Tue 2 Oct 2007
Decisions, Decisions
Posted by Liza under Current Affairs, Opinion
Dana over at Mombian reviewed The BOB Books today, and included in her review, the disappointing fact that the publisher, Scholastic, only scored a 50 on the HRC Corporate Equality Index.
It got me thinking. I have no idea what kind of benefits publishers provide, or don’t provide. I’m afraid to investigate it, afraid that I’ll be guilted out of buying books that I want.
And then I started wondering about my two main local grocery store chains. So I looked them up.
Disappointingly, Publix (which I generally prefer) is not listed with a CEI score, although it appears to have a non-discrimination clause in its employment policy. From all the things that are missing, I would estimate their CEI score at around 40%, maybe less. Kroger, on the other hand, scores a reasonably respectable 75% on the CEI, and offers domestic partner health insurance benefits.
Knowing that, am I now morally obligated to shop primarily (or exclusively) at Kroger?
And what about the no-policies-seem-to-be-available, incredibly ethnically diverse, awesome produce & dairy, “farmer’s” market? Something tells me that they don’t score any better than Publix, maybe they even score worse. Do they get points back for having a recycling facility that blows my mind?
It’s hard thinking about these things, but impossible for me to avoid thinking about them when I know them.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
You’re absolutely right that these are tough decisions. I also think it’s important not to make our choices based solely on one index–a company could be great on LGBT benefits but suck for working mothers, or vice versa (as I wrote about last week). And the Advocate last year noted that Fannie Mae, despite its perfect 100 score on HRC’s list, contributed money from its corporate foundation to anti-gay causes, including $50,000 to the Traditional Values Coalition.
I don’t think there’s any “right” answer that works for everyone. What’s the environmental impact if the more LGBT-friendly store is farther away, for example? How important is this to us?
What we as bloggers can do, though, is help make sure everyone has the information to make a decision for themselves.
As you say, though–not easy.