Tim Cook Should Take His Own Good Advice

To treat each other as human beings requires doing just that

Apple’s Tim Cook wrote an op-ed on Sunday, March 29, attacking the detestable “religious freedom” law in Indiana- one which incidentally could make it legal to discriminate against interracial couples (yeah, it’s in there- the Bible is a twisted book) but is aimed at same-sex couples- the end of which contained an interesting choice of words for the CEO of the computer giant.

“This isn’t a political issue. It isn’t a religious issue. This is about how we treat each other as human beings.”

It should be noted that in context, Cook is clearly speaking specifically about Americans, and not the global community. This is problematic enough in and of itself, but not the main issue here. The point of contention is the line “this is about how we treat each other as human beings.” Once his own standard is applied to himself, it illuminates his failure to do just that.

Tim Cook does not want to be judged by that standard, not as the CEO of Apple. Apple’s iPhone is famously manufactured with the help of the company Foxconn in China. Foxconn made the news five years ago for having working conditions so appalling that its workers were committing suicide by leaping out of windows. This problem was solved, in part, by installing safety nets. Is this how Tim Cook would have us treat each other as human beings?

Furthermore, Apple’s promises of fixing conditions at Foxconn have been repeatedly broken, according to the BBC in a report from December of 2014. Tim Cook has been the CEO of Apple since August of 2011. That makes at least two and a half years that Cook has known about and at best allowed Apple to shirk its responsibilities to its workers. Again, is this how Tim Cook would have us treat each other as human beings?

On the one hand, I like and use Apple products. I understand and respect the position Tim Cook is taking against Indiana’s deplorable, disgusting law. On the other hand, it’s more than a little disingenuous for the CEO of a company that has its phones made in factories with such abysmal working conditions to talk about how to treat other people well.

Tim Cook should take his own advice and at the very least implement the mild improvements to the conditions at Foxconn his company promised five years ago. He should, in other words, treat his workers abroad like human beings. Otherwise, his well-intentioned stance against bigotry and discrimination rings more than a little hollow.