Dear OpenIDEO Community,
We write to share our rage and sadness at the murder of Black lives at the hands of police in the United States.
We cannot be silent. It is painfully clear that systems in the United States were designed to lead to the very racial injustices we see playing out today (as they have for centuries), and we humbly acknowledge the ways we have been complicit in building and maintaining them. We write to add OpenIDEO to the chorus committing to do better.
We know that many of you are not in the United States and that this issue may be touching you in different ways. We hope to learn more from and about your perspectives. Thank you for listening to ours.
We enter this conversation with humility, knowing that our work has not been and will not be perfect, but that it is nevertheless our responsibility to step in. We recognize that statements of solidarity from organizations should come with commitments to anti-racist work. At OpenIDEO, we have deep work to do as a organization—listening, learning, unlearning, and planning—so that we can enter with integrity into public commitments we can fulfill. We acknowledge we are not there yet.
Today, the commitment we make is to report back to this community in one month with our progress and a plan to take this work forward.
We are grateful to you, the OpenIDEO community, for all that you do to make the world a more equitable, sustainable, and empathetic place; and the ways that you push us to learn and grow in those efforts. We welcome your feedback and look forward to continued engagement with you during this critical time in our history.
Black lives matter.
With Gratitude,
The OpenIDEO Team
