Black Lives Matter: CORE’s commitment to allyship

Black Lives Matter! It’s important to declare this and even more important to live this way. CORE has held racial justice as a guiding principle in our work for years. We acknowledge that we have frequently failed to live up to this principle. We commit to ongoing learning, to following the leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and to continue funding BIPOC-led organizations and individuals. 

We recognize that this country is built on racialized and patriarchal capitalism that has embedded violence, exploitation, and division into all of our institutions and the very fabric of our society. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others, as well as the disproportionate health and economic impacts of the pandemic on black and brown people are the most recent visible expressions of that violence. 

In solidarity with those organizing for the well-being of and justice for black and brown people, we believe in dismantling the internalized and external structures that maintain these systems.  We support the policy platform of the Movement for Black Lives and Freedom, Inc.‘s campaigns: #DefundThePolice, #InvestInYouth, #PoliceFreeSchools, and #CommunityControl of police. We believe that advancing these platforms/campaigns will strengthen democracy and also help address increasing militarization of policing, a resurgence of fascism, and increasingly authoritarian government regimes that threaten us all.

CORE has always focused on the need for deep systemic change that must be accompanied by internal learning/unlearning and healing. We call on all of us — and particularly white people — individually and collectively, to work, learn, and grow to that end and towards the creation of the beloved community. Below are resources for anti-racism, systemic change, and embodied learning. We invite you to join us in this journey. With love, Julie, Becca, and Megan