Dropbox Year 1--Truth and Reconciliation

I'll talk more about our team's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work over the past year in my next posts, but I'd like to start some of the work we have done recently.

With the attention given the extrajudicial killing of Black Americans, we like many other organizations increased our level of engagement on issues of race and ethnicity in the US. However it was very important to my team and to Dropbox that we engage on a long term meaningful journey--and not just engage in crisis response and communications. The result is a multidimensional six month series called Truth and Reconciliation. We chose this title as a reference to the process that took place post Apartheid in South Africa which consisted of two important elements: (1) acknowledging explicitly the human rights violations which had occurred, and (2) a process for restorative justice.

We had a concept, but knew we could not create and curate this alone. We enlisted the help of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, and Dr. Keith Leonard of American University. Together, we crafted a six part series that will focus on the past, present and future of Black America in five areas:

• Policing
• Economics and Education
• Health Care
• Legislation and Policy
• Resistance

We have an amazing set of experiences including University professors, poets, artists, chefs and others who on a weekly basis will help us understand topics like the incarceration of Blacks, the debate on de-funding the police, food deserts, redlining, health care disparities, and many others. In fact, as we have reached out to different speakers, the response has been overwhelming--they have never experienced a company taking such a profound approach to the education of its employees on such a challenging topic.

We are recording each one of the events, and also have specific follow up toolkits and resources that people have for continued education, as well as avenues to take action if they desire. This will culminate in a set of events in December focused on influencing what is immediately in my reach, as well as larger opportunities--which is restorative justice.

At our kickoff event last week, we had great turnout as well as many others who viewed it recorded. And we are leveraging Dropbox's annual Hackweek this week to enlist a global team from multiple business units to help us think of new ways to grow attendance, engagement, and create forums for deeper discussions. I'll share more about the events as we roll them out. Today we get to hear from Dr. Keisha Blain, author of Set the World on Fire--Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom.