Dear Year Up,
On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police, I write to commemorate George Floyd’s life. George Floyd should be alive.
As people across the globe continue to take to the streets to fight for racial justice and equity, we think of George Floyd’s seven year-old daughter Gianna Floyd and her statement that “Daddy changed the world.” There is no doubt that this is true, and yet our hearts still break and will always break for the Floyd family. Although George Floyd is gone, he is far from forgotten, and we commit ourselves to keeping his memory alive in our work.
Although Year Up has been committed to social and economic justice for the past 20 years, like many other companies, the stark and grave injustices of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Sean Monterrosa, Adam Toledo, and too many others at the hands of the police, inspired Year Up to center racial justice in our work in an explicit way that we had not before. As we embark on the journey to become an antiracist organization, we are called to say the names, lift up the stories, and honor the experiences of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, AAPI, LGBTQ+, women, and gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities, whose lives have been de-valued, de-prioritized and marginalized, and whose experiences in so many of our systems in this world have been and continue to be inequitable and unjust. As an organization that prioritizes Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and now Belonging, we commit to standing on the side of justice.
We hope for a new system of accountability and as Ronald Greene’s story from Louisiana unfolds, we know that there is still work to be done. We invite you to stand with us in our pursuit of racial equity and justice, in big and small ways, and to take time today to remember George Floyd and honor his legacy.
In solidarity,
Ronda
Ronda Harris Thompson
Chief Diversity Equity Inclusion & Belonging Officer
My gender pronouns are she/her/hers
Resources:
- “These Murals Show that George Floyd Is Not Forgotten” (CNN)
- “26 Powerful George Floyd Murals Seen Around the World” (Reader’s Digest)
- For our white colleagues looking to continue working towards racial justice or to get involved in working toward racial justice, Showing Up for Racial Justice’s National branch is hosting a Mass Meeting for White People: Recommitting to Racial Justice this coming Thursday at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET.
- Learn more about getting involved with the George Floyd Memorial Foundation.