Cultivating Community: Celebrating Juneteenth and hosting A BLACC Affair with AfroChime

“I grew up in a household where they didn’t give much attention to Black history,” explains Kayla Thompson-Key (she/her/hers), the Events Lead of Chimer Resource Group, AfroChime. “I learned about it in college, where I engrained myself in Black organizations and made friends with many Africana Studies majors. As I started to understand what Juneteenth meant, it changed my perspective — in Black history, we learn about our struggles, but Juneteenth was about celebration. I always appreciate knowing that we get to celebrate something positive for us and that sustained our history.”

Since then, Kayla has shared Juneteenth with her family to ensure they celebrate and acknowledge their history. She also takes time to read something and learn about her own history each year. “Juneteenth is about celebration and education,” she says.

E-Shawn Baxter (he/him/his), the Communications Lead of AfroChime, grew up with a different experience of Juneteenth. “My aunt has always been very Afro-centric — I always go to her with heritage-related questions,” he says. “I didn’t really understand what Juneteenth represented until I got older — now I believe it’s a really meaningful thing to celebrate. I teach my daughter about it, explain why her mom and I aren’t at work, and we always try to find a Juneteenth celebration to attend — like the Durag festival in Charlotte.”

“Juneteenth is a good reminder to celebrate rather than always getting lost in the struggle. Yes, it’s important to acknowledge the struggle, but there’s a big opportunity to celebrate what our ancestors went through and how much we’ve achieved.”

— E-Shawn Baxter

Bringing AfroChimers together in person to celebrate Juneteenth and build community

Last year, 10 members of AfroChime attended AfroTech, the premier tech, investing, and wealth-building platform for the Black community. “It was an amazing experience to meet in person, and we realized we have a really special bond — and wanted to bring that to the rest of AfroChime,” Kayla T. says. “We started a group chat while we were there to stay connected and share which sessions we were attending,” adds E-Shawn. “I hadn’t met anyone else from AfroChime before that — after meeting everyone, it became important to keep that energy alive.”

At first, the team thought there was no way to afford an event to bring AfroChimers together for Juneteenth, but then they became more ambitious about it. They talked to the Diversity, Equity, and Belonging (DEB) team and, leveraging the cross-functional knowledge of AfroChime members, put their minds together and made it happen.

As an Events Lead for AfroChime, Kayla T. was excited about the idea of an event to bring extra energy to AfroChimers. “It’s become really important to me that AfroChimers connect since a lot of our community isn’t in the Bay Area,” she says. “So we decided to create a multi-day summit to celebrate, educate, do community service, and meet everyone’s needs as members of AfroChime.” AfroChime leaders gathered small ideas over time and then surveyed AfroChimers to see what would bring them to the Bay Area.

The importance of community to AfroChime

“I don’t think you realize how important community is until you’re in it,” Kayla T. says. “It became clear that it was essential for us to set up this event for people to experience community‚ and then understand the value of community at work: knowing there are people around who want you to succeed.”

For the event, the team hoped to create a space where people could show up as themselves — because there’s nothing worse than walking into a room and feeling out of place.

“A lot of this event is about letting people show up as themselves and letting them know that work can be a safe and successful space,” Kayla T. says.

“It’s also to help people professionally by letting them know who else from their community is out there for cross-functional work,” E-Shawn adds. “While most of our conversations aren’t even about work, there are tons of work advantages to knowing folks and having that community.”

A BLACC Affair: The events

AfroChime’s work culminated in A BLACC Affair–to Build, Liberate, Amplify, and Celebrate Community.

