Audible’s Statements on Celebrating the Human Spectrum and Protecting Inherent Civil Rights
Don shared a statement on behalf of Audible’s Black Employee Network with employees around the world in late June presenting Audible’s action plan on content, Newark and other areas.
At a time of profound societal and moral crisis, our most important voice — our most powerful means of empowering change across our fundamental institutions and the ideas that underpin them — is our content and the way we convey words and voices to millions of listeners. To harness this power, we are using our editorial voice to highlight Black voices. For a “Voices of Audible” editorial effort, we will pass the mic to Black Audible colleagues. We have already prominently featured a powerful list of antiracism listens and are donating our profits from the US sales of those titles from June 9 to 30 to Newark Working Kitchens, up to $250,000. We are offering stories featuring strong Black and Brown characters, works by diverse authors and antiracism titles to ~85,000 public school students around the country free through Audible for Schools and we intend to add many of those titles to stories.audible.com, our free service for young listeners. We will continue to elevate our collection of literary and Audible Originals stories by diverse authors, featuring a wide range of perspectives. And we will continue to surface the hundreds of historical titles focusing on the American experience of slavery and Reconstruction, where the modern reality of deeply ingrained and legalized racism was designed, ordained, and then perpetuated by the political and judicial order.
Don also shared with employees at a global all-hands in June a statement on Audible’s support for trans rights.
Our People Principles that define our collective purpose call on us to “celebrate the glories of the human spectrum,” “protect inherent civil rights” and pursue equality as a core purpose. These values underlie our commitment to our colleagues as we build a shared sense of safety and belonging in our workplace, and they inspire our mission to elevate marginalized voices — because we have the ability to foster compassion, inclusiveness and understanding in our listeners through our content.
Trans women are women, trans men are men, and all forms of gender expression and identities including non-binary and genderqueer are valid.