Black Lives Matter
We’ve been thinking about whether or not we should speak out about everything that’s going on in the world right now regarding #blacklivesmatter. Our voices are not the ones you should be listening to about this, but we realise that not speaking out isn’t helpful. We haven’t spoken out so far because we didn’t know what to say. Instead we have been educating ourselves and checking our privilege. But we want to do something to actively help and keep the conversation going. That’s why we’re speaking out now. We understand that we will never understand, however, we stand.
Today we didn’t release a new podcast episode like we normally do. Instead, we encourage you to use the time you would have spent listening to our voices to educate yourselves on racism and check your own privilege. This is a conversation we need to keep having - it’s long-term. But for right now, we’ve tried to come up with a way that we can actively help.
Let’s take action together
100% of profits from all merch sales on our store from now until Sunday 7th June at 11:59 PM (BST) will be donated to Campaign Zero in the US. We will also be making our own donation to Campaign Zero too.
“Funds donated to Campaign Zero support the analysis of policing practices across the country, research to identify effective solutions to end police violence, technical assistance to organizers leading police accountability campaigns and the development of model legislation and advocacy to end police violence nationwide.”
If you were considering donating to support #blacklivesmatter this weekend, this a great way to do that (and get some merch in the process). Our charity live stream for the NHS showed just how incredibly generous this community can be and we hope we can continue to be generous together this weekend.
On Monday 8th June we will let you know how much money is being donated to Campaign Zero and we’ll ship out all the merch orders next week.
Resources we have found useful
It’s not up to our black friends to do the work - we must educate ourselves. Below is a list of useful resources we have been consuming over the past week. Of course, there is SO much more out there for you to find.
Why You Need to Stop Saying “All Lives Matter” By Rachel Cargle
100 Ways White People Can Make Life Less Frustrating For People of Color By Kesiena Boom
10 Habits of Someone Who Doesn’t Know They’re Anti-Black by Cicely Blain
"If you want to play piano, but you’re bad at playing piano, you practice and you get better. Don’t be the kind of white person who doesn’t post out of fear of f***ing up. If you want to support black people, but you’re bad at supporting black people, practice and get better."
- Akilah Hughes
Update:
Thanks to your generosity, we've donated $180 of profits from merch sales to Campaign Zero (along with our own $20 donation). Thank you to everyone who bought merch in support of Black Lives Matter. We will continue to support this movement moving forward.
