AT&T is lauding a series of recent legislation it lobbied for in multiple states to address police reform and racial inequality. The company’s legal and state-level executive teams helped enact a hate crime bill in Georgia, supported the passage of a police reform bill in Minnesota, and joined business leaders in calling for the removal of the Confederacy symbol in Mississippi’s state flag.

The telecommunications and media conglomerate said it will continue to engage with elected officials to support social justice and police reform efforts in other states.

Recent reporting, however, indicates that AT&T is also financially supporting elected officials that promote racism, bigotry, and other efforts that run counter to the message AT&T portrays more publicly.

AT&T's corporate political action committee (PAC), from 2005 to 2018, donated more than $60,000 to Iowa Rep. Steve King, a xenophobe and white supremacist that recently lost his reelection bid after losing support from some Republican Party leaders. AT&T distanced itself from King following a public pressure campaign led by journalist Judd Legum.

Legum also recently reported that AT&T's PAC is one of the top five corporate contributors to Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican representing Arkansas who recently advocated for military occupation of U.S. cities where people are protesting police brutality and the killing of Black Americans.

AT&T, as a corporate behemoth, is not alone in pledging its support for social justice while also donating to politicians that push hatred and fail to recognize the ills of systemic racism. Lobbyists typically play it both ways in politics to curry favor with whoever might return their support in kind.

Despite its well-documented support of politicians that clash with its stated core values, AT&T, which has more than 20,000 employees in Georgia, claims it’s played an active role in the civil rights movement in the state dating back to the 1960s.

Prior to the passage of the state’s hate crime bill, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man out for a jog, was chased and killed by two white men in a coastal South Georgia neighborhood.

“Empathy leads to change. Change starts with us,” Venessa Harrison, state president at AT&T Georgia, said in a prepared statement. “Businesses have a big role in making it happen. AT&T acknowledges its distinct responsibility to be a part of the solution to achieve equitable justice.”

AT&T also last month committed to spend an additional $10 million this year to create economic opportunities for Black and underserved communities throughout the country. That effort includes $4.5 million on work readiness programs for under- and unemployed youth in collaboration with YouthBuild USA, Jobs for America’s Graduates, and Year Up, according to AT&T.

The company said it has contributed $215 million to support education programs, skills training, and career development in Black and underserved communities since 2015. 

“We’re focusing our efforts to create more opportunities and paths to success for Black and underserved communities, building on our longstanding work to create economic prosperity for all in this country,” CEO John Stankey said in a statement. 

Charlene Lake, SVP of corporate social responsibility at AT&T, said the company is listening to employees to guide and embolden its efforts at a local level. “By coupling these efforts with national work readiness programs, we’re able to amplify the number of opportunities communities have to make economic gains and lasting change,” Lake said in a statement. 

AT&T said it is also investing in the diversification of technology entrepreneurship and supporting racial justice efforts with civil rights organizations, including Color of Change, National Urban League, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Equal Justice Initiative. 

“As we all know, it’s easier to get things done locally,” Stankey said.