General Motors engineer Gerald Johnson has been recognized for his efforts to help the American automaker weather the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving the prestigious Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) at the recent BEYA STEM conference.
Gerald Johnson is the vice president of Global Manufacturing at GM and is “responsible for quality and safety performance for 103,000 employees, representing more than 129 manufacturing facilities on five continents in 16 countries,” the automaker says. His job was particularly important throughout 2020, as he was tasked with managing GM’s manufacturing business amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“When production at GM was temporarily suspended at the beginning of the pandemic, Johnson and his team worked across the company to quickly and effectively shift manufacturing and engineering resources to ventilators and mask production for frontline health workers,” GM said in a statement. “He is credited with spearheading the company’s robust safety protocols and return-to-work strategies that made it possible to safely reopen GM plants and other operations.”
Johnson started his career at GM more than 40 years ago, when he was hired on as a co-up student from what is now Kettering University. He became the youngest ever superintendent of the company’s Fisher Body Stamping Plant at the age of 24 and was the first African American to hold the plant manager position at Mansfield Plant Stamping Operations. He was also GM Europe’s first African American executive director of Manufacturing.
“Manufacturing has been Gerald’s passion since he was an 18-year-old co-op student, and he has dedicated his career to continuously improving how we build vehicles and components with the highest level of quality and efficiency,” GM CEO Mary Barra said of the accomplished engineer. “His leadership and steadfast integrity have made General Motors a better company.”
The Black Engineer of the Year conference aims to promote diversity within the engineering community and create networking communities for working professionals, educators and students. This year’s edition of the annual conference will be held online from February 11th through to the 13th.
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Comments
That’s pretty cool
I wonder who will be the White NBA player of the year?
Tom Brady is GOAT in the NFL..just saying..
There’s always one….
Ahh yes, awards for black people. Not racist. If there were separate awards for White people it would be a different story. This country is in big trouble. It’s all too common today to focus on someone’s skin color and that alone validates them for certain accolades. While I applaud Mr. Johnson for his work, the award shouldn’t have anything to with race just job performance.
Well maybe if bigots didn’t care about Black guys progression in a professional environment it wouldn’t matter about race either…….
“Black guys in a professional environment” just can’t seem to cut it on their own. Why is that? Are white engineers oppressing them?
Congrats to Gerald, and thanks for reporting on this GMA.
Why, though, does a token award like this even exist?
Why didn’t he win plain old “engineer” of the year? Was he even considered, or did the color of his skin preclude him from being included because he already fits into the Black category?
How is this different from jim crow segregation?
What if the award were called “Colored Engineer of the Year”? How would the recipients feel about it?
This type of award seems to go against every common sense value held by true progressives, and most definitely puts an asterisk next to his name. (What type of engineer is Gerald? A black one? or a regular one?) This is right up there with “Shes great at basketball, for a girl.” Unfortunately those giving the award probably do so primarily as a means of virtue signaling their wokeness, and don’t realize they’re doing anything BUT help.
Ultimately it’d be an honor to be recognized by my peers like this, but I’d like to think if I received this type of award, I’d have the fortitude to decline it.
P.S. – I consider myself politically moderate, and rarely speak up on issues thinking someone will do it for me. If anyone thinks I’m just “hating”, I’d urge them to stop and think about this, and why its OK to promote segregation just because it is cast in a positive light. I know posting in the comments section of an article on an auto enthusiast site won’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but too many people keep silent instead of speaking their mind. We shouldn’t be afraid to share opinions, discuss, and possibly offend, as long as we’re not slinging insults around and truly seeking knowledge and understanding.
Excuse me! That’s “engineer of color”!
Great post mtargus – sums up the issue perfectly.
Why didn’t he win plain old “engineer” of the year?
It’s simple. He couldn’t.
I have spoken with Gerald.
He is callous and full of meaningless double talk. He is a great example of why gM keeps loosing market share.
I’m sure Mary Barra is proud.
He would make a great politician.
So, how is he as an engineer? Leave out the qualifier “black”; how is he as an engineer, period?
This obsession with “first [insert grievance group here]” and “best [insert grievance group here]” stuff has to stop. If the hustlers were REALLY colorblind, we’d not have distinctions like this.
I am Sicilian and whose great grandparents were shipped over as Indentured Servants (not freed even after the blacks were, placed in War camps during WW2, and the largest lynching in history was in New Orleans of “my people”) so where are those awards….and the Asian….Irish….Italian….German…Scandinavian…Indian….and a number of other colors. O yea…we worked our tails off to make something of ourselves without special treatment. The city we grew up in had signs saying “Italians Not Welcome After Dark”… Same with black Miss America, schools, BET TV, and all the steaming TV Black only sections. If we are to be “fair”, MANY immigrants deserve their own Museums, scholarships, and other special treatments to. We start by having the other 11 months specify recognition. Crap like this keeps racism and segregation alive. He is probably a great engineer and this award just belittles him and his career. What a shame.
So getting a black award from his own people is equating to how Sicilians were treated by American Whites (until they changed their last name)?.
I think you are missing the point. Why are only blacks treated differently where many other ethnic/immigrant groups are not. BTW, if it is true that only blacks were able to vote for this award and everyone else was excluded…that is the foundation of racism. If whites did that they would all be “canceled”.
Again if there wasn’t any Institutional Racism practiced in America it wouldn’t be that big of deal or groups wouldn’t have to give recognition to their own, groups would probably still do or give accolades to their own because it’s their own ethnic background.
To this day you still have Jews, Irish, Italian and Black neighborhoods and suburbs in Boston, NYC and others. You have Hispanic Heritage Awards, Arab American Book Awards, is that racist?. Seems like White Supremacist (left and right) get angry if you don’t worship the ground they walk on.
Italians and Irish and other Whites CHOSE to work hard, get side jobs, save money and BUY their freedom from indentured servitude. Blacks chose NOT to.
Can you please bring back the old ss family of car’s the ss nova,ss chevelle the G T O I hate that dodge is out doing G M
I would like to thank Gerald Johnson for all he has accomplished in General Motors. I happen to be that person who promoted Gerald to Superintendent who was referenced in the article. It was because he was a talented young engineer who was accomplishing great things and for absolutely no other reason. I am proud to have helped Gerald in his career. Thanks Gerald and Good Luck.
After all we have been through
this year, we have a BLACK ENGINEER AWARD?? Did you not learn anything about the current state of our country? We need to move away from all of these _______(insert color) lives matter crap and just get to the issue of ALL lives matter and just do not single anyone out by color; just achievement and value to the workforce and country….period
I’m so in shock of this headline. My brain didn’t even allow me to think GM would make an award like this, and said to myself it has to be a top Cadillac “Black” wing engineer or something and they chose a terribly worded headline. So I click on it and low and behold this is an actual award with Black in the title, in 2021!? Are flipping kidding me, disgraceful, I hope he got a huge bonus check to deal with that one, and I hope this comes out in a way that forces GM to address/change it for being this out of the loop. Asian engineer of the year? Indian engineer of the year? Come on GM, don’t be singling folks out.
Is anyone here in a position to recommend Enemas and Douches? Cheers xxx
It would be nice if the “Engineer” of the year, regardless of skin tone, actually had an engineering degree because this guy doesn’t