Photo: Create & Cultivate — **Photo:** Create & Cultivate

Introducing What We’re Reading, a bi-monthly series in which we share the most talked-about links from the Create & Cultivate team Slack channel. Scroll on to find out what the C&C team is currently discussing and please feel free to join in on the conversation by sharing your thoughts in the comment section if you’d like. This week, the most-buzzed about topics around the virtual water cooler spanned a historic ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to protect LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace to a renewed momentum toward finally make Juneteenth a nationally recognized holiday.

When outraged commenters are your employees.

An Essence poll found that nearly half of Black women (45%) say the place where they experience racism most frequently is in the workplace.

Square, Twitter, Nike, Target, and a growing number of companies are observing Juneteenth as a paid holiday for employees.

But too many companies are engaging in “performative allyship.”

Seven months pregnant and furloughed.

Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford—and fellow LGBTQ+ business leaders—on the hard work that led up to this week's landmark Supreme Court ruling.

Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Bezos unveil a $30M gender equality initiative.

Bon Appetit’s test kitchen staff is demanding equal pay.

12 ways to get reenergized on your midday break. (We highly recommend #3!)

ICYMI, Kim Kardashian West landed a podcast deal with Spotify.

And a special thank you to our Instagram followers for recommending black women-owned small businesses to add to our ever-growing list. Keep those recs coming!