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Tom C.W. Lin Biography

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“We are a tribal species. Unlike young schoolchildren, we prefer division to addition. We divide ourselves into groups of our own justification, sensible or not. Hunters or gatherers. Settlers or nomads. Men or women. Cis or trans. Natives or immigrants. Citizens or noncitizens. Black or White. Rich or poor. Gay or straight. Believers or nonbelievers. Extroverts or introverts. Rural or urban. Nationalists or globalists. Republican or Democrat. Conservative or progressive.”

HumanityTribalismTribeDivisiveness
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“We prefer our tribes to the others. We believe in the superiority of our tribe, and we push back against those who threaten our group. Our tribes give us a sense of belonging, cooperation, purpose, comfort, and support. We nurture our tribes with myths and morals, facts and fictions, to bind ourselves to one another.”

HumanityTribesTribalismDivisiveness
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“Since the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in the year 1602, and perhaps even earlier, corporations have been reinventing themselves and their purposes in accordance with their worlds, and their times. All corporations are capable of being born again. Some just do not know that they are dying or dead.”

ChangeBusinessCapitalismCorporateCorporationsChange ManagementBusiness Growth And Success
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“The history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and its aftermath tells a story of both tragedy and resilience in the long struggle for racial justice in America. The facts of Tulsa are not unique in America’s past or present on matters of race. The false accusation, the lack of real due process, the racially motivated brutality, the institutional suppression, and the absence of meaningful government acknowledgment and action are tragically all too common. But so too are the resilience and the strength of the people: to struggle, to survive, and to thrive in the face of overwhelming odds.”

RacismResilienceInequalityRacism In AmericaTulsaGreenwoodTulsa Race Riots
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“Too many Black communities and families have been left behind in the growth and progress of America. Intergenerational wealth and capital accumulation still remain elusive for too many. Many uneven and unfair structures of systemic rac- ism seem to have mutated into forms even stronger and more difficult to dismantle. And making it all worse is the inability or unwillingness of too many of our political leaders and institutions to address matters of race—or to address it in an honest, nuanced, and constructive fashion, given all of the raw histories, complexities, and emotions that it engenders.”

RacismInequalityRacism In AmericaRace And Racism In AmericaSystemic RacismStructural Racism
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“The Citizens United decision profoundly changed American politics. The Court’s ruling effectively lifted any limitations on American corporations’ political expenditures. The ruling permitted for-profit corporations to use corporate funds for campaign contributions to support candidates and issues. It also permitted wealthy and well-connected individuals to form corporations as vehicles to solicit, collect, and disperse funds, with little to no transparency.”

CorporationsFirst AmendmentLobbyingCampaign FinanceCitizens UnitedCampaign ContributionsCorporate Law
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“Because of legal expansions in corporate rights and changes in corporate social practice, the most powerful people in the world in many contexts are corporations and the people who run them. Corporations are like superheroes (or supervillains) in many ways. They possess a (liability) shield, never die, leverage the powers of others as their own, and move the world through their actions.”

InfluenceCorporateCorporationsFirst AmendmentCitizens UnitedCorporate LawCorporate Social Activism
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“There were Black churches in America before we even became a country. Slaves organized churches in present-day South Carolina and Georgia before they were freed, and before we as colonies broke free from the tyranny of Great Britain.”

SlaveryAmerican HistoryChurchesBlack ChurchBlack Christian
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“Because business enterprises are human enterprises, they often reflect and perpetuate the gender stereotypes and structural sexism that have been around for far too long because of a patriarchal society.”

CorporationsSexismGender EqualityGender InequalitySexual HarassmentSystemic Sexism
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“This longstanding bipartisan revolving door between government and business reflects the inconvenient realities of life in a capitalistic democratic republic. On the one hand, when work- ing well, this revolving door allows businesses and government to draw on talented, ethical individuals from the private and public sectors to serve the interests of both shareholders and citizens. On the other hand, this revolving door can lead to corrosive cronyism and corruption that eats away at the integrity of both business and government as narrow interests are served, to the detriment of shareholders and citizens.”

