In the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020, corporations and institutions across the United States released public statements about race at an unprecedented rate. "We've got work to do" pledges and "#Blackout Tuesday" posts began popping up on companies' social media feeds and websites, only to be retracted a few years later.
Fordham Law School Professor Atinuke (Tinu) Adediran was fascinated by both the boldness of these statements and how often they went unfulfilled. "Companies' benefit when they make statements at first, and then they benefit when they pull them back. There's no requirement for them to follow through," she explains. That tension between rhetoric and action became the focus of her recently published book Disclosureland: How Corporate Words Constrain Racial Progress (Cambridge University Press, January 2026).
Adediran, a 2022-2023 visiting fellow with the Ford School of Public Policy's Center for Racial Justice (CRJ), began writing what would eventually become Disclosureland in 2021 and spent a substantial amount of time working on it during her fellowship. The book traces the history of corporate pledges and examines how companies leverage them to shape public perception. Drawing on interviews with Chief Diversity Officers, Sustainability Officers, and analyses of thousands of disclosures from over 2,000 privately held and publicly traded companies, Disclosureland shows how promises of equity often serve reputational ends more than structural change.
"Companies touch all of our lives, whether as consumers, investors, employees, or shareholders," Adediran said. "Their public statements shape how we all think about racial inequality in the United States. My hope is that the book provides a blueprint for these groups to think strategically about this problem and take action where they can."
Disclosureland challenges readers to consider the real-world effects of corporate rhetoric on racial equity. "It's important to not lose sight of the inequality all around us. There is a political backlash that seeks to erase the idea that our society is unequal, but that inequality is built into our legal systems and other institutions," Adediran said. " [Disclosureland] helps us understand how companies use public statements about race strategically to protect their reputations, sometimes against even addressing the inequalities they claim to confront."
Adediran will discuss Disclosureland at the University of Michigan's Trotter Multicultural Center on Monday, February 23, 2026. She will be joined in conversation by Mark S. Mizruchi, U-M professor of sociology.
Atinuke Adediran's personal website.
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