Is You Is Or Is You Ain't Wit Us?
By William ReedNowadays, "The Man" ain't who he used to be. Take for instance the case of the black reparations lawsuit filed against insurance giant Atena - in getting to "The Man" at that insurance giant, black litigants now have to go through "Brother Man."
In May 2002, an African American Ronald A. Williams, took the reigns as president of one of America's largest insurance companies. Williams, 52, is in charge of all Atena's businesses, reporting to chairman and CEO John W. Rowe. It will be interesting to see how Williams deals with his peoples' past as he heads the $25.26 billion-a-year company into the future.
Williams' company is one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Based in Hartford, Connecticut and named for the Sicilian volcano Mt. Etna, Atena holds significant clout across America in healthcare, dental, vision, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care coverage. It has 33,000 employees and serves approximately 15.0 million health care members, 12.1 million dental members and 11.9 million group insurance customers.
The irony regarding Williams' appointment to head Atena is that in April his company was named as a defendant in one of the country's first corporate reparations lawsuits. The class-action lawsuit accuses Aetna of collaboration in the slave trade by issuing life insurance policies on enslaved African slaves with slave owners as beneficiaries during the mid-1880s when it was illegal. It says Atena was involved in conspiracy, human rights violations, unjust enrichment from its predecessors' roles in the slave trade and conversion of the value of the slaves' labor into their profits. The lawsuit seeks financial payments for the value of "stolen" labor and unjust enrichment.
With just one degree of separation between Williams and lawsuit litigants, the question is whether Williams stands with the 68 percent of blacks who say corporations that made profits from slavery should apologize, or with the 62 percent of whites who say they should not? Aetna executives acknowledge that during its early years, the company "may have been" involved in the slave trade. They say that was 140 years ago and "regret" that period of Atena's history. African American enslavment began in the 1600s. From the first recorded slave sale in 1619 until it was officially abolished in 1865, slavery helped fuel the prosperity of a young America.
CEO Rowe says that over the past 20 years Aetna has invested more than $36 million in African American communities' education, health, economic development, local partnerships and minority business initiatives. "The Aetna of today is a place driven by integrity, fairness and a commitment to equal opportunity. Diversity is embedded in this company's values. It is reflected in our people, in our leadership, and through our contributions to the communities we serve," says Rowe.
Whether Atena has to pay back "unjust enrichment" from slavery is still an open question, but there's little question of its affirmative actions toward modern-day African Americans. At a recent reception in Harlem, Atena marked the 21st consecutive year it has made African Americans a priority in its business.
Williams and Rowe worked a room that included Ambassador Andrew Young, Jr., Rep. Charles Rangel, (D-N.Y.), Black Enterprise magazine publisher Earl G. Graves and doctors from the National Medical Association (NMA). Rowe and Williams don't address reparations in public forums, but do make the point that Atena is a good corporate citizen and the company's current goal is working with a residual effect of slavery and discrimination: "Helping to close the country's minority/majority health care gap."
6/5/2002
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