
* The Subaru Leadership Team pledges to further enhance our approaches to hiring and promotions to help ensure that it is more inclusive of historically underrepresented talent.
* For more than 20 years we have worked with our partners in the city of Camden, New Jersey--which became our new hometown a little over two years ago. In addition to our existing volunteer efforts in the community, we will endow six new scholarships for people of color to be trained as automotive technicians. Subaru of America, Inc. will also help successful scholarship recipients with internships at Subaru retailers to enhance their training that will lead to full-time employment opportunities.
Subaru is a company committed to caring, giving and helping. We have always felt that our brand exemplified our tagline, "Love, it's what makes Subaru, Subaru." And while we still believe that "love" can be the antidote for social injustice, we understand through witnessing the pain and division we are seeing across our great country that we have the responsibility to do more...and together, we can and we will do more.
Thank you,
Thomas J. Doll
President and Chief Executive Officer
Subaru of America, Inc.
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