bcc: Concerns regarding flag emojis

action item for all team leads on Slack ✔️

My name is Dr. Tabatha Kofi (she/her) and I’m beyond excited to join the Dumb CDC community as Interim DEI Director. I recently completed my post-doctoral fellowship at Do No Harm and am eager to do great work with all of you here.

I want to think of my tenure at Dumb CDC as my own Tabatha Takes Over™️ but much more fun for all of us! 😊

This first company-wide email is to request compliance in removing flag emojis from all Slack names and statuses by EOD January 31st.

Because of yesterday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice, leadership called an emergency meeting to discuss the use of flag emojis on Slack.

It has been brought to my attention that flag emojis represent countries (e.g. 🇺🇦 = Ukraine, 🇺🇸 = USA, 🇨🇩 = ???) and that displays of nationalism can make employees uncomfortable during times of alleged genocide. As you may know, the lawsuit issued by South Africa 🇿🇦 has great implications for the current conflict in Israel 🇮🇱 and Palestine 🇵🇸. So, no more flag emojis.

We additionally discussed the use of flag emojis like the LGBTQIA+ flag 🏳️‍🌈 and the pirate flag 🏴‍☠️. To ensure fairness to all identities represented in our diverse workforce, no flags of any sort will be permitted to be used on Slack. This also includes the golf emoji ⛳️ and mailbox emoji 📫 as these technically include flags.

Until it is determined which countries are and aren’t involved in active genocides, any use of flag emojis will be escalated to HR.

Thank you for your cooperation ☮️🦋

Yours In Solidarity,

Tabatha (she/her)