Race-Conscious Retraction

Chapter 5 argues that race-conscious retraction constrains racial progress because it communicates that the issues of racial inequality companies communicated previously were either not important or have become largely irrelevant. The chapter examines the influence of conservative pressure on companies’ pulling back on making race-conscious disclosures. It shows that race-conscious retraction can be either partial or complete and opines on what trajectory this phenomenon will take in the future. It also argues that left unregulated as proposed in Chapter 6, race-conscious disclosures are likely to develop toward cycles of construction and retraction. During cycles of construction in response to future societal occurrences and social and political pressures to address racial inequality, race-conscious disclosures will be accommodated. During cycles of retraction, race-conscious disclosures will shrink. During either cycle, corporations manipulate disclosures for financial and reputational gain.