What’s Next?
The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and many others at the police's hands have sparked an outcry for justice. Protests are happening in all fifty states, and social media is flooded with an outpouring of support for Black Lives Matter. On Tuesday, June 2, millions of people posted black squares on Instagram in an attempt to show their solidarity. As white people, merely posting once when it's popular to do so isn't enough.
We know that real change begins in our homes, starts with us educating ourselves and educating our children. At Price Concrete Studio, family has always been our priority. Now, it is up to us to make sure our family continues the life-long work of anti-racism. We want to make sure our family is learning, growing, and contributing to creating a better, safer world for Black people.
Here are a few action steps we're committing to in our family, and we'd love it if you joined us! We have a long way to go, but with a little elbow grease, things will start to get better!
Children’s Books
We’re committing to making sure we educate our kids about racism, and amplify Black voices in our home. Here are a few books we’ve decided to start with:
Donations
We plan to donate 10% of any profit from our Lauren drum to Be The Bridge. We know donating is a great way to put our money where our mouths are so in addition to donating personally, we will be donating a percentage of our Lauren Drum profits for as long as it takes.
Personal Education
We can’t educate our kids without first educating ourselves. Here are a few resources we plan to start with as a family in order to better understand racism and our role in it.
Available on Netflix
There are so many more resources to dive into, but this is a just a starting place for us! We have been encouraged to treat this as a marathon and not a sprint.
Accountability
We know words have power, and so often we stand by and laugh off comments, or jokes in favor of not making things uncomfortable. It is our job to stand up for others and do what is right. That means being the person who says, "It's not okay to make comments like that" or "let's have a conversation about that." We commit to calling out racism in our families, in our friend circles, and ourselves, and we hope you will join us in doing the same in your circle.
Our church community at First Presbyterian Orlando participated in A Walk of Mourning and Restoration this past Friday with many other churches from our community. A few of our family members were able to attend and it was a very powerful experience for them and for us as we listened to their stories. We are proud to be part of a church community committed to taking on the hard stuff, and a church community that does not shy away from injustice, but comes together to stand in solidarity and in action.