Introducing Emerald’s Cultural and Diversity Committee

In June of 2020, Emerald made a vow to listen, learn, and lean-in toward topics surrounding human rights, social action and justice. Now more than ever, with increasing instances of Asian-American hate crimes and the recent terrorist attack in Atlanta, Emerald remains committed to be a part of the solution when it comes to racial injustice. To that end, our Cultural and Diversity Committee was formed to facilitate change within our organization and outside of it.

The goal of the committee is to ensure that Emerald is open and inclusive by creating activities that help celebrate diversity and different cultures. Keep reading to find out what the committee’s been up to recently.

Focusing on the experience of our Black travelers

In celebration of Black History Month this February, Emerald’s Cultural and Diversity Committee stepped up to educate the Emerald community, and create a dialogue based on the current and past experiences of Black people in America. To bring this home, they focused on the personal experiences of some of Emerald’s Black travelers, as well as the mental wellbeing of our Black community members.

Cultural and Diversity Committee members Eva Fluker and Natasha Marshall interviewed two of our Black travelers and shared their experiences. These amazing travelers, Curtrelle Rawls and Mitsuzi Stone were able to share insights about their experiences as travelers, what or who inspired them to become nurses, their advice for future travelers and healthcare workers, and who inspires them on a daily basis.

Emerald also teamed up with Dr. Briggs to offer a free Holistic Health workshop series through our Instagram page. These live events took place over a period of three weeks and focused on intentional breathing with mindfulness and slow flow yoga with healing meditation. Participants were encouraged to use these methods as a way of using self-care to heal generational trauma and release anything that no longer served them. Click here to watch on Instagram!

Learning from our history through storytelling

The Cultural and Diversity Committee also made sure to include the internal Emerald team in Black History Month events! They hosted a movie discussion club with the aim of inspiring people to think outside of themselves and their own experiences, while watching real-life inspired stories. The first movie watched was The Help, which is about a young white writer stirring up the status quo in 1960s Mississippi by interviewing Black women who took care of prominent white Southern families.

The second movie watched was 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic detailing the life and struggles of the first Black athlete to play in the Major League Baseball Association. The discussion questions the committee asked people to consider while watching were: Did I learn anything from this movie? Did I relate to any of the characters? Was there a quote that resonated with me?

Only the beginning

This is just the beginning of all the amazing events the Cultural Diversity Committee has planned for #TeamEmerald! Stay tuned throughout the year to see how Emerald continues to celebrate the diversity within our traveler and internal communities.