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The Coca-Cola Company has released a statement from its chairman and CEO, James Quincey, about where the company stands on social justice. These are comments James Quincey prepared and shared with Coca-Cola employees for the first time during a virtual city hall on June 3rd:

George Floyd. Killed. A senseless tragedy for him and his family. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Philando Castile. Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Tamir rice. Trayvon Martin. All killed. All black Americans, mostly male black Americans. Everyone should still be alive today.

I am outraged, sad, frustrated, angry like you. Companies like ours have to speak out as allies of the Black Lives Matter movement. We stand by those who seek justice and equality.

The reality is that there is still a wound in America's tissues that not only doesn't heal, but reopens. Racism. It creates violence, it creates death.

It's been almost 30 years since the video in which Rodney King was beaten by police officers shocked the world. At the time we spoke. Roberto Goizueta, then Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, said at an event: “Defending justice, creating economic opportunities, and ensuring quality education are more than a noble thing. It is our duty. Nothing we value … our families, homes, and businesses … are safe in the face of oppression, poverty, and ignorance. "

It is our duty.

Now, with George Floyd's death, I've been thinking about our duty to black people in America. Simply put, America hasn't made enough progress, Corporate America hasn't made enough progress, and The Coca-Cola Company hasn't.

As a nation and as an individual, we have to do better. Companies like ours can play an important role. As a company that believes that diversity and inclusion are our greatest strengths, we need to use our resources and energy to end the cycle of systemic racism.

The company is not perfect. It did great things, things to be proud of. From the emblematic to the sustainable. From the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the fact that he was the first African American to advertise, on the provision of executives for desegregation, education, South Africa and franchising for two new US bottlers owned by African American entrepreneurs. One of them, Troy Taylor, is with us today (as a speaker in the company's town hall).

And it made mistakes, including the serious one with the largest discrimination lawsuit in US history in 1999/2000. As the judge said, our biggest problem was not that we made mistakes and that there were isolated cases, but that when we knew we didn't act to remedy the situation and improve.

We don't have all the answers. But I believe that we can find solutions together with community and community officials, government officials, other executives, our partners – and with the views and voices of those who challenge injustice.

Our efforts focus on four main areas: listening, leading, investing, advocating.

LISTEN: We believe that our company and brands have the power to drive change. And we want to do it right. To make progress for those who have been injured by systemic racism, we must first listen. We have ideas; We have received ideas from employees and know that this is the beginning. For this reason, we spend time listening to employees and getting their contributions to meaningful internal and external measures. We will seek the voices and expertise of community leaders and social justice advocates to share our actions. And we will continue to use several forms to continue listening and to promote the measures we will take to lead, invest and support.

LEADING: As a company, we have to be an internal model for American companies and society as a whole. Which platform do we have to run from? We have to take several measures. We will renew the mandatory diversity and inclusion training. The company also donated the land and helped build the National Center for Civil and Human Rights here in Atlanta, right next to the Coke World, but how many of us have visited? We all have to spend time there.

It's been four years since we had the first (company-internal) Stand As One conversation after a similar death. With one move – representing African Americans as a percentage of our US workforce – we have made mixed progress. In total, we increased by 3 points to 19% before the country as a whole (population). But in leadership positions from grade 14, we are flat with a bad 7%. We have to make more effective progress. Therefore, we appoint executives in our business to drive the development and implementation of additional business measures.

INVEST: We will invest our resources to advance social justice. We will use the voices of our brands to weigh up important social talks. For example, today we're announcing grants of $ 2.5 million / GBP 1.9 million from The Coca-Cola Foundation support the Equal Justice Initiative, lawyers and policy makers in the critical work of criminal justice reform; the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support the "Police Reform Campaign"; and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to create a platform where people come together for powerful conversations that are important and that stimulate social change and their current “campaign for equal dignity”.

We will also collect donations from employees for these initiatives, as well as contributions to the 100 Black Men of America and the National CARES Mentoring Movement. Start with me

Advocacy: Together with our bottling system, we will support change through our corporate network and implement important guidelines, starting with public support for laws promoting a hate crime law in Georgia. We will continue to support collective actions and commitments across the business world, such as the Business Roundtable, the Atlanta Committee for Progress, and the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. And more needs to be done.

Sometimes this will be challenging and uncomfortable and will require courage, humility, commitment and reflection.

Our promise as a company is that we do our part to listen, learn and act. Coca-Cola is committed to making a difference in our communities and in our company by mobilizing our history of promoting civil rights and gathering the strength of our employees, families and friends. Our company must play a visible and proactive role in creating the changes that are urgently needed. Further progress needs to be made. It is our duty.