Two years ago, I pledged to do more to support, promote, defend and advocate for Black, Indigenous and other people of color. After the horrible events of last summer, I upped my commitment to racial equity and anti-Black and -Indigenous racism. I created The Word Factory's Social Justice Statement and signed the Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge.

To make sure these promises weren't simply performative allyship, in July I began tracking our progress on five key metrics:

  1. Spend 10% of monthly agency budget with Black- and LGBTQ-owned businesses
  2. Include images of people with various skin tones and abilities in visual content
  3. Secure guest post and single-source editorial opportunities for Black subject matter experts
  4. Engage in anti-racist training and race-related educational opportunities
  5. Nominate Black people for honors, awards and other recognition

Here are the results for the six-month period:

These activities don't compel me to hang a Mission Accomplished banner. Rather, they inspire me to keep working, to encourage other white business owners and decision-makers to do more, and to stand up for Black, Indigenous and other people of color, and LGBTQ individuals.

As President Johnson noted, our work is not done.

3 more resources for corporate social justice and anti-racism

  1. Why and how to find and support Black-owned businesses
  2. Toward an anti-racist world
  3. Our continually updated Flipboard magazine of anti-racist resources