B Lab Forces for Good Podcast: How Can Business Advance Racial Justice?
Incorporating Practices and Products to Build Equitable, Inclusive, Anti-Racist Companies
Our global economic system is built on legacies of colonization, slavery, and white supremacy. We cannot hope to build an inclusive economic system without addressing this history that disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to this day. Businesses have started to address racial equity through diversity, equity, and inclusion (or DEI) initiatives. In this episode, we’ll look at what those initiatives are and what companies — large and small — can do to dismantle conditions of violence and oppression in their business practices. And we’ll dive into how business standards can drive our economy toward a system that is more equitable, inclusive, and just.
This episode aims to answer the following questions:
- What can companies do to dismantle these conditions of violence and oppression in their business practices?
- How can business standards drive our economy toward a system that is more equitable, inclusive, and just?
- What is the significance of Sustainable Development Goal 10, Reduced Inequalities, in working toward a just and anti-racist world for all workers?
Guests:
- Ellonda Williams, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, B Lab Global
- Ana Luiza Herzog, Reputation Manager, Magazine Luiza (Magalu)
- Laura Thompson, CEO & Co-Founder, Clothing The Gaps
- Sarah Sheridan, Deputy CEO & Co-Founder, Clothing The Gaps
Listen to this episode across all major platforms and find excerpts below.
In 2020, discussions of racial inequality gripped the United States, and the world. Whether they liked it or not, people were confronted with the realities of world history, particularly around colonialism and slavery. And stakeholders in companies all over the world demanded action.
Ellonda Williams, Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, B Lab Global: Equity and equality are not the same thing. Equity really is about not just giving everyone the same thing as but taking into consideration where people start. … Some people have more privilege, some people have more opportunity than others. How do we not just think about giving everybody the same thing? But building equity is really about giving people what they need in order to succeed.
At B Lab, we think about this all the time. We’re thinking about capitalism. We’re thinking about systems. We’re thinking about creating and using business as a force for good and creating better outcomes for everyone. If you really want to create long-term systemic change, then you have to think about how are you going to embed JEDI into all aspects of business, not just like one little corner.
Creating culture change is extremely hard, and it takes a lot of time. So to have the expectation that in five, ten10years time, we’re going to have that shift that we seek, I think is unrealistic. We’re not there yet.
It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about eradicating all things that make humans at times uncomfortable. It’s about thinking of how we can do this in a better way to dismantle barriers and create space for everyone.
Magalu’s leadership felt compelled to tackle Brazil’s racial divide in a bold way. CEO Frederico Trajano opened its elite executive training program only to Black applicants.
Ana Luiza Herzog, Reputation Manager, Magazine Luiza (Magalu): Magalu has this mission of providing to many what only a few have, and you can translate that mission into lots of things. We can translate that into giving low-income people credit so that they can buy a TV or a couch. It means allowing brick-and-mortar small entrepreneurs to sell online in our marketplace and be part of this digital world. And it also means giving Black, talented young professionals the opportunity to work in a company like Magalu.
The trainee program is the most famous. You know about it. I mean, it was. I mean, New York Times wrote about it. But we have other initiatives. They are very strategic. Another program which is called Luisa Colt. And what is that? We train women for technology. Right, because we know the technology sector is predominantly male, white and male. … We have around 35,000 employees associates. Nowadays it’s huge. Magalu is huge. And we are making this big effort to train all leaders, managers on diversity and inclusion.
Clothing the Gap is a fashion label based in Australia, and has been a Certified B Corporation since February 2022. Laura Thompson and Sarah Sheridan are Co-Founders.
Laura Thompson, CEO & Co-Founder, Clothing The Gaps: I’m a Gunditjmara woman. My family were really influential in starting the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services here in Melbourne. And as a result, I sort of had a love of health and health promotion in particular, but I just always wanted to work for my mother and my family for better health outcomes.
Sarah Sheridan, Deputy CEO & Co-Founder, Clothing The Gaps: We worked together at the Health Service for a number of years and did some really incredible things. And then we decided to step out into business together as a way of doing things a little bit differently and creating change in a different way.
We create merch with the message. So we see the opportunity of every time that somebody gets up in the morning and they pull on a piece of clothing that they can then carry a conversation out into their world.
Businesses have a responsibility to understand the impact that they make across people’s lives and the opportunities that they have to change that for the better.
Laura Thompson: We don’t often use the term “racial equity,” but we talk about uniting people through a cause and fashion. But I guess at the core of it is creating racial equity and social justice for Aboriginal people. It’s what sustains me in business.
Listen to this episode across all major platforms.
This article was originally published at https://www.bcorporation.net. B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
