An open letter to Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan: My wife, Karen, and I recently closed our account at our local Bank of America. We want to inform you of our reasons.
We had heard that your bank’s lending practices would not be those we would like to see so we did some research. In particular, we found that Bank of America does business with the for-profit prison industry, which is complicit in the mass incarceration of people of color. With recent news of several banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, choosing to end their ties with this industry, we decided to ask you to do the same and end BOA’s relationship with this industry as well.
We watched your ad, “Listening to What Matters Most,” in which you appear and say that you intended your bank to have “the power to make a difference.” Breaking your relationship with the for-profit prison industry is a way to make that difference and take a stand against the racism that extends from slavery through Jim Crow to the present over-representation of black Americans in our prisons and on death row.
I am submitting this letter to local newspapers in case you wish to submit your response to these papers as well as to us.
DAVID ERIKSON and KAREN BROEMME
Weare