Black lives matter
The past weeks as your inbox filled with emails from organizations condemning the murder of George Floyd by a White police officer and affirming their commitment to racial equity...did you notice we weren’t there?
If you did, you might have wondered, “How can an organization that claims to value equity not speak out?” Isn’t that what’s becoming clear? Silence has allowed the perpetuation of violence against, and murder of, Black individuals like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and countless others.
And yet, we were silent.
As individual staff members, we were outraged and stood in solidarity with protesters demanding justice for our Black community. And yet there was hesitancy about where we stood as an organization, and to what degree we should respond. We were certain that we didn’t want to just “issue a statement” because it was a hot topic. Or come out with a statement but not follow it up with any action. Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship – and we value those we are in community with, like you, too much.
But here’s the thing. It’s embarrassing to admit we didn’t already know how we should respond as an organization.
We’ve written and reflected on our equity journey for nearly four years. Race was even the primary focus of this work. But we’ve hesitated to make it too public because we stumbled over how to apply racial equity in our organization. Over the years, sharing power with members became the true focus of our equity progress.
In our work every day, we see social systems failing our members and creating real harm. But we’ve hated ‘the system’ without acknowledging many of its faults are due to the white supremacy embedded within — like we’re seeing with policing.
While we’ve been furiously trying to soothe the symptoms of failed systems, we haven’t fully considered if we could be replicating the same harmful and racist structures.
Why, after 30 years, and with intentional effort, is our staff and board still primarily white? Why are people of color underrepresented in management or decision-making? We owe it to our colleagues, volunteers, members, and the Black community at large to do better. It’s mission-critical work.
So today, we unequivocally say that Black lives matter. And we know that those words need to be followed by actions.
Maybelle Center believes every person is irreplaceable, and that inherently includes members of the Black community. It is our responsibility as an organization to resist systems that treat anyone as less than fully human or decide who is replaceable based on skin color.
We don’t know what the next steps are, but we commit to radical transparency as we explore what it might look like.
Thank you for believing, as we do, that every person is irreplaceable and for partnering with us on this journey towards a more vibrant and connected Portland.
- The team at Maybelle Center for Community
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