The summit took place from June 21–23, during which all AfroChime members were invited to visit San Francisco for in-person gatherings and programming, which included:

• A welcome reception for people to meet and get to know each other over breakfast in our San Francisco office
• A panel discussion about being Black in tech featuring Chime’s Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, Erica Johnson (she/her/hers), and Shella Neba (she/her/hers), General Counsel at Gem. It was moderated by AfroChimer Phil Barnett (he/him/his)
• An ice cream social in partnership with Chime Resource Group OutChime
• A volunteer opportunity with At The Crossroads
• Breakout sessions about the Black Chimer and Black Chime Member experiences, aimed at fostering safe and welcoming spaces to brainstorm ways to help both communities
• An event in partnership with Gem for Black folks in tech in the Bay Area
• A night out to explore Oakland with AfroChime lead and Oakland local Phil Barnett

E-Shawn and Kayla T. were most excited about the candid discussions they hoped the panel and breakout sessions would allow. “It’s critical that we provide spaces to feel safe and open discussing our experiences with people who look like us,” Kayla T. says. “There’s a great opportunity for us to share and drive work forward that will improve the culture at work for Chimers and other community members,” adds E-Shawn.

Key takeaways from A BLACC Affair

The summit was a huge success, helping AfroChimers connect with folks they might not otherwise meet in person and build community — an essential part of their personal and professional lives.

When Kayla Staple (she/her/hers), a Systems Optimization Analyst on the Member Strategy and Enablement team, first heard about A BLACC Affair, “Coming to Chime, it’s been so refreshing to see specific Chimer Resource Groups for each community; making room for people to learn and engage in a way I’ve never personally experienced before. There was no question that I wouldn’t be a part of something as momentous as a moment to connect in person with my AfroChime community!”

For Whitney Johnson (she/her/hers), a Program Manager on the Member Strategy and Enablement team, who attended AfroTech last year, there was no doubt she’d be there, either. “Knowing that AfroChimers whom I’d met at AfroTech last year would be there made it feel like I was going to visit family,” she says.

Jaida Howell (she/her/hers), a Product Design Intern, had one main goal going into A BLACC Affair: to build relationships with people. “I was nervous leading up to the various events, but the moment I walked inside, people introduced themselves to me and opened up,” she says. “I realized how important it is to build genuine connections with people — rather than just connecting on LinkedIn. The events provided us with the space to discuss what we do outside of work and the books and music we like. I walked away not just having made connections but with many new friends.”

Jaida also took away the importance of speaking up. “It was nice to hear from others who have also been the only Black person on a team,” she says. “Learning the importance of speaking up even if you are in that position definitely shined through for me, and it warmed my heart to know I’m not alone in that experience.”

In a virtual world where many Chimers are remote, AfroChime has worked hard to foster spaces where its members can connect as a collective. “It’s so important to have these in-person moments with each other. It creates room for us to have more organic conversations and build connections with people we may not work with directly. You miss out on these “feel good” moments when you’re trying to chat virtually or even on Zoom.” Kayla S. shares.

Once she got to the event, Kayla S. loved that the programming included space to talk about her experiences working as an African American in tech, building community at Chime, and a moment to reflect on how her work affects Chime’s members. “As the User Research team shared insightful information about the demographics of its members, it reminded me of why the work we’re all doing on our respective teams is so important to a large percentage of everyday people who are just like us,” she says. “It forever shaped how I will continue to elevate the work I’m doing to help our members and how I can personally and professionally support my fellow AfroChimers.”

Whitney also noticed the group’s passion for Chime members. “AfroChime has a unique perspective because of our connection to and understanding of Chime’s member demographic,” she says. “I loved seeing our group come together and identify areas of improvement and advocate for members — and then come up with solutions to propose.”

A BLACC Affair may have started as a small idea, but its impact was felt across Chime — through AfroChime and beyond. It’s a great example of the impact of building community at work, creating safe and welcoming spaces, and connecting to why we are all here together. “We’re so proud of how the different events turned out and how Chimers showed up for each other,” says E-Shawn. “While we set out to build a community for AfroChimers, the deeper connections that were built and the prevalence of discussions about our members shows that community building not only impacts individuals at Chime, but our members and broader communities, too — a much-celebrated outcome of A BLACC Affair, and a signal to find more reasons to gather soon.”