Advice for the First George Floyd Anniversary: Communicate Authentically and with Purpose

The one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s killing occurs three weeks from today (May 25, 2021). In anticipation, communicators are pondering several scenarios. Below is a paraphrased collection of some we heard:

‘Should my company, which responded with social media support for Floyd and #BLM one year ago, mark the anniversary date? If so, what should we say or do?’
‘We want to mark the anniversary, sure, but we also want to communicate our continuing DEI commitment. Since last summer we’ve published diversity goals and released data about our journey. We’ve added diverse board members, leaders and employees and appointed a head of DEI. We think we’ve done a lot, but we want to communicate authentically and without seeming opportunistic. How do we do it?’

Certainly, there are other questions.

‘Our company was vocal last summer and we sent a large check to a social justice organization in June. But we’ve not done much since then to reform our hiring practices.