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Happy New Year! Here's a thread on how you can make your professional/corporate Black History Month events *slightly* less tokenistic:
Yes having Black History Month speakers does not solve or absolve companies of their systemic racism issues but we all know they are going to do it anyway so 
Book your speakers ASAP, if you haven't already. What did you pay your last white speaker? Double that.
Remember Blackness is not a monolith. Engage range of speakers with different lived experience. Centre dark skin people of marginalized genders.
In addition to your anti-racism work, bring in Black speakers to talk about something other than being Black. Next team social? Virtual African-inspired cooking class or poetry writing class by a local Black artist.
Give Black staff priority for time off, expect nothing in regards to their engagement in BHM content (but also don't exclude them from it either to "protect them") and definitely don't ask them to write a blog post for free
Bonus of virtual talks is you can make an archive of talks/workshops - make these a compulsory part of onboarding new staff. (Pay speakers for the rights to keep and re-use this content)
Be transparent with your speakers about where your organization is at. Don't throw them in a 'room' full of "devils advocates"
Also! Anti-racism consultants + activists do more than speaking. Maybe it's a great time to implement an anti-racism policy or investigate how white supremacy functions within the organization
Don't forget intersectionality. While history months are important they can lead to silo-ing. People's identities and histories cross multiple history months - Afro-Indigenous ppl, Black LGBTQ2S+ ppl, Black Jewish folks etc. often get left out.
+ obviously and most importantly, continue doing this work beyond February!
This doesn't mean focus solely on Black history all year round. It means learn, centre and live by the principles of Black liberation - it will set us all free.
This doesn't mean focus solely on Black history all year round. It means learn, centre and live by the principles of Black liberation - it will set us all free.
