How to (Meaningfully) Celebrate Black History Month at Work

February is Black History Month, and every year, many otherwise well-intentioned companies don’t plan accordingly. That leads to last-second scrambling to get together some kind of haphazard programming or celebration that winds up feeling performative and forced. 

Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions the Black community has made throughout U.S. history and continues to make today. But even companies with a stated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion with DEI intiatives and strategies in place often struggle to meaningfully celebrate Black History Month.

Corporations should seek to avoid tokenism and marginalization when commemorating the month. If you’re looking to make the most of the month, here’s how to meaningfully celebrate Black History Month at your place of business.

1. Support Black-owned businesses

In business, money speaks louder than simple words and actions, especially considering many Black-owned companies still experience structural racism. Businesses are customers themselves, and if you make it a priority to patronize Black-owned organizations, it’s a clear sign that you genuinely care about DEI initiatives.

Changing platforms or software that your organization uses daily might be a challenge, but at the very least, you can support Black-owned businesses by patronizing restaurants for catered lunches or using a Black-owned cleaning service for your office space. Of course, being a customer for more than just February will demonstrate you’re not just tokenizing the month.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can use online marketplace Miiriya to find Black-owned businesses in a range of categories in your area. Platforms like Yelp also make it easy to find Black-owned businesses.

2. Support anti-racism charities

There are many organizations doing important anti-racism work, whether that’s protesting police brutality, increasing systemic racism awareness, or working to close wealth or educational gaps in our society. Non-profits rely on a steady stream of donors to do their best work, and organizations have far more donor power than individuals.

Don’t just make a charity decision on behalf of your employees. Survey employees for Black non-profits they’d like to support before making any kind of decision. Invite employees to contribute their own money or offer to match their donations, but don’t simply pick a charity and say, “You can donate here if you want.” If the company asks employees to donate their own money, the company should donate at least an equal amount.

3. Promote Black content

Organizational culture is all about creating common ground among your employees. Team-building and Black History Month can easily go hand-in-hand. Encourage your employees to watch Black movies and TV, read books by Black authors, and educate themselves on the Black experience in the US.

When state governments are actively banning any discussion of race from private forums, it’s even more imperative for private organizations to step up and help amplify these stories. Sometimes, the best thing we can do for one another is listen, and the best form of active listening is engaging with important content.

Don’t require it, but if your company already runs a book club or offers educational resources, steer the focus to Black voices for at least February.

4. Be inclusive

Race is a touchy suspect in workplaces, but organizations only make it more uncomfortable by attempting to be “colorblind.” Inclusivity should be a year-round practice, and employees should understand that the organization values and celebrates their differences. Black History Month isn’t just an opportunity to celebrate Black employees; it’s a chance to educate non-Black employees to create empathy, create connections between employees, and have some fun. Corporate Black History Month activities can be great for team culture.

By providing programming like guest speakers or performances and by encouraging Black employees to talk or present about their own experience and interests, you can break up the daily routine and give employees something to look forward to that is also impactful for the community. 

If your organization has a DEI department, Black History Month was probably already circled on the calendar well ahead of time. Preparing for the month and planning your programming is great, but to make the celebration as productive as possible, ensure it aligns with departmental goals.

Say, for example, that one of the department’s goals is to improve organizational retention of Black employees. You should be willing to have an open conversation with the entire organization about how to achieve that goal, generating ideas that will promote positive change. It goes back to inclusivity; many DEI initiatives thrive when there’s complete organizational buy-in.

6. Celebrate Black staff and culture all year

Finally, don’t put limits on Black History Month! We should be able to celebrate a Black past, present, and future all year long. If you’re only making Black employees feel seen in February, that’s just a terrible look for your organization.

A truly inclusive organization is one that makes all of its staff feel valued and appreciated at all times of the year, regardless of demographic. Black History Month and AAPI Heritage Month are just bonuses.

As an organization, commit to welcoming and rewarding different approaches to work, reward strong relationship building like you do positive business outcomes, and invite people to show up as themselves. Don’t put too much stock in outdated norms of dress or professionalism. White ad men were getting unprofessionally blitzed in the middle of the day in the ‘50s, remember?

If you want to meaningfully celebrate Black History Month at work, promote an inclusive workplace in which everybody shares an equal opportunity to work, grow, and be the most authentic version of themselves.º

Image by Freepik

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