As we head into the weekend there will be thousands of Cinco de Mayo celebrations around the country…and when I say country I mean the United States, not Mexico. Because as you can read here, here and here, it is not Mexican Independence Day and not as big a holiday in Mexico. Cassandra Jaramillo wrote this about how activists encouraged Cinco de Mayo to celebrate culture. Marketing, primarily by beer companies, is why the holiday is what it is today. Companies spend millions, and so do consumers, but you have to be careful to not be offensive, as MSNBC, Golin, GMA and many others have learned. Some Latinos dread the Holiday because of the stereotypes. Many of us can relate to this tweet from Laura Martinez.
If you need more backup on why diversity matters, read this from Big Think titled “Diversity is more than a box to tick. It’s a smart business strategy.” Late last month Uber released its diversity report. This week the 2018 DiversityInc Top Companies for Diversity was released – the top three companies are Johnson & Johnson, Marriott International and AT&T.
This week we also saw the Boy Scouts drop “Boys” from its name and it is now being called “Scouts BSA” as they prepare to welcome girls. The Girl Scouts responded by saying they’ll remain the first choice for girls.
Some of the other stories I followed this week include this great read from Remezcla titled “How to Make it in Journalism,” this from MediaPost about what language to use for B2B marketing and the frustration from black lawmakers for the lack of diversity in tech.
This is one of my favorite “feel good stories” of the week, the two men arrested at Starbucks settled with the City of Philadelphia for $1 each and a commitment to create a $200,000 fund for young entrepreneurs. As CNN says here, they are paying it forward.
ICYMI – if you want to see Black Twitter in action, look up the #IfSlaveryWereAChoice hashtag and read more here.
Photo by Cesira Alvarado on Unsplash
Let's Dance 