Black Lives Matter—our response and action
© 2020 Hashtag Paid Inc. All Rights Reserved.
#paid is a trademark of Hashtag Paid Inc.
Hi everyone,
#paid strongly supports the Black Lives Matter movement and will not stand for injustice in the Black community. We want to use this opportunity to reaffirm that this is unacceptable. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others taken at the hands of racism and hate: we’re fighting for you and with you.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging are a core part of who we are at #paid. We want to make it clear that we stand with the Black community.
However, this is a journey, and we can do better as a company. Here are our commitments:
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We commit to doing more training and education internally on understanding the Black experience, history, and institutional racism that is present today. Our internal sessions have had strong participation and we are encouraged by our momentum, however there is more to do. This training will help ensure systemic racism is driven out of our work environment.
We will continue to participate in our community. Our Brand Over Bias event was a huge success and we will continue to invest in our community with more events this year and in the following years.
We will continue to showcase and feature Black creators in the work we do. We have an added responsibility as a creator marketplace to represent and celebrate diverse creators and we are committed to continuing to do so. Check out our newsletter featuring Black creators.
#paid employees are able to utilize their paid personal days each year for volunteering or community service. We will identify and organize opportunities for #paid team members to participate in these initiatives within our local Black community.
We are proud partners of BPTN, the largest Black tech community in Canada. We will continue our support here, and utilize our partnership to make sure we bring in more Black tech talent. As part of this commitment, we will continue to improve our hiring, training, and promotion processes so the percentage of Black employees mirror or exceed Black representation in our local community in Toronto. We want to make sure we have representation across every level of the company and have more work to do here.
Finally, to support those who are pushing for reform, and the Black community, we have made donations to NAACP Legal Fund and BLM Toronto. We will also match any employee donations to organizations fighting systemic racism and racial injustice, up to a total of an additional $5,000.
We are also publishing our internal Resource Guide below in case this is helpful to anyone on the journey of learning and educating themselves.
We’re always open to feedback and we are here to listen; feel free to reach out at hello@hashtagpaid.com if you want to chat about Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at #paid.
This is a defining and pivotal moment that can drive real change towards racial equality. We are committed to doing the work, educating ourselves, listening, being allies, and making a difference.
Sincerely,
Bryan Gold
Co-founder & CEO, #paid
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Books to Read (or listen to on audible!)
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis
Netflix Docs You Can Watch
13th by Ava DuVernay
Time: The Khalif Browder Story
Just Mercy
Dear White People by Justin Simien
See You Yesterday by Stefon Bristol
American Son by Kenny Leon
When They See Us by Ava DuVernay
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich - this isn’t directly informative of the BLM movement, but gives a view into the corruption on the US justice system & how his position of power whiteness compares to the current situation
IG Accounts You Can Check Out
Posts to Educate
10 Simple Ways to Fight Everyday Racism
Structural Racism vs Individual Racism
Twitter Thread: Advice for Companies from Sheree Atcheson
Knowing & understanding allyship
Where You Donate Your $ for Change
GoFundMe for Regis Korchinski-Paquet
Communities Against Police Brutality
ActBlue (anti-voter suppression)
Petitions to Sign
Resources to support
Black Lives Matter
Self-education on anti-racism first. Learn about the many different walks of life and lived experiences. This won't be easy and it's a journey. Sit with the discomfort that comes with that. Here’s a crowdsourced collection you can check out.
Be kind and be present: to those in your life who need a listening ear. Just listening to their lived experience and giving it space is so powerful. You don't need to have all the answers. Check in on them and how they are managing at this time. Try to not burden them with educating you first.
Create space: not everyone has the capacity to be in this dialogue right now. It can be so emotionally exhausting. Remember to respect that.
Elevate the work of underrepresented voices: if you genuinely care to do so, elevate their work (share their voices on social media, write to your respective authorities, etc.).
[source: VenaSolutions]
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