Black History Month 2022 at TextNow

It’s Black History Month, and TextNow is celebrating! We know what you're thinking, another company celebrating a certain identity during its designated month. But that's not us!

At TextNow, we don't just change our profile picture on social media and go back to business as usual. Our People and Culture team builds thoughtful programs to celebrate our unique identities year-round, meant to promote discussion, empathy, and introspection, share community stories, and ensure that every TextNovian can bring their full selves to work.

We'll be kicking off Black History Month with a small group discussion that we like to call mEDIa Conversations: short 30-minute chats with TextNovians about specific topics related to EDI and media in a fun and relaxed environment, that allow us to discuss topics that can sometimes make folx feel nervous if they are inexperienced in that identity.

On February 3rd we will be hosting a live discussion for all TextNovians to join in and speak or listen about representation of black experiences in media. Our goals from this event are to learn a brief history of black representation in media, critically think through how stereotypes influence our perceptions of folx and learn about the influence of Black filmmakers and artists.

As we continue the month, we will have the amazing Chet Sisk in to present The Future of Looking Out For Each Other: DEI and The Immediate Future of Work.

‍In this virtual all-hands event, Chet will help us understand the connections between leadership, growth and EDI, what the future of EDI looks like, how we can all work together to reach EDI goals, and why that matters.

Chet is a futurist, author, and visionary. His focus is on developing organizations and individuals that can thrive and succeed in a time of massive change affected by climate change, technological evolution, and social/political disruption. Chet has spoken on these subjects at the United Nations in 2015 and 2017. He has presented in almost 30 different countries, including South Africa, Albania, Malaysia, Nigeria, The Netherlands and Bahrain. He’s written several books on personal and corporate change, he was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa and considers popcorn one of the important food groups.

Lastly, throughout the month we are encouraging all TextNovians to take a virtual tour through The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History. The Smithsonian provides a free in-depth journey through the history of slavery and freedom, based on the Museum’s permanent exhibition. Try it out!

At TextNow we strive to ensure everyone is seen, heard, and valued. Through consistent education and programming, we hope these events and the events we hold year-round will continue to create a culture where all TextNovians show up authentically!

Our People and Culture Team works to have these discussions year-round. If you're interested in looking at our list of events for the year, hang tight and keep tabs on our blog for the release!

If this sounds like a place you'd want to work at, check out our careers page!