by Jessica M. Sanchez, HR Business Partner, People & Culture

The pandemic has brought about many changes to our world; globally, how we recover and what will be “normal” to society has forever changed. Every day in our own lives, we see and feel the effects constantly. This period has also brought along positive changes in how we support one another within our communities, bringing attention to hardships long overdue to be addressed, and forcing us to take a good hard look in the mirror and make changes that benefit the greater good.

As a company, we have evolved through these circumstances, making changes, and further embracing our culture to highlight the diverse groups that make MCI USA… well, MCI USA. Early this year we introduced the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiative to the MCI USA platform. We began with a channel on Teams (if you are not following please do), then asked for your insights via an anonymous survey.

Since then, we have released the full survey results to all talents to review, with the hopes these results will further spark conversations. More recently, we have held focus groups to hear experiences and discuss opinions on our stance of what DE&I should look and feel like within MCI USA. A big thank you to all who have participated. Our next steps are to form a DE&I committee to then execute the initiatives and further facilitate group conversations open to all MCI USA talents.  More information to come on the committee and how you can participate in the coming months.

As we continue to develop our program here a few things you can do to join the conversation and help build our community:

Movies/Documentaries/Videos

13th
American Son
Dave Chappelle’s commentary, “8:46” on YouTube
America to Me (originally aired on Starz)

Books

White Fragility
How to Be an Anti-Racist
We Were Eight Years in Power
An American Marriage
Are Prisons Obsolete, by Angela Davis
The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson
They Were Her Property, by Stephanie Jones-Rogers
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
So You Want to Talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X Kendi
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram K. Kendi
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Articles

This article on Colin Kaepernick

For Children:

How White Parents Can Talk to Their Kids About Race (NPR)
What is Juneteenth? (PBS)
Juneteenth: 4 Books To Use With Your Students (The Educator’s Room)

Podcasts

Yo, Is This Racist?
About Race
Urban View (on Sirius XM)

Organizations to Follow/Support (follow on social media, subscribe to newsletters, support financially or through volunteering, etc.)

Equal Justice Initiative
Black Lives Matter
Grassroots Law Project
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
The Bail Project
KC Bail Fund
Chicago Community Bail Fund
Until Freedom
REFORM Alliance
Huffpost Black Voices

Individuals to Follow/Support (social media, TED Talks, podcasts, literature, etc.)

Shaun King
Kyla J. Lacey
Tamika D. Mallory
Tabitha Brown
Ibram X. Kendi
Van Jones
Emmanuel Acho
Tressie McMillan Cottom
Karen Attiah
Michael Harriot
Jamelle Bouie
Heather McGhee

 

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