InfluenceCorruptionLobbyingSpecial Interest GroupsCronyismCrony CapitalismRevolving DoorSpecial Interest
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“Corporate social activism is not a market-based alternative to government, nor should it be. There is simply no substitute for good, effective government in a democracy.”

GovernmentDemocracySocial ChangePublic PolicyCorporate Social ResponsibilityCorporate Social ActivismGovernment Reform
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“While politicians like to say that some issues are “more than politics” or “beyond politics,” if they were being honest with us and themselves, they would confess that the truly important and consequential issues of our time need politics and the political process.”

PoliticalPoliticsDemocracyPublic PolicyPolitical Process
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“The profit-first, profit-only view of business under the Reagan Revolution raised new concerns about the social obligations of corporations beyond shareholders to constituencies like employees, creditors, customers, and local communities. This was motivated in part by the fact that despite significant stock market increases and income growth for the wealthy, many working-class Americans were left behind in the economic growth.”

ProfitCorporationsCapitalistShareholdersShareholder ValueReaganStakeholdersReaganism
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“Contentious social issues like racial justice, income inequality, gun violence, immigration reform, gender equality, and climate change have all become part of many corporate agendas. Silence and indifference are becoming less the norm. The days of simply ignoring social issues or writing a check are gone. Corporations are now frequently expected to engage in social issues through public statements, sponsorships, partnerships, and policies supporting a position or a cause. Being a socially responsible corporation now also means being a socially active corporation.”

CorporateCorporationsShareholdersProfitsCorporate Social ResponsibilityShareholder ValueStakeholders
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“Today, private for-profit universities are common, as are private prisons, law enforcement, tax collection, and military forces. The corporate encroachment into traditional governmental functions even extends into areas of foreign affairs, foreign aid, and national defense.”

GovernmentBusinessPrivate SectorPublicPrivatization
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“Public intervention into private businesses during crises blurs and changes the traditional boundaries between the private spheres of business and the public sphere of government. These public actions during crisis alter norms and social expectations about government intervention in business.”

CapitalismInterventionPrivate SectorPublicGovernment RegulationPrivatization
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“Being pragmatic means recognizing systemic flaws, shortcomings, and outright wrongs, yet nevertheless trying to make it work better. Being pragmatic means embracing reality in all of its contradictions, complexities, and ambiguities of the present and the past, while keeping your eyes on the prize for the future.”

PragmatismPragmatic RealismPragmatic Action
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“Progress often requires pragmatism, not purity or perfection. We cannot work only with individuals and institutions that we agree with on every single position on every issue across every single point on a long timeline.”

ProgressPerfectionPragmatismPragmatic RealismPragmatic Action
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“Corporate social responsibility alone seemed too passive, too insular, and too self-serving. In a world that seemed to be literally on fire from climate change and social unrest, corporate social responsibility appeared to many as a privileged exercise in self-improvement, however sincere or not. Corporate self-improvement was not enough for many engaged consumers and citizens; active corporate social improvement through activism was desired and called for.”

BusinessCorporationsShareholdersProfitsCorporate Social ResponsibilityStakeholders
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“Capitalist enterprises and activist enterprises are ultimately both human enterprises. They reflect the contradictions, complexities, and richness of the human beings that create them, own them, patronize them, move them, work for them, and manage them. They are imperfect and impure, just like the dedicated flawed people behind them. Too much progress has been needlessly impeded by arbitrary notions of purity and perfection.”

CapitalismActivismComplexityCapitalistHumanity And SocietyActivism Or Activist
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“Given the all-too-common political dysfunction and gridlock in government these days, change and progress on tough social issues via corporate social activism not only is more appealing but also can be more effective. Corporations and their executives can move more swiftly than government to accommodate change, customer sentiments, and social norms in ways that a dysfunctional political process simply cannot.”

ActivismCorporateCorporationsSocial ChangeCorporate Social ResponsibilityActivism Or ActivistCorporate Social Activism
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