By Hari Bapuji & Frank de Bakker

The Black History Month being celebrated now in North America is particularly noteworthy not only because of the recent Black Lives Matter movement, but also the efforts being made by management academia to recognize racial injustices. For example, Gender, Work & Organization has curated Black History Month Collection – a set of free-access articles that address Black experiences for us to read, reflect, discuss and initiate actions to create an anti-racist academia and society. Recently, Organization has recommitted to racial justice and committed to focus on anti-Black racism and support Black academics. A special issue on racial justice and business ethics has been announced by Journal of Business Ethics. The SIM Racial Justice Committee began a conversation on race and identity in the business academia. These are just a few examples, but certainly there will be many such initiatives in the future.

At Business & Society, the Black History Month provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the scholarship that we published and what more we can do. Looking back, the earliest article was a 1965 editorial by Harvey Bunke, written in the wake of the US Civil Rights Act, asking: For what is the benefit of the law if hearts are hard and minds are closed? True to the journal’s focus on the interdependence between business and society, the editorial argued that it is the moral duty of the businesses and societies to go beyond the legislation and work for true equality of people, irrespective of their ethnicity. The generous use of certain terms and gender-specific pronouns throughout the article point to the norms prevailing then, and serve as a useful reminder of the progress we made and the long journey ahead for true equality of people, irrespective of their demographic characteristics.

A special issue dedicated to the memory and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was published in 2008. This special issue, guest edited by Jeanne Logsdon and Audrey Murrell, included an editorial, three articles, and a book review, in which the authors engaged with the writings, speeches, and impact of Dr. King’s work to inform business and society scholarship. The guest editorial itself highlighted the themes of global poverty, social sustainability, stakeholder responsibility, and social change in Dr. King’s work. The three articles focused on lessons for leadership, employee engagement, and the persistent social isolation and segregation faced by Black people. The book review was also focused on diversity, which highlighted Dr. King’s broad perspective to include all groups in the “beloved community.”

The special issue in 2008 was followed by a special forum in 2011 on reform efforts in South Africa, which included two articles. One discussed the implications of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation in South Africa to CSR, while the other was focused on corporate governance reform in South Africa. In 2018, the journal published a special issue focused on Africa in 2018, guest edited by Ans Kolk and Miguel Rivera-Santos. This special issue included research on CSR and social entrepreneurship in Africa.

The quick overview provided above helps to take stock of the steps Business & Society took to engage with issues of race and racial justice. This is a useful starting point for us to think about the steps we need to take as a scholarly community to recognize, celebrate, and facilitate the achievements of Black people and to push harder for inclusion. And, also to use this moment to think about the oppressed and marginalized groups in other contexts to consider how we can address issues of inequality and inclusion in our research and practice. As a community of scholars, this requires us to engage in difficult discussions on purpose, impact, and the means to achieve them. As a journal, this includes efforts to broaden our editorial boards to include more perspectives and backgrounds, to offer paper development workshops and mentoring projects, and to support and stimulate research beyond our regular institutionalized (Western) norms and structures that prevent wider systemic change; all this while navigating the demands for high quality research and, of course, challenging our notions of what high quality research means. We are interested to hear your thoughts on the role journals, institutions, and individual researchers can play here.