Amazon CEO Bezos to customer’s racist message: ‘You’re the kind of customer I’m happy to lose’
Nickie Louise
Posted On June 8, 2020
Over the weekend, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared an email exchange with a customer who used inflammatory rhetoric to criticize the company’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Bezos called the customer’s email “sickening” in an Instagram post late Sunday, saying the person was the “kind of customer” he’d be “happy to lose.”
In a response to a message posted by a customer named Dave, Bezos said:
There have been a number of sickening but not surprising responses in my inbox since my last post. This sort of hate shouldn’t be allowed to hide in the shadows. It’s important to make it visible. This is just one example of the problem. And, Dave, you’re the kind of customer I’m happy to lose.
The customer’s email whose last name was blacked out from the screenshot, contains profanity-laced insults and racist slurs and says that Amazon’s decision to show solidarity with protesters “will ruin [Bezos’] company.”
Over the past two weeks, protests have erupted in the United States and around the world over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck before he died, has already been charged with second-degree murder. Three other former Minneapolis police officers were also charged with aiding and abetting murder in connection with the killing of Floyd.
As we wrote last week, tech executives quickly came out to condemn the killing as evil. They also voiced their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Amazon said it will donate $10 million to social justice organizations. The company also tweeted that the “inequitable and brutal treatment of Black people” must stop.
“We believe Black lives matter,” the company said. “We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and partners, and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live with dignity and free from fear.”
