PepsiCo To Meet With Emmett Till’s Family & Al Sharpton

[GreenL420]

The family of Emmett Till will get the chance to address their concerns with officials of PepsiCo face-to-face today (May . Civil rights activist and television host Rev. Al Sharpton will also be present at the meeting after asking the soda company to speak with him and the family about the recent controversy involving Lil Wayne.

Sharpton released a press statement on the issue through his National Action Network last week:

I have been in conversations over the last several days with leadership at PepsiCo and the family of Emmett Till we intend to meet next week. This has been a “teaching moment for Lil Wayne, corporate America and the family of Emmett Till yet more than a condemnation of any one artist, it is an affirmation of Emmett Till and a call for more sensitivity about what we say and do in our culture. National Action Network does not want it to end with artists losing contracts but rather with a sensitizing of corporate America so we can learn from these experiences and set a tone that will help everybody. It’s in that spirit that we go forward to meeting with PepsiCo next week.

Wayne began receiving public criticism earlier this year for a line in the song “Karate Chop (Remix)” that made a comparison between the violent death of the civil rights icon and a sex act.

Wayne eventually made a statement directed to Till’s family, saying that he would “like to take a moment to acknowledge your hurt.” The family rejected the letter expressing that they felt the statement was not a real apology and vowed to continue to lobby companies with ties to Wayne.

Eventually, PepsiCo made the decision to end its endorsement partnership will Wayne. The YMCMB rapper had been a part of Mountain Dew’s (a subsidiary of PepsiCo) ”Dew You” campaign.

Mountain Dew’s connection to Hip-Hop artists took another blow last when the company had to pull an ad featuring Tyler The Creator. The commercial was deemed as racially insensitive and misogynistic by some.

According to the A.P., Sharpton and the Till family’s sit down with Pepsi will take place at their corporate headquarters in Purchase, New York.