Commitment to Racial Equity and Solidarity
Even as we grieve the loss of Alain Nahimana, tireless and dedicated champion of immigrant rights and integration in Maine, we at the Sewall Foundation feel immense pain and outrage as we witness the injustice, hurt, and outright assault on African Americans in communities across the United States. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmud Aubrey. So many lives taken. There is no Justice. There is no Freedom. The ideals of America remain unrealized. We are witnessing the consequences of intentional racist policies, practices and beliefs that have been destroying black lives for centuries.
We recognize and understand that injustices in this country are organized predictably around race. While there are many intersecting dimensions of injustice, there is no greater predictor of health, wealth, education, life expectancy, or vulnerability to the COVID 19 pandemic, than the socially constructed category of race. In Maine and throughout the United States, access to resources, opportunities and power are predictable by race. The likelihood of having your life or the lives of your loved ones taken violently, is predictable by race. The heartbreak is predictable – and unbearable. The injustice is so grave, so inhumane, that it cannot be captured in words. It can only be captured and changed by actions that dismantle racist policies and transform racist attitudes and behaviors.
Our society is at a breaking point and we must take a stand: we must commit to becoming anti-racist in our words, our actions, and our assumptions, in the structures and operations of our organizations, and in the policies and cultures of our communities.
At the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation we commit to:
• Deepening our understanding of racial equity and challenging ourselves to live more fully in it.
• Using all our available resources to elevate anti-racist work, internally and externally.
• Giving more where there is greater need, and listening more to voices that have been silenced.
• Changing broken, unfair systems and to supporting new, just and sustainable ones.
• Naming and abandoning our own behaviors and assumptions that perpetuate unjust and racialized power structures, and speaking out when we see those behaviors and assumptions operating around us.
• Not turning a blind eye to those who suffer from unjust power structures that preserve our comfort at their expense.
We make these commitments knowing that we will make missteps and mistakes. And when we do fall back to well-worn habits and assumptions, we humbly commit to admitting those mistakes, to rectifying the harm, and to upholding the values that we claim. Because being silent is equal to being complicit, we at the Sewall Foundation commit to speaking up for justice, to working with love, and to standing in solidarity against racism in ourselves, our organization, and communities across Maine.
We commit both to living it, and to saying it loudly and unapologetically: Black Lives Matter.
Some relevant resources:
1) Leading during traumatic and triggering events
2) A Nonprofit Path to Racial Justice: Linking Policy to Moral Leadership
3) Racial Equity Tools