Sustained Justice + Change

To Our Community,


We stand in a crucial moment in our country’s history — a moment of listening, learning, reflecting and action. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and are committed to the movement to fight systemic racism and dismantle the white supremacy that is so deeply woven into the fabric of our country and its infrastructure.


This movement has united voices across generational, racial and social divides, reaching all fifty states and many countries outside the US. Though we are given hope by the magnitude of this movement, we know that it is only the beginning of a lifetime of work — both for each of us as individuals, and for our nation as a whole. We honor the small victories that have been hard fought and won in this last week — witnessing the power of people uniting and mobilizing has been incredibly inspiring. We cannot stop here. The work of undoing a network of fundamentally unjust systems and of unlearning internalized racism is both crucial and difficult, and can only truly come from sustained effort.


We have outlined our short-term and long-term objectives for continuing to improve and hold ourselves accountable in solidarity with the movement to create deep, sustained change.


Below are the immediate actions that we are taking in our commitment to this work:

• We are donating to mutual funds, bail funds, and family members of victims of police brutality, in addition to larger organizations such as The Loveland Foundation and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Last week, we donated over $4000 to these causes.
  
  
• Throughout June we are offering four paid hours per week to our full-time employees to use towards civic engagement, including mobilizing for actions, fundraising, campaigning with racial justice organizations, and advocating within local government.
  
  
• We are writing to and calling our local, state, and federal officials on issues regarding police brutality. We are asking for accountability for the countless lives that have been lost due to state-sanctioned violence.
  
  
• We are mobilizing our community to donate by offering free cloth masks in exchange for proof of donation to one of three organizations who are at the forefront of this work.
  
  
• We have committed to donating 100% of proceeds from all scrunchie sales to The Loveland Foundation indefinitely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will continue this work by focusing on the following commitments:

• We will continue to seek out and hire Black creative professionals, freelancers and permanent employees, including but not limited to managers, salespeople, content creators, artists, models, writers, photographers, stylists, hair and make-up artists, and press agents. We will also seek out the partnership of Black-owned retailers, suppliers and contractors.
  
  
• We will commit to donating monthly to organizations working to fight for racial justice issues both within our immediate community and beyond, with a minimum donation total of $9000 per year.
  
  
• We will terminate any business partnerships with contractors, suppliers, retailers and collaborators that support causes that contribute to racial inequity, including but not limited to: companies that employ the use of prison labor or those that contribute to political campaigns that work in direct opposition to racial justice causes. We will reach out to all of our partners to learn about what action they are taking both within their companies and externally to fight for racial justice.
  
  
• We will offer anti-racism courses and resources to employees at all levels of the company.
  
  
• We will continue to uphold an internal code of conduct for all employees that prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, age or physical or mental disability. We will create clear and open channels for reporting any discrimination within our workplace.
  
  
• We will amplify Black voices by continuing to share resources for Black-led anti-racism work through our site journal and through social media channels.
  
  
• We will use the platform of our site journal to feature the work of Black writers and contributors.
  
  
• We will circulate action items and resources within our team on a monthly basis for mobilizing, fundraising, and advocating on topics that address police brutality, mass incarceration, and racial justice in our local communities.
  
  
• We will hold quarterly team check-ins to ensure that we are upholding all of these commitments in order to hold ourselves accountable in our mission to help create persistent and lasting change.

 

 

In this incredibly pivotal moment, we hope that all in our community will join us in both challenging ourselves and being kind to ourselves, and that you will take the time to make meaning from this moment for yourself and those around you. We have been using this resource list as a starting point for educating ourselves, we hope that it will serve as a useful resource along the path of deeper understanding and action.

Our future rests on our actions now, and we look forward to continuing to work together to create a better future ahead.


In solidarity and respect,


Shaina Mote