Raising Awareness on Racial Justice and Equality with the Black Lives Matter Handbook
Co-Authored by Janani Subhashini Umamaheswaran & Sanaea Kakalia of VMware Design Team.
While racial discrimination and white supremacy are known to be systemic issues, recently, the world has taken notice. The Black Lives Matter movement took center stage in the summer of 2020. It made its way to dinner table conversations, news channels, and social media.
At VMware, we saw an opportunity to educate ourselves and build a more inclusive environment for our colleagues — people of all backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities.
How it all began
We decided to share this work publicly because not so long ago, we did not know where to start. We saw how it affected the people around us, the people we cared deeply for: like our colleagues at work and friends at home. There was some trepidation on our part — what do we really know about this issue, is it even our place to talk, or what if we say the wrong thing? But once we began, this initiative gained momentum within our design organization and even outside of it. When friends at other companies saw the BLM handbook, they began asking how they could also do something similar.
Standing in solidarity
VMware was vital in setting the tone for this project. From the very beginning, VMware executives were vocal in their support of this movement and have been encouraging employees to practice allyship through the Black@VMware allies initiative. Internally, VMware created a campaign on its intranet using the hashtag #wehearyou. The goal was to support our Black colleagues and find ways to create more equality in and beyond the workplace. VMware also donated to social justice organizations and matched employee donations.
“We cannot change our world overnight, but we can support and care for each other and stand up for what we know to be right and just.” — Betsy Sutter, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, VMware.
As a design organization, we have also been supporting this movement and align with VMware’s stance. VMware Design values the power that diversity brings to the table. Different cultures and perspectives on the design team empower us to solve problems in an inclusive way. Even with this foundation, there is always more we can learn and do to create a more inclusive environment.
The Black Lives Matter Handbook
We were all experiencing a surge in the amount of racial justice information. Most people were interested in helping the cause and wanted to make a difference. These same people were also lost in a sea of information and weren’t sure where to start.
Individuals on the design team saw this movement as an opportunity to take action and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Our design leadership graced us with the freedom to use this educational opportunity however we saw fit. More importantly, our design leadership was vocal in their support. When we pitched this idea to our design leadership, not only did they encourage us to run with this, but we were also given complete autonomy and freedom to shape this initiative as we saw fit.
After much consideration and consultation with the Black@VMware POD and the design team, we developed a newsletter called the Black Lives Matter Handbook. Each edition of this handbook would be curated by a different designer and emailed to our entire design organization on a bi-weekly basis.
We wanted to exemplify how easy it was to take a few minutes out of each day to fight towards racial justice for the Black community. We wanted to empower every designer to act. To do this, we broke down the mass of information into small, consumable chunks with clear actionables.
What goes into the BLM Handbook
Every individual has their own preferred method of consumption and activism. We wanted to account for this need from the get-go. We targeted a variety of content: articles, podcasts, movies, videos, and books — to name a few. We provided campaigns to support and organizations to donate to, and covered topics ranging from inclusivity in the workplace to lessons you can teach your kids. Providing these multiple avenues helped showcase how activism can take many forms, and that we each have the power to make a difference in our own way.
We also saw this as an opportunity to educate people on intersectionality: difficulties faced by people experiencing multiple forms of exclusion. For example, in the words of Senator Patty Murray, too many people with disabilities still face significant challenges accessing the supports, services, and accommodations they need to live their daily lives. These challenges disproportionately impact Black people with disabilities. According to statistics, 1 in 3 people killed by the police have a disability, and Black people are disproportionately more likely to face police violence. These articles help us shed light on how all forms of intersectionality impact the Black Lives Matter movement.
“If you’re standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by both” — Kimberlé Crenshaw
Impact
We were hopeful the handbook would build greater inclusion on our teams, drive positive change beyond our workplace, and ensure accountability. We wanted this handbook and our actions to be a consistent, long-term effort. When it comes to social justice issues, we have seen them gain momentum only to fade from people’s minds shortly after. We intended for this to last beyond the “trend.” With this long-term goal, we hoped activism could become habitual and inclusion a part of designers’ daily lives.
While this may not create global change, it has encouraged individuals in our organization to consistently learn and work towards the movement’s bigger goal. More and more people have been engaging with the newsletter, and we have been asked by product managers and engineers to be added to our distribution list. Our colleagues are also starting to view this as a resource they can lean on throughout the year to consistently learn and educate themselves. The most well-received aspect of this newsletter has been the variety of content we highlight. Here are some anecdotes and testimonials from our colleagues:
“This is brilliant. Really loved the spotlight on accessibility.”
“This is only my 2nd day at VMware and I am so happy to see how active we are about diversity and inclusivity.”
“Just want to say thank you for keeping this up. I enjoy receiving it and reading it and really appreciate you continuing to focus on it.”
Collection 1 of the BLM Handbook
If you’re having trouble viewing, you can also find this on SlideShare here.
Maintaining the Handbook
We first put together a handbook template in Figma, and later converted it into an email template. We do have a few regular contributors, but we encourage any member of the design team to step up and take ownership of an upcoming issue.
Interested in learning more about the template we used for the handbook? Please feel free to reach out to us! :)
Disclaimer
We don’t claim to be experts of any kind on this issue. We see this as an opportunity for learning and growth. If you have suggestions on how to improve this, please let us know in the comments below.
