Ignorance & Negligence Need to Stop

Black Lives Matter. We must stop Ignorance and Negligence now.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color or BIPOC are dying at a greater rate than others in our country. By turning away and letting someone take care of a problem we are ignoring a problem and this ignorance is gross negligence. Melanated lives are systemically underrepresented at every turn and we must stop . There are clear lines that define a visible ally and a silent enemy. While being vocal might feel threatening, silence is deadly.

As researchers and scientists, asking questions and making observations are critical elements of our process. There has been clear evidence that our systems unfairly and unevenly apply justice and force amongst our citizens, negatively weighing on our BIPOC brothers and sisters. The need for change has persisted for too long. Conversations involving discriminatory and political topics deserve a place in our economical and social arenas. By avoiding the honest, open and transparent conversations that are potentially conflicting, we choose to stand by discriminatory systemic issues and support them while denying everyone the opportunity for real change. Necessary conflict brings positive change, as it leads to discovering a deeper defense for revising our strategy to find a more equitable solution to our current problem.

We have applied complexity and technicality to the systems which govern our economic resources and securities allowing for subconscious bypass and abuses of power. Subjecting another life to dominant and unfair exploitations with the excuse of “survival” and the mercy of another has become a part of our everyday lives. Laws and regulations are currently more swift in their creation when investments and dollars are threatened, rather than when the lives of our individuals are taken. Our country’s leadership continually displays their values for all of us to see, and we have chosen to ignore these signs of sociopathy and self-preservation and have remained silent for too long. Our current trajectory is not the equitable solution. The benefits and gains experienced by those enfranchised by the system are finally starting to feel the lack of leadership that forms from a capital based, privately interested, corporately controlled and corruptly influenced government. 

For some of us, where privilege and power can be taken, we take it. This is an unfortunate characteristic of our currently trending corporate models. Only giving back what we want rather than taking what we truly need. Massive misappropriation of profits and losses have influenced an industry of ignorance and negligence and has blinded current leadership from seeing the human cost necessary to achieve their wealth. The essential people responsible for the returns being realized by corporate leadership are commonly forgotten and underappreciated. This has been a system for centuries and it is clearly not sustainable. A new phase in leadership is necessary to survive the times we have ahead.

Some of us have been made aware or know firsthand of the hardships that exist behind closed doors, out our backdoors and in our front yards. It is time that acts of ignorance and negligence are accounted for as we move towards progress in this space. Some of us have not been exposed to the gutters of our own communities or paid attention to what is happening in the streets of our country and we are bearing witness for the first time. We can no longer ignore the issues we have been positioned in privilege to fix. Take this time to pave the path for change. Change that is embodied by the constituents of a constitution that is instituted fairly with justice.

As organization owners and citizens of this country, we find stewardship begins with understanding the challenges that keep others from reaching the same pinnacle we have. A part of building a community is taking an account of the local background and foreground influences on it’s resources and respectfully supporting them for future sustainability. When we understand what is at stake we are able to make better and more informed decisions. Self governance is a core element of any successful organization. Each voice must be heard.

With leaders that are willing to adapt and reformulate, while understanding the limitations that our civil boundaries can handle, we will be able to navigate a shift in our bureaucratic and political processes. Rapid and responsible reformation is necessary. Transparent budgetary actions that carry a balanced weight on behalf of the communities that support them with industrial regulations that preserve equality in matters of health, safety and economy. Investments in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are allocable expenses and need to be represented in the bottom lines of local budgets. The benefits from a socially balanced budget are priceless. As citizens and community members we must demand budgets be made public and do our due diligence to review as a responsibility to ourselves and others that may not be able.

Why now? Our systems are racially and sexually unequal. At a time when we are rapidly shifting our social behaviors, it is important to understand the possibility of what we can do as individuals within our communities and neighborhoods. The silencing has to stop. Allyship plays an important role in projecting another’s voice further and louder than one can alone. Getting lost in the crowd is too easy and we have started to lose touch with the value of a single life. The small yet strong voices that stand behind the iron curtains and sit within the basements of our institutions must speak up. The strong yet weak voices currently oppressed or silenced need our help to dismantle the barriers that stand in their way.

