BLACK LIVES MATTER TO US
We have been struck (yet again) by the swirling currents of brutality and humanity. Of a dying man crying out, “mama!” while one paid to protect and serve him takes his life. Of the collective reeling, solidarity, and protest. Of blood and fire.
We have been struck (yet again) by the swirling currents of brutality and humanity. Of a dying man crying out, “mama!” while one paid to protect and serve him takes his life. Of the collective reeling, solidarity, and protest. Of blood and fire.
Are we (finally) getting it?
Like you, we have been on our own complicated journeys through race and identity. We’ve had to reconcile personal and collective experiences—those pervading narratives and hidden histories. As two white men working in a historically black neighborhood in America’s whitest big city, we understand the nuance, the contradictions (perceived or real) and the paralyzing fear and doubt that can plague each of us in the face of such daunting issues. Admittedly, we see as through a glass darkly.
If polls are to be believed, the majority of Americans believe that black lives matter. But if we’re honest—and we are speaking for ourselves here—we have not always behaved as though they mattered to us. Personal practice of equality and universal human rights, yes. Urgent advocacy for people long subject to discrimination, prejudice, and injustice, no. Collectively—and we’re speaking for all of us here—we must do more.
“Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates
We’re just two voices in the choir (and rarely singing on key), but we invite you to join us. We are listening, reading and watching. We are participating in protests. We are donating monthly to the Equal Justice Initiative. We are supporting officials willing to address long-standing systemic issues in public school funding, policing, and criminal justice. And we are looking for opportunities to affect change within our industry.
May this be the real turning point in the good and just fight for civil rights—for HUMAN rights.
BLACK LIVES MATTER TO US.
In solidarity,
Ryan & Kyle
Founding Partners
OVO
