Restoration in Action: Four Racial Equity Examples
B Corp Programs and Partnerships Help Advance Racial Equity
As a community of businesses that believe the economy should work for all people, Certified B Corporations are confronting the extractive consequences of colonialism and capitalism. B Lab U.S. & Canada’s Racial Equity team offers resources and programs to support B Corps as they pursue the restoration, inclusion, and regeneration of people and the planet.
A new video from B Lab U.S. & Canada highlights how B Corps and partners are using storytelling, learning journeys, the redistribution of power, and impact improvement to shape a people-centered, restorative approach to racial equity. The short documentary “Restoration in Action” features examples from Tech Afrique, BE MORE with Anu, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and Fairware.
“Restoration feels like a deep inhale and exhale,” B Lab U.S. & Canada Digital Storyteller Lauren Everett says in the video’s opening. “Restoration gives me a sense of knowing. Restoration is a way of us getting back to the truth of who we are as a people, as humanity, and as a collective.”
Through the examples, the video shares how liberation of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color is shared through art and creative expression, how impact improvement starts with a clear and intentional plan to address racial justice, and how restoration can be advanced by leaning into the nuanced topics of race, class, gender, and sexuality.
Tech Afrique: Pioneering Afro-Futurist Healing Through Music, Art, and Technology
Tech Afrique, a Black- and woman-owned company, is an Afro-Futurist immersive audio-visual healing platform that incorporates electronic music, arts, and technology.
“I get my inspiration from really looking at my cultural history and background,” says Tech Afrique Co-Founder Chelsea Odufu. “I think that there’s so much, as People of Color, that we have to do to be able to reclaim our ancestral memory and kind of keep that alive.”
Tech Afrique creates immersive, healing festivals and runs a record label that offers opportunities within electronic music for Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color. Tech Afrique leads the way in integrative healing and storytelling with a mission to uplift, support, unify, and empower marginalized communities through music and technology.
Tech Afrique is a participant in B Lab U.S. & Canada’s Level program, which supports business leaders of color who also identify as women as they pursue B Corp Certification. Odufu says that being a B Corp allows Tech Afrique to hold companies responsible and that the company is ultimately trying to find ways to create new worlds and new visions for people to understand themselves. “My ideal vision for the future is a world that’s healed,” Odufo says.
BE MORE with Anu: Fostering Racial Equity and Climate Justice
B Lab U.S. & Canada partners with education technology company BE MORE with Anu to provide its Learning Journey training. The training works to strengthen the B Corp community’s knowledge of racially equitable, inclusive, and climate justice-centered business practices.
BE MORE with Anu’s learning journey focuses in part on how applying self-care and mindfulness can help prioritize humanity in the collective work the B Corp community strives to achieve while also exploring the intersections of race, ethnicity, and culture.
“One of the core pillars of all of our programs is this idea of intersectionality, that every human being [has] a place in the movement, because the movement needs all of us,” says Anu Gupta, Founder of BE MORE with Anu. “So now it’s about bringing that to awareness and building the new vision for our world together.”
Thurgood Marshall College Fund: Connecting Black College Students with Career Opportunities
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), based in Washington, D.C., is the largest organization exclusively representing the Black college community, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly Black Institutions. TMCF is one of the presenting partners in the Racial Equity Impact Improvement Program led by B Lab U.S. & Canada.
“We want our students to not only be able to afford to get into and through college but to have that broader skill set that’s going to allow them to really build a career of their dreams,” says TMCF Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Tamaria K. Perry. “A big part of the work that we do is exposure to real-life entrepreneurs who can talk to them about their experiences and the hard work it’s going to take to be successful.”
TMCF provides scholarships, capacity-building and research initiatives, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships, representing a vital resource in K-12 and higher education. TMCF also serves as a source for employment opportunities for Black students/college graduates. That includes a partnership with B Lab U.S. & Canada to develop an upcoming pipeline for Black college graduates to enter the workforce by obtaining fellowships and internships with B Corps. “As we look at the future of our country, we want to ensure that power, wealth, access is more equally distributed,” she says.
Fairware: Walking the Talk on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Fairware, a B Corp based in Vancouver, Canada, offers sustainably sourced promotional merchandise. The company was part of the first Racial Equity Impact Improvement Program led by B Lab U.S. & Canada. Fairware Co-Founder Sarah White said the eight-week course consisted of educational content on anti-racism that gave the company the tools to advance its strategies.
“Whatever work I’ve been involved in has always been about driving change, inclusion, and building community,” White says. “So at Fairware, moving beyond DEI statements means living policies and not just having them.”
Fairware demonstrates the positive change that can happen when an organization fully immerses itself in the Impact Improvement program and takes the initiative to do the work. It’s work that should concern all B Corps.
“In an effort to give back to community, humanity, wellness, truth, and joy, we must shift our part of the system,” Everett says. “As B Corps, it is our responsibility to learn how extractive systems such as colonialism and capitalism have traditionally functioned and how we can use our collective voice and power through business to restore us back to humanity and well-being.”
Watch the full video:
This article was originally published by B Lab U.S. & Canada. 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.
