Sabatigo can't wait for its racial-justice work to kick into high gear in Paris and Berlin. And how are excited are we that Doyin Richards (Doeween), corporate social-responsibility and racial justice guru to the C-Suite--leading our charge? Very!
Doyin's fight to end racism is a daily fact-of-life that drives his successful consultancy, The Anti-Racism Fight Club. His website tracks each hour of training Doyin provides to top-talent clients nationally, and the hours have mounted quickly as he Zooms from boardroom to boardroom. 3,400 hours and counting as of late March 2021, and much of this work has been done in the compressed time since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Between constant keynotes and a jam-packed suite of Fight Club engagements, Doyin did find the time recently to grace the TedX stage to rave reviews. His rising star leaves Doyin pleased but reflective:
It's a bad news that business is booming for my Fight Club work, because it reminds me that racism is such a topical problem in business and society everywhere. The other side of that is the good news. We've used the club to build 5,370 anti-racists in a world that's not going to be great until it gets good and fair first.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Race
Counting Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Cisco as just some of his corporate clients, Doyin has made a massive name for himself with his racial-justice work among the Fortune 500. Doyin says one of his biggest passions is seeing corporations step-up and walk toward social responsibility. As a Black man whose father emigrated to the US and went on to achieve great success as a professor despite having had an arduous journey, Doyin is far from naive about how quickly or fully progress happens in the world of business. From working to help get more people of color on corporate boards to insuring that powerful leaders of diversity and inclusivity get the platforms they need to succeed, Doyin advocates tirelessly for businesses to see the bottom line will get better when racism gets stared down and banished:
Let’s face it — racism is as American as apple pie and baseball. Overt racism is becoming normalized, systemic racism runs unchecked in our workplaces, and racial micro-aggressions in our communities are just the tip of the iceberg. Racism crushes the mental health of millions of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), it negatively impacts the productivity and profitability of companies across America, and it has been a permanent stain on American history since before the ink was dry on the Declaration of Independence.
Beyond the C-Suite: On Message with Children and the Family
For Doyin, the C-suite and top-talent managers are just one major attack point for the Fight Club. Another is through his educational programming for children. From the Today Show to the books he has written on fatherhood, Doyin has emerged as a highly effective and charismatic spokesman on how we can root-out racism within our own family environments. His success with his approach has top child psychologists onboard, not to mention the parents who flock to his resonating message of support, honesty and inclusivity.
Doyin's Wonder-Walks
Team Sabatigo is excited to have Doyin and his message of corporate social responsibility at the heart of our beta-test journey in November, 2021. When he comes to Paris and then Berlin as one of Sabatigo's Disruption Guides, Doyin will be experiencing his very first journey to Europe. In Paris, we are developing 2 bespoke Wonder-Walks to situate Doyin's debut abroad within the framework of his Fight Club mission. On one walk, Doyin and our perspective team will explore the French experience of race as seen through the lens of Josephine Baker and James Baldwin--two Americans who fled racism in our own country to feel freedom and creativity finally in France.
From tiny cafes and dusty old hotels, Doyin will help us "walk where they walked" and follow what it meant to have been atop the very pinnacle of fame as black Americans abroad, when coming home to the USA meant returning to the venomous hatred of Jim Crow. On another Wonder-Walk, we'll explore with Doyin where race lives today as a European reality in business, politics and art.
Doyin usually does a powerful keynote address or shoots a segment for The Today Show and then moves on to his next round of action against racism. It's exciting for him to anticipate Sabatigo's format. He'll have two weeks with our travelers and his fellow Disruptor Guides, not just for our iconic Wonder-Walks but also to do the small-group sessions he loves so well. Meanwhile, from cafe tables to gala events in both Paris and Berlin, Doyin will find new force, new allies and new ground to gain for the vital work he needs all of us to engage with in the fight against racism. As he also does what all Sabatigoers do: take his own mindful and intentional steps to recharge his energy and reboot his passion.
We can't wait for the disruption to begin.
