'Auto Trends' Kicks Off Black History Month With A Former Rainbow PUSH Automotive Activist: Where Do We Go From Here?

Change agent Glenda Gill (Photo Credit: GG)

Over the past week or so since Trump took office, he has been issuing out nonstop signed executive orders from The White House and Mar-a-Lago like a level 5 tornado tearing through an urban area during a busy workday.

As expected, there have been some immediate casualties, non-life threating injuries, uprooting, angst and mental frustration. Overall, as expected, there has been pure chaos and confusion.

Automotive Historian Keith Crain Talks To 'Auto Trends' In A Wide-Ranging Two-Part Conversation

 

In an exclusive two-part radio conversation, Auto Trends with JeffCars.com goes one-on-one talking to automotive historian Keith Crain.

 

Crain, who is the editor-in-chief of Automotive News, and is typically in the driver’s seat, as it relates to covering every nook and cranny of the industry, allows Auto Trends with JeffCars.com to switch seats with him. Crain’s magazine, Automotive News, is known as the Bible of the automotive industry. His magazine is to the auto industry what Billboard Magazine is to the music industry.

 

Talking Business: Rainbow PUSH Takes Global Trip With Suppliers To Meet With Asian Automakers

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition led a 13-person delegation to visit leading automotive companies in Japan, last week.  The delegation met with corporate leaders of Toyota, Nissan and Honda at their Japan headquarters, with the goal of building primary trade and business relationships with these automotive companies.  In addition, the trade mission established a significant Japanese network for African-American suppliers through Rainbow PUSH Coalition relationships.

 “The trade mission successfully provided unprecedented access and opportunity to African American businesses with Toyota, Honda and Nissan,” said Rev. Jesse Jackson, president and founder, Rainbow PUSH Coalition.  “We are excited about the opportunity to create mutually beneficial, two-way trade.  More importantly, the executive leadership in Japan and North America are receptive to expanding their supplier base with minority suppliers. ”

Delegation members commented on their trip experience.  John Henderson, CEO of AEL Span LLC, which provides a variety of global supply chain services, said, “This was a high impact series of meetings with top C-Suite executives of Toyota, Honda and Nissan.  We were privileged to be a part of this trip, and we are excited as to how we were received by these companies.  We left with a high level of expectation for opportunities to grow our business with each of them.”  Jeffrey Willis, CEO, Emma Hill Manufacturing stated, “This was a critical and necessary trip that served as an eye opening catalyst for the CEO's of Nissan, Honda, and Toyota to prompt the creation of new and more sustainable partnerships with highly skilled and prepared minority suppliers like those who were in attendance.”

Auto Rewind: How Toyota Really Became Number One with Minorities

While Toyota is thankful they aren't where they were 10 years ago - as it relates to some blunders they made with the African American community - they are definitely a case study on how an organization can learn from past lessons to become culturally-sensitive.

Since this debacle, Toyota has become the number one brand not only with African Americans, but with Latinos and Asians too. We posted an article last week related to which automakers are doing an admirable job based on new-vehicle sales of connecting with minority consumers. In case you missed it, click here.

Burger King who found themselves in hot water recently with an insensitive ad should have learned from Toyota's previous missteps. In case you've been underneath a rock,  click here to a get a recap on how Burger King found themselves being out-of-step with African Americans recently.

With that said, let's take a walk down memory lane to see where Toyota was just a little over 10 years ago and how far they've come a decade later.  Take a moment to check out this NPR interview from last year, which provides insight into how Toyota became a culturally-sensitive company. Besides Burger King, Toyota can be a case study for a number of automakers too who are looking to grow their sales without doing any type of segment marketing.