If we continually take the opportunity to adjust how we operate our businesses and our position on human and natural rights as a core value then the agreements and contracts that bind us to upholding civil and moral ethics do not simply survive in documentation but throughout each member of society. Together, we remember those that have not been provided the voice they need in order to realize what we see as necessary to sustain life on this earth. The colonial constructs that have contributed heavily to the disproportionate state of civil rights have existed for many generations and are causing conflict among us in very discrete and deadly ways.

Subtle systemic oppression within organizations is crippling when we do not visualize victory over it. At this time it is important to actualize the opportunities to upend and overturn the resistance that has kept our civilization from evolution as a whole. Let us rise up together in opposition to oppression. Shaming and shunning no longer have to be a part of our culture or it’s many subcultures if the voice behind the message is big enough. Innocence and guilt are matters of judgement and so many of us are taking backseat roles in the systems that are killing our fellow citizens. We need to step into the driver’s seat and steer ourselves onto a better course. Blow the whistle. Let your voice be heard.

It is time for a deep and rich narrative to emerge from those that swim letting our ignorant and negligent behaviors drift away with the anger and fear that has maintained these constructs for so long. Human and natural rights are unalienable rights. We must stand up and fight for our freedoms and use the powers we are granted to reform the systems which are broken. Innocence and guilt are matters of judgement. Justification is a matter of fact, not opinion or theory or accusation or ideal or belief or guess. Our country has fallen into the hands of an enemy to our freedoms. Let us bring liberty and justice for all.

Resources:

The Anti-Racism Starter Kit - Start here if you have not already. It is free and twenty two pages long.

Black Visions Collective - "Black Visions Collective envisions a world in which ALL Black Lives Matter. We use the guidance and brilliance of our ancestors as well as the teachings of our own experiences to pursue our commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and violence. We are determined in our pursuit of dignity and equity for all." 

Black Lives Matter: What Matters 2020 - "BLM’s #WhatMatters2020 is a campaign aimed to maximize the impact of the BLM movement by galvanizing BLM supporters and allies to the polls in the 2020 U.S Presidential Election to build collective power and ensure candidates are held accountable for the issues that systematically and disproportionately impact Black and under-served communities across the nation."

The COVID Racial Data Tracker - "COVID-19 is affecting people of color the most. We’re tracking the data in real time. The COVID Racial Data Tracker is a collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Antiracist Research & Policy Center. Together, we’re gathering the most complete race and ethnicity data on COVID-19 in the United States."

NAACP: We Are Done Dying - "Senseless hate crimes and incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths spreading throughout the Black community display the continuance of systematic racism and privilege granted to white people in America. Our communities are experiencing the worst outcomes on all fronts."

ACLU: Reimagining Role of Police - "The ACLU will work to support Black- and Brown-led community organizations to implement a three-part formula to bring an end to our country’s long nightmare with police violence:

• Prohibiting police from enforcing a range of non-serious offenses, including issuing fines and making arrests for non-dangerous behaviors, thus eliminating many of the unnecessary interactions between the police and community members that have led to so much violence and so many deaths;

• Reinvesting savings from the current policing budgets into alternatives to policing that will keep local communities safe and help them thrive;

• Implementing enforceable legal constraints so that there will be only rare instances in which police officers can use force against community members."

ShutDownSTEM - "an initiative from a multi-identity, intersectional coalition of STEM professionals and academics taking action for Black lives."

Particles for Justice - "We acknowledge the ways in which the effects of anti-Black racism are compounded for people who are also, for example, women, trans, non-binary, queer, Indigenous to the lands occupied by the United States and Canada, Latinx, Muslim, Jewish, disabled, and/or undocumented. We demand justice, reform, and accountability now."