What will it take for DE&I work to continue after Black History Month?

At the start of Black History Month 2023, comms pros can once again glean countless examples of how to thoughtfully — and thoughtlessly — recognize the impact and influence that Black Americans have made on our industries, businesses and culture at large.

Moreover, the very idea of sequestering these learning opportunities into one month dismisses the idea that every month should be an opportunity to educate and widen the scope of inclusion for your organization. By extension, every month should be considered a prime opportunity to make meaningful, actionable progress toward your organization’s DE&I commitments.

Emphasizing education

In the last week of January, the need for more education around Black history was illustrated twofold. First, the CEO of American cloud computing company PagerDuty misquoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in an email announcing layoffs, augmenting the words from one of  Dr.King’s sermons in a cringe-inducing attempt to applaud her own leadership style.