In Solidarity - Love, Acceptance and Justice
As the news stories pile up, with hate escalating along with the horror of watching fellow Americans kill, abuse their power and add more chapters to our American shame, like you, I have been trying to figure out how to be part of the solution in this moment.
What COVID brings into hyper-relief is the deep inequities our country that makes the idea of “return to normal” unacceptable. Now more than ever, our persistence and determination is necessary to grapple with what it means to re-envision justice and intentionally dismantle the anti-black narrative that is the core underbelly of our country. We don’t pretend to have the answers, but know that in community we can move closer to them. At How Women Lead our core commitment is equity; we are committed to creating a safe place for each of us to grow, to create a new story and to foster the most empowering thing of all: giving back, having an impact, supporting each other and driving change in the halls of power.
We at How Women Lead have been and continue to stand with Black Lives Matter. We have and will continue a commitment to fight for justice including:
1) Over 50% of our event speakers will be women of color 2) Give grants and investments to organizations run by women of color 3) Advocate and push women of color candidates for board searches 4) Ensure our staff, leadership teams, and leadership fellowships are over 50% people of color 5) Support movements and action to propel women of color into political office
We at How Women Lead stand in solidarity with the Black community in the fight against systemic racism, inequality, and oppression in our country.
How Women Lead will create a strategy and align with leaders to use our "might" and our voices and insist that our locally-elected officials and public safety personnel adopt laws and regulations and act in a manner that values and protects our minority citizens and the communities where they live. We will demand transparency by the inclusion of conscious people represented at oversight and action committees whose charter is to root out corruption. In community, Julie
How You Can Help:
This weekend 4,100+ arrests were made at demonstrations across the country; 80 in San Francisco. The cash bail system in the US is inherently flawed, targeting poor communities by allowing income to be the determining factor in whether someone can be released pretrial.
- Contribute to a local community bail fund through the National Bail Fund Network.
- Support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which supports racial justice through advocacy, litigation and education
