Yelp Celebrates Black History Month

For Black History Month this year, we wanted to celebrate, educate, and spark discussions across Yelp. From highlighting employees to featuring local Black-owned businesses to honoring the impact African Americans have made in history, we planned events and made materials to spread the celebration to all our offices.

Yelp’s Engagement, Diversity and Belonging team strives to facilitate discussions that expose employees to new ideas and perspectives. In February, we turned the conversation toward history by broadcasting Black History Month slides in our cafes and buildings, which featured profiles of historic and current leaders in the Black community, facts on Black economic and social power (infographic here), and Black-owned businesses to visit near each office (Phoenix flyer here).

One of the most exciting parts of this year’s campaign was a new Black History Month booklet spotlighting employees across Yelp. Employees in every office had a chance to see in print some of our Black and African American employees, their roles in the company, and the books and mottos that keep them inspired. Online, we published profiles of more of our Black and African American employees on our @YelpCareers Instagram. We loved hearing their reflections on their identities and stories–check them out and send some love if you haven’t already!

Per usual, our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) stole the show. Each office’s ERG hosted their own set of events that celebrated different facets of the Black community. Our Chicago office empowered their local business owners and marketers with a branding symposium, and New York hosted Anthony Beckford from Black Lives Matter for a Fireside Chat. Our Phoenix folks welcomed a panel of Black and African American business owners to share their journeys in building their businesses, while in San Francisco, a “BHM Bash” featured music, headwrap tutorials, and dance performances from Black and African American leaders in the community. We’re happy to say that these were only a few of the highlights from the many events our ERGs hosted to celebrate the month.

Supporting Black-owned businesses and celebrating members of the community should be year-round activities, and our hope after February is we’ve got Yelpers off to a good start. Before February ends though, we’d like to celebrate everyone who made Black History Month happen at Yelp–this awesome effort is one more example of how we can all work together to make Yelp a place where everyone belongs.

We hope everyone had an incredible Black History Month, and we leave you with some Toni Morrison words to live by everyday…

“Make a difference about something other than yourselves.”