World Market’s Post

✊🏾 JUNETEENTH ✊🏾 Employers, are you giving your employees the day off and not educating them on the importance of Juneteenth? Bad move. Needs ideas of what actions you can take in your org to honor today (and everyday BTW): ✏️ Employee training: Anti-Racism, Micro Aggressions in the workplace ✏️ Talk about the outcomes and impact of DEIB efforts in your business ✏️ Host a Juneteenth celebration in the office and use local Black vendors. A little late for this option but a great idea for next year. Actually, you can hire more local vendors of color for any event you have. ✏️ Internal and external comms. Late to this party too? Use this amazing resource from Stefanie Fackrell (she/her) as a baseline: https://lnkd.in/gnsNqmkr If you missed any of these opportunities in your org, do better. Someone should own a calendar of cultural / ERG events and have comms planned for the rest of the year that have been reviewed and approved by Leadership. Don't have a plan, running lean in HR, or need extra hands to help out? Let's talk: www.herhrhelpdesk.co

*Anyone* working with data should have a basic understanding of at least one piece of graphic design software that you can use to quick-check data viz when you notice anomalies. Why? Mistakes are a part of life, and grace should be given. Even so - understanding doesn't always have time to wait for perfect revision! For instance, I just used The Inkscape Project to re-size the bars (see comment) in this viz posted by MIT Sloan School of Management. I measured the length of the left half of the axis from 0 to -0.03, and found the distance was ~ 33% longer than on the right half of the axis from 0 to +0.03. A few clicks later, and I had created right-side bars that were 33% longer, scaled to the left-side measurement. Even if not totally precise, the story I see looks a *lot* different.

Celebrate 314 Day!! It’s time to celebrate our day, our way, St. Louis! 314 Day celebrations, specials and events are underway all week long across the metro and there's something for everyone. For a complete list, visit www.TheSTL.com/314Day and show your local love.    St. Louis' Gateway Arch Saw 2.4 Million Visitors in 2023 The @GatewayArchSTL had 2.4M visitors in 2023 – its highest number since 2012. New data shows that, for every one visitor to the visitors' center, another is on the grounds. More: https://lnkd.in/ge4T93q5 #stlmade   Washington University says it contributed $8.8B to local economy last fiscal year #stlmade @WUSTL recently announced that its direct and indirect contributions to the St. Louis economy totaled $8.8 billion in fiscal 2023 and it supported more than 54K total jobs in the region. More: https://lnkd.in/gQ_gR4iG

Today is a great day for curiosity! As I scrolled past my fourth Instagram Story this morning that talked about being glad for having the day off today and not acknowledging *why* it's an American Federal holiday, I sighed deeply. Sure, a lot of our Federal holidays are rote. We grew up with them. We associate President's Day with mattress sales more than presidents, and Labor Day is more about end of summer festivals than recognizing the hard won fruits of the labor movement. But this one is new, y'all. Everyone in a job right now was alive when Juneteenth was declared as a holiday - because it happened in the year of our Lord 2021. So, like I said, today is a great day for curiosity. Juneteenth commemorates that on June 19, 1865, the final slaves were freed under the Emancipation Proclamation. Even though slavery had been declared illegal in the Union in 1863, it didn't count in Confederate held territories. So on this day, 159 years ago, Union soldiers rode into Galveston Bay and informed the 250k enslaved persons that they were, in fact, free. I cannot even begin to *fathom* that moment. Some of us have a day off and some don't, but all of us can commemorate the day. We can learn more about Juneteenth to start, about how the celebrations have evolved in the last century or so. We can find a local organization that supports education for Black children, or fights slavery on a global scale. We can check out any local events, and maybe even volunteer to organize one. Whatever you do, if you're under this blasted heat dome, please don't do it outside. Happy Juneteenth, everyone. May it be a reminder every year that just because something is over, it does not mean that it's finished. #juneteenth #juneteenthcelebration #burnoutladies #thegooddoctors #curiositymatters #curiosityinbusiness

It was about 4 years ago that I first Founded and Directed the critically acclaimed LA-Times Featured #WeStillGottaEat Initiative, a global food justice project interrupting health disparities through culinary nutrition and healing, starting right here in my hometown of Los Angeles. Though there is an estimated 2-3 million Black residents in Los Angeles (8-12% of the population) Black residents account for almost 50% of the hungry or homeless population in Los Angeles. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of Black residents in LA still struggle with hunger and have little to no access to healthy food due to food apartheids throughout LA County in which, due to gentrification, racism in urban design, lack of municipal investment & community development, and lack of green space, land, and groceries stores through intentional design; entire neighborhoods are deemed unworthy of having access to healthy, whole foods. Additionally, mental and emotional health challenges, disabilities, & other health disparities within Black communities (that are informed by structural racism and injustice), create barriers for families and individuals to even prepare healthy meals for themselves/ourselves. These discriminatory practices deeply undermine food sovereignty efforts and strip Black communities, particularly in South LA, of access to fresh, healthy, organic produce and foods which exacerbates health inequities that already exist. Furthermore, in South LA specifically, there are over 1.3 million residents and just 60 grocery stores, many of which have a small or non-existent organic or quality produce section. Additionally, due to centuries of economic injustice and wage theft including forced enslavement, Jim Crow, segregation, and more currently, wage inequality (ie: Black women earn $0.61 to every $1 a white man is paid), many Black communities have low levels of disposable income, as well as limited access to transportation to and from the stores, if there even is one in their/our community. This is why I launched #WeStillGottaEat, a comprehensive, multi-dimensional program which offers FREE high vibration, deeply lovingly made, artisan-style, mostly-organic, chef-quality, farm fresh meals + food items to Black residents (including individuals, families, children, and elders) in LA in order to receive nourishment and healing. Through this work we were able to establish dozens of professional community partnership (including small business and larger corporations) and hundreds of individual community volunteers to galvanize resources for those in need and serve 50,000 families.

