Our top eight goals to celebrate Black history in 2022

Today, as we celebrate the first day of Black History Month, we want to make something very clear. Our commitment to racial equity in the workplace is year-round, 365 days a year, not just for publicity’s sake one month a year. We also strongly feel that Black History Month is meant to honor brave actions in the past AS WELL AS history that is currently being made. We aim to actively listen to, learn from, and celebrate those who impact equality every day.

In dedication to our transparency, accountability, and community values, we want to share our internal 2022 company goals surrounding racial justice with you today. And we hope you hold us accountable for our actions as well. 

We plan on adding to this list, but here’s where we are going to start:

1. Prioritize Black excellence, Black joy, and Black history makers (current and past) over Black trauma.
2. Commit to unlearning as individuals and as a company throughout the year. We will regularly share books, articles, presentations, podcasts, events, and other forms of education that our team is utilizing in 2022.
3. Acknowledge intersectionality in our advocacy to include ability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, faith, etc., as part of someone’s whole identity.
4. Act as an amplifier, supporter, and collaborator for individuals and companies that are the true experts and activists in the DEI space.
5. Commit to working with Black-Owned businesses as partners, service providers, and external resources. Demonstrate and be held accountable for this commitment on insureequality.org/resources.
6. Hold ourselves, our team, and those within our sphere of influence accountable by having tough conversations internally and externally, learning, and creating a space that prioritizes actions over words. 
7. Publicize our shortcomings and failures on a dedicated landing page at insureequality.org/about-us. We aim to own our missteps, grow from our mistakes, and do better every day.
8. Publicly revisit our goals every quarter to ensure that our focus hasn’t wavered.

Black History is made every day. If you post about Black History Month, we ask one thing: Make the history you want to be remembered by today. What are you doing to ensure that the history written today will honor Black voices, Black talent, and Black leadership?

Month in Review

As we reflect on February, we’d like to share our learnings, lessons, shortcomings, and areas we’re targeting for growth. 

We spent more time learning and unlearning than we did posting this year. Here’s why:

• As a team of predominantly white-bodied individuals, it is not our job to be the loudest in the room about Black History Month.
• Becoming anti-racist is a journey, not a destination. Our focus was listening to experts, reading books, and watching movies and documentaries. Throughout the month, we held internal conversations to challenge ourselves and those in our influence sphere to do better.
• We will amplify Black voices year-round; however, we are not here to share someone else’s work to gain a following. Therefore, We commit to amplifying Black voices outside of just February.

End of February Check-In

1. We learned that it is not just about Black Excellence and how that can be harmful.
2. You can see a list of these books, movies, and documentaries on our Resources page.
3. Learning and unlearning are key to understanding intersectionality.
4. Check our Partners page for a list of these resources.
5. Numbers 2 and 4 have links to these pages to view our progress.
6. We are developing an internal strategy on how to engage our community in constructive ways. We will post when ready.
7. *In Progress*
8. Checking back in later this year!

Insure Equality (IE) is a nonprofit that seeks to create and enforce accountability in the insurance industry in the pursuit of diversity and equality. Our goal is to make the industry a more welcoming place for everyone who chooses to consume or work in insurance.