Nativa Doing More to Support the Black Community

At Nativa, we have always prided ourselves on being culturally diverse. Our team of marketing professionals come from different backgrounds, speak multiple languages, and many on the team have been born or fully immersed in other countries and cultures. But, thinking deeper, are we doing enough to support the black community?

Today, we feel compelled to speak up and support the black community, work to abolish social injustice, and join the fight for equality. Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, we have been learning and thinking about what we as a company can do better to support the black communities we are a part of. We do not want to simply be vocal, but show the measures we are taking as a small company with very big goals towards being a part of the change. We commit to doing more and to bring more opportunities to the black community.

After discussing internally with our team, below are the first 4 tangible steps that we are implementing at Nativa and our sister companies O.Y.E and RockinPost.

1. Internship Program outreach to Black Student Associations 

   Nativa has continuously run an internship program at Arizona State (ASU), Ohio State (OSU), and several other schools since 2009. However, upon reviewing our past records, out of over 50 interns placed, Nativa has only had one black intern. This in part was due to a past preference for the ability to speak Spanish. Over the past few years, however, we have removed this requirement as our agency work has become more multicultural, and less focused on solely the Hispanic audience. Due to this, we are immediately taking actions to proactively recruit black students in the states we have offices. We are committed to reaching out to black student unions and began our outreach to both the Black African Coalition at ASU and the Black Student Association at OSU to provide opportunities for black students in our internship programs.

2. Vendor Goals of 20% Spending with Black-owned BusinessesNativa and sister companies are setting a minimum goal of 20% of purchasing dollars to be spent with black-owned businesses nationwide. Too many of our dollars are going to Walmart, Amazon, and other large companies. We know we can do more in this area by proactively sourcing black vendors from organizations included in the Official Black Wallstreet directory for our company needs in office supplies, printing, logistics, and more.

3. Update African American Terminology
   
   Our sister company, O.Y.E. Intelligence software, categorizes conversation from online sources based on ethnicity so that our clients can make informed decisions on how to communicate with hard-to-reach audiences. O.Y.E. software currently uses the term African American for any conversation shared by a black person who resides in the United States. We have learned from our research that some members of the black community do not prefer the term African American as they were born in the U.S. and may not feel they have a connection to Africa, the continent. We listen intently to these perspectives and want to improve our communications strategies to be more inclusive. Due to this, we are currently researching the best way to refer to the black community in our reports and will update this by July 31, 2020.

4. Influencer Marketing Goals 

   As a service, Nativa works with brands to facilitate influencer relationships with the multicultural audience nationwide. After reviewing our internal directory of over 50,000 influencers, we find that we are working with fewer than 10% black influencers. To rectify this, we are setting a goal that we will partner with our clients to ensure we are being more inclusive and that 20% of our future influencers will come from the black community. 

More to do to Support the Black Community

Definitely, these times of civil unrest are a wake-up call to us at Nativa and the entire world. We want to do more to be part of the solution. With our sister company O.Y.E., we prepared a report to find how multicultural audiences feel about the initiatives of brands supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Download our report for free and learn about the measures large companies such as Netflix and Ben & Jerry’s are taking to be part of the movement.

Thank you for reading our efforts to be part of this important change to increase support to the black community.

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Additionally, our team prepared a list of articles, books, documentaries, and organizations to share with our team and readers because we understand that change can only be done as a collective and we all need to learn together.

Articles:

4. 4. 1. Why People of Color Need Space Without White People by Kelsey Blackwell.
      2. Latino Responsibility in the Black Lives Matter Movement by HipLatina.
      3. Afrodescendiente o Negra by Afrofeminas (Spanish).
      4. Tracking Brands’ Responses to Racial Injustice by Adweek.
      5. We must dismantle white supremacy by Ben and Jerry’s.
      6. The Queer Black History Of Rioting by Refinery29.
      7. How Brands are Supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement by Nativa.

Books:

4. 4. 1. So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo
      2. White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
      3. Why I’m not talking to white people about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
      4. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis

Documentaries and Series on Netflix:

4. 4. 1. Time: The Kalief Browder Story
      2. 13th
      3. When They See Us
      4. Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap
      5. Dear White People
      6. Who Killed Malcolm X?

Organization and petitions:

4. 1. Black Lives Matter
   2. Change.org
   3. BLM Phoenix Metro
   4. Poder in Action 
   5. Mass Liberation AZ