Today marks the 159th anniversary of #Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, news of emancipation finally reached Galveston, Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This day celebrates the freedom, resilience, and rich history and culture of Black Americans. Fourth Economy is closed in observance of the holiday today. Who Celebrates Juneteenth (as a paid holiday)? 💭 Early evidence suggests that Black workers hold jobs that are less likely to offer paid holiday benefits for Juneteenth – “Black Independence Day” – compared to the rest of the workforce. While paid holiday benefits are guaranteed for all federal and postal workers, the other 98.4% of the workforce does not benefit equally from the Juneteenth holiday. State governments and private employers have varying levels of recognizing the holiday, and Black workers in private companies are less likely to hold jobs with paid holiday leave benefits. This is significant because it reveals how our economic system continues to disproportionately serve the interests of white Americans. Our analysis finds that Juneteenth offers more paid benefits to white workers than Black workers. This data reveals larger trends that call us to do significantly more than offer a day off for Juneteenth, but use this time to advocate for systemic changes to recognize the debt owed to Black workers and the Black community at large. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gc4DQJ2H

This posting from my alma mater - viz.,The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) - fits nicely with my BBC News piece I posted earlier today, with commentary. That commentary on the “suffragettes movement” equally applies to this one. The overarching theme is that there are certain movements that are just not passing fads. ESG is, and just happens to be (i.e., just like the “suffragettes movement “), one of them, despite the inevitable ebbs-and-flows it is & will undergo.

Originally established nationally in 1885 to recognize George Washington, #PresidentsDay was inaugurated as a static holiday in 1971. That’s when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, passed in 1968, went into effect. Goals of this legislation included: • Shifting some federal holidays from specific dates to predetermined Mondays • Creating more three-day weekends for American workers Some states still celebrate individual presidents’ birthdays, but Presidents' Day is widely viewed as a celebration all presidents—past and present. Happy #PresidentsDay! 🇺🇸 Source: History.com, Time.com

Happy Juneteenth everyone! Today we celebrate, June 19, 1865, the day that Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free. Only declared a federal holiday three years ago - but none the less, I am grateful for the holiday to reflect, learn, and celebrate Black culture. Below I have linked to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History & Culture, if you want to learn a little bit- I particularly enjoyed the digital tool kit :) This got me thinking about what's my part. How can I be apart of celebrating the holiday, but also paying homage to the horrific actions of the past ? One of the ways that I work to break down barriers that continue to exist in preventing the socioeconomic ability to break generational cycles of poverty, as a result of racially fueled policy since the early days of this country is through improved and enhanced transportation. Breaking down barriers between communities through created and enhanced transportation systems, simply put, gets people where they need to go when they need to get there. That means access to school, employment, family -whatever you need it to be. Working to further conversations and implementation for / around transit initiatives, means we can provide enhanced access to economically stressed communities and cities - which we know POC tend to be among those usually the most impacted in these areas. So today, I hope that everyone can take a moment and think about what lies within your passions that help you to break barriers and create change? And if you aren't sure, join along and ALWAYS support transit initiatives 🙂 #juneteenth #breakingbarriers #strongcommunities #createchange #transportation #mobility #bethechange #economicdevelopment

Why is Juneteenth not widely taught? Juneteenth limited presence in educational curriculum may stem from historical oversight and the gradual recognition of its significance. Efforts to include it more broadly are growing, reflecting a deeper understanding of its importance in American history. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19th of every year and is profoundly significant in American history. It commemorates the day the last slaves were freed, marking an effective end to slavery in the United States. It's a celebration of freedom and a pivotal movement in nation's history. In 2023, at least 28 states And the district of Columbia legally recognized Juneteenth as a public holiday. This means that state government offices are closed and state workers have a pay day off. Connecticut, Minnesota, Nevada, and Tennessee have newly made Juneteenth a public holiday at the state level this year. Additionally, other states give certain government workers the day off without officially declaring Juneteenth as a holiday. For instance, California State employees can choose to take Juneteenth off in lieu of a personal day and in Pennsylvania, it's designated as an "official annual observance" with a paid day off for State employees. Juneteenth has become a federal holiday in 2021! This is a PROUD historical happening! #juneteenth