History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We all woke up this morning to the start of a heavy week. Heavy from days full of protests, riots, rage and violence in response to the brutal injustice of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other Black Americans. Heavy from the systemic, structural racism that continues to plague our society. Heavy from the conflicting emotions of seeing thousands of people gather in rightful protest when we know that we’re still fighting a global pandemic.
The careless, continued murdering of Black Americans demands our action. It demands we transcend the comforts of privilege, the boundaries of our affiliations and employers, the divisiveness of our political parties, the agreeable language that we absorb and play back to ensure we’re not making others uncomfortable. Now is the time for discomfort – to lean into it, reflect on it and act to change that which makes us uneasy. While right now our society’s racial inequities are on raw display in headlines, they are a daily reality for people of color, constantly undergirding our systems, our behaviors and the opportunities provided to certain individuals while others are shut out.
As we approached our 20th anniversary at the end of last year, I shared Common Impact’s recommitment to its founding mission to support nonprofits that are working to alleviate inequality – across race, gender, sexual orientation, class and ability. Our team has been doing a lot of thinking about our own response to the injustices of this past week and beyond. In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting the work of our nonprofit clients fighting for racial equity, working with companies to understand how we can focus our efforts more deeply on racial injustice and sharing the readings that we’ve been circulating as a team in the hopes that it supports your own journey in moving to action.
One of the tenets that has fueled Common Impact’s 20-year history has been the transformation and change that can happen when people from different perspectives, disciplines and backgrounds come together to create change. Right now, we’re seeing companies, nonprofits and individuals stand up against this senseless, targeted violent – this human rights issue that cuts across all of our divisions and can unite us in pursuit of a more just society.
Thank you for being a part of this fight with us, a Common Impact partner and friend. We need your support and your voice now more than ever as we persistently and unapologetically march toward justice, equity and respect for all.
In solidarity,
Danielle Holly
Common Impact CEO